One of the major announcements that we got during the Google I/O conference was that Google and Samsung will be collaborating on smartwatches. This meant that the Korean OEM’s next batch of wearables will not be running on their own Tizen software but will instead carry the revamped Wear OS from Google. We don’t know yet what that will look like but it looks like we’ll get a demo or at least a preview of the Samsung Galaxy Watch experience at the Mobile World Congress this June 2021.
MWC will still be virtual at least for this month and Samsung will be hosting a session on its “New Watch Experience”. Of course, there’s no mention of Wear OS in the event description but given the recent announcement from Google and Samsung, we can assume that this is what they will be talking about. The single paragraph on the MWC website about this event says that they will be “reimagining smartwatches” and creating new things for both developers and consumers.
9 to 5 Google says we can expect the session to talk about the transition from Tizen to the whole Google ecosystem, at least when it comes to smartwatches. For now we have no idea of what that will look for Samsung devices so we might get a preview of what improvements Wear OS will bring to smartwatches as well as how Samsung will be altering it to fit in its own ecosystem like having a One UI skin to the platform.
Samsung’s Tizen devices have been doing okay the past few years while Wear OS was noticeably struggling from a lack of innovation and major updates. It would be interesting to see how the revamped Wear OS will look like and what changes it will be making and then see how Samsung will be able to adapt it to its smartwatches and if it will be better. Things are still pretty up in the air right now but it’s something to look forward to.
The MWC Samsung session is happening on Monday, June 28. Later this year though there will be an in-person MWC conference in Los Angeles, from October 26-28.
