Galaxy Watch
Wear OS: Future Watch Faces Promise Enhanced Battery Life
Samsung has introduced the watch face functionality for smartwatches, which provides an interactive function that provides easy access to different settings without going to multiple menus. After its success, Google has also adapted and brought the same functionality under WearOS; it has brought it with WearOS 4.
Now the company is focusing on making it more advanced and more attached to the ecosystem by making it compulsory for a developer to bring their application in XML format. With this implantation, the watches will need less maintenance and get better optimizations in fewer updates than those using the Jetpack watch Face libraries.
For more clarification, Google has stated that “the Wear OS platform takes care of the logic needed to render the watch face so you can focus on your creative ideas, rather than code optimizations or battery performance.”.
The watch faces created using WFF are designed for the co-processor, which will ultimately lead to better optimization that targets battery efficiency. Along with the better performance and battery life, Google has also informed developers that if you want to get your application working more smoothly, you should have to design it in the watch face format. In this way, the company has made it necessary that upcoming releases of WearOS will require the watch face format.
More specifically, Google has separated the older watch format, which is with Jetpack watch face library or wearable support, instead of only supporting some basic watch complications like battery, app shortcuts, unread notification count, date, time, day of week, and world clock.
On the announcement of the watch face format, some developers have questioned how they will create the useful watch complication without in-app features or complex animation such as HR monitor icons, which may not translate to the watch face format type. It seems that Google is pushing them to create simple watch faces with limited options. However, the watch face format is currently less than a year old, so it is to be seen if the future version will allow more customization for developers or if Google will keep it with limited options.
Samsung is all set to expand its Galaxy smartwatch area, but this time under the new title, Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Surely, the Korean giant will introduce a brand new Galaxy watch at the Galaxy Unpacked event, but it appears that the plan is to ditch the Watch 7 Pro for the Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Previously, we reported that this time Samsung could introduce three variants of the next-generation Galaxy Watch 7: Standard, Classic, and Pro. But now a recent report is claiming that Samsung might introduce the Watch Utra instead of the Watch 7 Pro.
Earlier, a larger battery of 578 mAh was reported for the forthcoming Galaxy Watch, along with the model number EB-BL705ABY. If the recent reports are to be believed, three distinct model numbers will come into existence for the upcoming Galaxy Watch Ultra, which are as follows: SM-L705U, SM-L705N, and SM-L705F.
These model numbers represent the US, Korea, and Global. The new Watch Utra will be officially launched in various regions. The Galaxy Watch FE will bring similar features to the Galaxy Watch 4, introduced back in 2021. This fan edition of the Galaxy Watch is expected to arrive in the coming months and will be available with particular models for the US, Korea, and other regions.
- SM-R866F, SM-R866U, and SM-R866N
Since the Korean giant is working on two different Galaxy Watch models, we are expecting some significant differences between the Watch Ultra and Watch FE. However, the brand has not revealed anything regarding both watches officially yet, but it is expected that the Watch Ultra could offer advanced sensors to provide more accurate GPS and workout activity tracking. It will be interesting to see what novelty these watches will bring.
The Korean brand ‘Samsung’ is actively working to expand its wearable smartwatch family by introducing a next-generation watch, the Galaxy Watch 7, which is expected to have a blood sugar monitoring feature.
Samsung is now appearing to introduce a new convenient functionality on the Galaxy smartwatch, as it may offer blood sugar monitoring with the Galaxy Watch 7. This is being speculated by a new report in South Korea.
We have already reported that Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked Event will be scheduled for July 10th, 2024, at which it will unveil the Galaxy Watch 7 and many other devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, and Galaxy Ring.
The Vice President and head of digital healthcare at Samsung Electronics, Hon. Pak, highlighted the brand’s work on achieving noninvasive blood sugar monitoring through its wearable devices early this year. Apart from this, he also pointed out that Samsung was putting in ‘ asignificant investment” to make them happen.
Pak recently met with the advisory board members of the Samsung Health platform at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul to discuss blood sugar monitoring, diabetes, and the application of AI to Samsung Health. It is expected that the Korean giant will offer blood sugar monitoring for the upcoming Galaxy Watch 7 series.
However, the giant probably decided to classify the smartwatch as an electronic device instead of a medical device, largely due to regulatory considerations. It could also happen that this feature may be made available on the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
Google I/O 2024 is scheduled for May 14, 2024, on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. At an event, Google will reveal what major update Wear OS 5 will bring.
Google has already made Android 15 Beta 1.2 available to download, but the exact new features are yet to be officially announced. Now the brand is setting up to unveil Android 15, Wear OS 5, and Android TV at the Google I/O 2024 event.
Google finally unveiled a noteworthy portion of the I/O 2024 schedule, which includes quite a few hints at major announcements regarding Wear OS 5. On the other hand, Samsung is also expected to unveil the next-generation smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 7, at the Galaxy Unpacked Event in July. It will likely run Wear OS 5-based One UI Watch out of the box. The Galaxy Watch 7 is expected to have three variants, and one of those is expected to have a square screen.
Here’s the question: When Can We Expect to Wear OS 5 Beta Updates for Samsung Galaxy Watches?
Last year, Google’s Wear OS 4 was released on August 11, 2023, with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic. As per the previous schedule, it is expected that nearly around the same time, this year also, the giant could officially release Wear OS 5.
Once Wear OS 5 becomes stably available, Samsung will start rolling out the Wear OS 5 beta update to its eligible Galaxy smartwatches. Noticeably, the Wear OS beta will be available only in two regions:
- Korea and the U.S.
Previously, it was reported that the upcoming Wear OS 5 update, which is set to be based on Android 14, Google has shared attention on the “Watch Face Format,” designed to make watch faces more efficient and dynamic, and designing watch applications to adapt to more “device sizes.”