Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Wear OS 3 on Mobvoi smartwatches isn’t coming anytime soon.
- Mobvoi admits the roadblock is its own in-house hardware.
- The company hopes to have the update out in Q3 2023 but wouldn’t commit to anything more specific.
Google announced Wear OS 3.0 in May 2021. Since then it’s landed on two smartwatches from Samsung, the debut smartwatch from Google, and eventually landed on Fossil watches. One notable brand that still hasn’t rolled out the update is Mobvoi.
Unfortunately, Wear OS 3 for Mobvoi watches isn’t coming anytime soon. This is no doubt bad news for Mobvoi fans who have been patiently waiting for this since, well, 2021. It’s also unfortunate to hear since, as early as April, we’ve heard that the update was well on the way.
In a statement on Twitter, Mobvoi apologized for the delay. It also explained the problem: its own hardware. The TicWatches that will get Wear OS 3 (TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra, TicWatch Pro 3, and TicWatch E3) run the Snapdragon Wear 4100 chipset. Paired with this SoC is an in-house coprocessor developed by Mobvoi. This smaller processor takes charge of some of the lower-level functions of Wear OS.
Without a doubt, this coprocessor helps TicWatches overcome the biggest drawback to Wear OS: poor battery life. Unfortunately, the proprietary nature of this coprocessor is the big roadblock delaying the rollout of Wear OS 3 to Mobvoi watches. Check out the statement below:
Based on this statement, TicWatch users can expect Wear OS 3 to land on their smartwatches in Q3 2023. However, based on how long its taken just to get this statement out there, who knows how many more delays there could be between now and then.
