The past weeks have seen Google rapidly moving many of its apps into the age of Lollipop. Many Android Wear owners, however, might have been left wondering if and when they will benefit from such changes. Well, wonder no more, as the awaited update for smartwatch companion app seems to be on its way. And the best part is that the update will bring more than just a pretty Material face.
Visually speaking, the app itself will be getting an overhaul to pull it in line with the rest of the Android 5.0 apps, with changes to the color schemes and icons being the most pronounced. But this will be more than just an appearance update. The app gains a load of new functionality, some of which have been a long time coming. For one, the action overflow menu (the one with the three vertical dots) now has an option to take a screenshot of your wearable’s current display. There is now also a Watch Battery and Watch Storage screen similar to the ones you’ll see on your smartphone or tablet, giving users a better overview of their smartwatch’s status and performance. And finally, users will be able to change watch faces from the app itself rather than having to do it from the watch.
The update also brings improvements to the Android Wear experience running on the device itself. One can now undo the last dismissed card by simply swiping upwards to see the Undo option. This only covers the last card you removed, pretty much like how undo works in Chrome tabs. Two new brightness options have been added, with Theater mode dimming the display and Sunlight mode cranking up the brightness. For those that use their fingers more than their voices, “OK Google” will now present the most recently used actions to lessen the need to swipe through available actions.
This much needed update to Android Wear isn’t available widely to the public just yet. Aside from rolling out to users, it also requires an updated Google Play Services, version 6.5.75 to be exact, in order to function. Hopefully these will all happen in the next few days to take advantage of the increasing availability of Android Wear smartwatches in the market.
