It’s probably fair to say that Android Wear is yet to capture the popular mood in the same way that the Apple Watch has. Although there are a fairly wide variety of watches out there, there is little to differentiate them apart from aesthetics, with manufacturers hardly changing the OS in the same way as they do with mobile phones.
Google itself is relatively slow to release updates to Android Wear and the whole experience feels a bit second rate, particularly compared to Android on phones. Within the last few days Google has announced the beta release of a new version of the Wear OS.
Anyone interested can sign up via a dedicated website. But, for those of us in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, be aware that it is only available for the LG Watch Sport, which has never been officially released over here. The changes appear to mainly relate to controlling notifications, but there are also some more subtle modifications that are less obvious.
For anyone desperate to give it a go but without an imported LG Watch Sport, there is also an emulator that can be used. Further details can be found on Android’s developer website.
If any readers do try this let us know how you get on.