Android Wear gets GPS and offline music support

June 05, 2020

The Android Wear Smartwatch Armada was just added some new ones at IFA Barges Models expanded. While Motorola's Moto 360 won numerous fans with its optics, but the battery life disappointed in the first tests, Asus (our hands-on video from the Zen Watch) and LG (our hands-on video from the G Watch R) new chic smart watches shown. Sony's Smartwatch 3 may be the most unattractive of the new Android Wear devices, but it has a GPS module – and that could pay off very soon in terms of functionality.

Google announced two practical innovations for its Android Wear smartwatch operating system last weekend: support for GPS – and associated autonomous navigation features – and the option of storing MP3s on the wrist gadget so that they can be heard using a Bluetooth headset . For both, the smartwatch does not have to be paired with the cell phone, but for the possibilities of GPS support, a corresponding module is logically installed – as is the case with Sony's already mentioned smartwatch 3.

In addition to these two major innovations, Google is announcing official support for downloadable watch faces. However, many developers of Android Wear apps have already figured out how to implement such replacement watch faces even without the programming interface that Google has so far not provided. Thanks to the official API, however, these could come with a larger range of functions in the future.

The new features announced by Google find their way onto Android Wear smartwatches via two updates: one update brings GPS and offline music support, the second the official downloadable watch faces. According to current reports, the first of the two updates is already coming to Samsung's Gear Live and Motorola's Moto 360.

Source: Google

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