Eligible smartwatches can upgrade to Wear OS 3 in 2022

After Google and Samsung announced their partnership for create a new Wear operating system, the biggest unanswered question was whether existing smartwatches would be able to upgrade to the platform. Today, Google clarified which smartwatches would be eligible in a Wear OS support forum– and if you’ve got an older Android watch running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip, you might want to start thinking about your options.

But first, the post also reveals that the unified platform will officially be called Wear OS 3, a boon to the tech.h journalists who no longer have the means to write a “new Wear operating system”. Samsung and Fossil said their To come up watches will run Wear OS 3, but upgrades for other eligible devices won’t arrive until mid-2022 at the earliest.

“User experience is a top priority for us and we are delighted with the interest we have received in Wear OS 3, the new unified platform,” Google wrote. “For the previous generation of Wear OS smartwatches, a system update to Wear OS 3 will bring the benefit of many new experiences, and in some limited cases, the user experience will be affected.”

This previous generation of watches eligible to upgrade to Wear OS 3 includes Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 GPS and LTE, the TicWatch E3, future TicWatch devices, as well as the next generation of Fossil smartwatches. All of these watches are, or will be, 4100 powered smartwatches. This does not bode well for Snapdragon Wear 3100 smartwatches, especially as Fossil has confirmed that its existing 3100 smartwatches will be. not be upgraded.

Upgrading to Wear OS 3 will require eligible smartwatch owners to reset their devices to factory settings. The company said it will provide more details ahead of the update.

The company also pointed out that the current version of Wear OS is not going anywhere, as it predicts that many Wear OS smartwatch owners might not be eligible for the upgrade or want to to upgrade right away. Google also said it is committed to bringing “new app experiences” to Wear OS, highlighting recent updates to the Play at the store and Gboard. More updates like these are allegedly in the works. Importantly, he finally clarified that current Wear OS smartwatches will receive security updates for at least two years from the device’s launch.

It was clear that the transition from Wear OS to Wear OS 3 was gonna be a trip. As I wrote several times before, there is just no easy way to revise or update completely all Platform. (See: Sonos handling of its old products.) In the case of Wear OS, an open ecosystem led to a fragmented space that couldn’t really thrive because of Qualcomm’s outdated and out-of-date Snapdragon Wear chipsets. It’s also not something that just started in 2021. Google’s renewed push in wearables arguably started in early 2019, when it bought $ 40 million in Fossil technology.

Today’s announcement and recent news that Qualcomm plans to release a new Snapdragon Wear platform next year, hint that once again it will come down to hardware and patience. Noting that some user experiences can be affected, it is likely that even the 4100 platform is not suited to everything that Wear OS 3 brings. This is true if you examine the specifications of the 4100. In 2021, when companies prepare to switch from 5nm to 3nm processing technology for their smartwatch chips, the 4100 still relies on the older 12nm processing technology. This is a significant improvement over the 28nm 3100, but the 14nm and 12nm chips have been considered “new” for over five years. Unfortunately, Google does not control the hardware available for Android smartwatches. It’s on Qualcomm.

So is Wear OS 3 doomed from the start? No. A potentially bumpy transition is a bad reason to prematurely cancel Wear OS 3. Growing pains are inevitable, but it’s actually a good sign that we’re finding out about eligibility almost a year in advance. Now that we know what to expect, there appears to be a real commitment to long-term improvement, and consumers have time to see what will work best for them.

There is another crucial difference this time around: Samsung. For its new generation Galaxy watches, Samsung has reportedly developed an Exynos chip which is exponentially more powerful than any Snapdragon chipset ever made by Qualcomm. That’s a big reason why Samsung’s smartwatches are likely to be a more accurate measure of Wear OS 3’s potential than 4100-powered smartwatches. We’ll have to see what comes out of Qualcomm’s late efforts to create a chip that not be a trash can.

For consumers, that means you need to take a close look at the processor that powers your next Android smartwatch. Do not, I repeat, not buy a new Snapdragon Wear 3100 smartwatch, even if the discounts are tempting. If you already own a 3100 powered watch, you have several options. The easiest way is to keep your watch, stay on the current Wear operating system, and research new options as they become available. Or, if you need to upgrade sooner, go for one of Samsung’s next-gen smartwatches or a reasonably priced 4100 powered smartwatch. Either way, you don’t have to make this decision now. A reminder: Upgrades won’t be available for existing watches until mid-2022 or later. You have plenty of time to think about it.