Android Wear 2.0 is only a couple of weeks away.
While it's true you could get your hands on the if you were willing to drop some money on a shiny new LG Watch Sport or Style, those still happy with their existing watch had some waiting to do. It has been clear for a while that , but what wasn't entirely clear was how long that wait would be.
Fortunately, a friendly reply from Fossil on Twitter has offered something resembling a timeline and an explanation.
One of the big features in Android Wear 2.0 is Google Assistant on your wrist, and when conducting the initial review of the OS it wasn't entirely clear how this would work if your phone didn't already have Assistant. Google has built Wear 2.0 to run apps natively on the watch, but step on in enabling Google Assistant on your wrist is granting access to that feature from your phone.
Now that Google has announced Assistant will be in the form of a Google Search update, the delay in shipping Android Wear 2.0 to the most popular Android Wear watches starts to make sense.
The update is expected to be released in mid March to all of our devices.
— Fossil (@Fossil)
When can you expect Android Wear 2.0 on your watch? According to Fossil, updates for its entire lineup are going to begin in the middle of March. While Fossil is the only manufacturer to have confirmed so far, remember that Google has a great deal more control over Android in watch form than it does other forms of Android pushed out to phones. There's little opportunity for watch manufacturers to add extra features, and almost every watch is using the same internal hardware, so it's safe to assume the other watches will either be updating at roughly the same time or in rapid succession.
While it's true you could get your hands on the if you were willing to drop some money on a shiny new LG Watch Sport or Style, those still happy with their existing watch had some waiting to do. It has been clear for a while that , but what wasn't entirely clear was how long that wait would be.
Fortunately, a friendly reply from Fossil on Twitter has offered something resembling a timeline and an explanation.
One of the big features in Android Wear 2.0 is Google Assistant on your wrist, and when conducting the initial review of the OS it wasn't entirely clear how this would work if your phone didn't already have Assistant. Google has built Wear 2.0 to run apps natively on the watch, but step on in enabling Google Assistant on your wrist is granting access to that feature from your phone.
Now that Google has announced Assistant will be in the form of a Google Search update, the delay in shipping Android Wear 2.0 to the most popular Android Wear watches starts to make sense.
The update is expected to be released in mid March to all of our devices.
— Fossil (@Fossil)
When can you expect Android Wear 2.0 on your watch? According to Fossil, updates for its entire lineup are going to begin in the middle of March. While Fossil is the only manufacturer to have confirmed so far, remember that Google has a great deal more control over Android in watch form than it does other forms of Android pushed out to phones. There's little opportunity for watch manufacturers to add extra features, and almost every watch is using the same internal hardware, so it's safe to assume the other watches will either be updating at roughly the same time or in rapid succession.