Put on OS has come a great distance in the previous couple of years. It went from being getting ready to being irrelevant to working on the greatest Android smartwatches from Google, Samsung, and others. But, Google’s smartwatch OS falters in some key areas, ruining the general expertise. As a longtime Put on OS person, I’ve encountered a number of irritating points that I hope the corporate addresses in Put on OS 6.
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Customized vibration sample for every app
As a result of Put on OS needs to be all about customization
The notification panel is certainly one of Android’s key strengths, permitting you to conduct many fundamental actions from it. You may handle notifications on a per-app foundation, muting distractions and conserving solely the important alerts. Put on OS will mirror your cellphone’s notification settings, solely vibrating for alerts from apps for which you enabled notifications.
Nevertheless, the problem is that Put on OS doesn’t provide a strategy to customise the notification sample. For instance, on my Google Pixel Watch 2, the vibration sample is similar for brand new WhatsApp messages and emails, making it arduous to inform them aside. Equally, it buzzes solely as soon as when my spouse messages me on Telegram. This forces me to test my wrist for each incoming notification, no matter its significance.
Google ought to provide the power to set a customized vibration sample for every app. This can enable me to inform them aside from how my watch buzzes. If it is an essential notification, I can test my watch straightaway. In any other case, I can proceed doing my work.
I disabled notifications from much less essential apps on my Pixel Watch. Nevertheless, not each Slack or WhatsApp message is pressing or deserves quick consideration. Customized vibration alerts would make it simpler to inform which notifications matter at a look.
Samsung comes near providing one thing related with its One UI Watch pores and skin on Galaxy Watches. You may customise the vibration size and depth for incoming calls and notifications. It might be nice if Google took inspiration from this characteristic for the following Put on OS launch and launched per-app notification customization.
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Inconsistent well being information monitoring throughout watches
Set a excessive and constant baseline
The health monitoring expertise varies between Put on OS watches. Like Android, the great thing about Put on OS is that you simply get watches in several sizes and shapes to fit your wants. Nevertheless, that doesn’t imply the well being information monitoring expertise throughout them needs to be inconsistent.
In my expertise evaluating the Galaxy Watch 6 and Pixel Watch 2, I discovered the latter’s coronary heart price monitoring and step rely to be extra correct. A 5% to 7% distinction within the recorded stats is comprehensible as a result of numerous components concerned, however the hole was at all times greater than that. The scenario is worse while you evaluate sleep monitoring and energy burned throughout Put on OS watches of various manufacturers.
The well being monitoring expertise throughout Put on OS watches should not differ so drastically. Such inconsistencies make it arduous to belief the information for significant, long-term well being evaluation.
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No strategy to switch well being information throughout watches
Keep on with the identical Put on OS watch model in the event you worth your well being information
When you use a Galaxy Watch Extremely and swap to the Google Pixel Watch 3, you will need to bid adieu to your well being information. Likewise, in the event you transfer from a Pixel Watch to a OnePlus Watch, you may’t carry over your well being information. Regardless of all Android smartwatches working Put on OS, there isn’t any strategy to migrate your well being information between wearables of various manufacturers. This can be a main limitation. When you care about your well being information, you might be locked into utilizing a smartwatch from one model.
With Well being Join, Google permits you to sync your well being information throughout totally different apps. Nevertheless, it can not transfer your information from Samsung Well being to Fitbit or OnePlus’ OHealth app. On condition that one of many key options of a smartwatch is well being monitoring, it is mindless that you simply can not switch them between wearables working the identical platform. With Put on OS 6, Google ought to introduce a brand new unified framework or app enabling the migration of well being apps throughout Put on OS watches from totally different manufacturers.
Ideally, Google Match needs to be the central hub for all of your well being information from numerous apps. Nevertheless, Google appears to be phasing it out, shifting its focus towards the Fitbit app as a substitute, however just for Fitbits and Pixel Watches.
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Sluggish replace cycle for non-Pixel and Galaxy watches
Do not help Put on OS fragmentation
Google is making the identical mistake with Put on OS that it made with Android, resulting in its fragmentation points. Due to preferential therapy, Galaxy Watches are the primary to debut every year with a significant new Put on OS launch, adopted intently by a brand new Pixel Watch mannequin. As for different Put on OS watches, there isn’t any readability on when they may obtain the improve.
For comparability, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 launched in July 2024 with Put on OS 5. This was adopted by the Pixel Watch 3’s debut in August 2024. Seven months have handed since then, but Put on OS 5 stays unique to Samsung and Google watches, with wearables from no different manufacturers receiving the replace. OnePlus not too long ago clarified it would push the OnePlus Watch 2’s Put on OS 5 replace 2 in Q3 2025, nearly a yr after the OS’ public construct dropped.
Such delays injury the credibility of the Put on OS ecosystem, very like the early Android period, when well timed updates had been restricted to Google’s gadgets. On condition that Google remains to be paying the worth for this error, it is shocking to see it repeat the identical state of affairs with Put on OS.
With Put on OS 6, the corporate ought to make underlying modifications to standardize and velocity up the rollout of OS updates for non-Samsung and Pixel watches. In any other case, it would encounter the identical points it confronted with Android fragmentation.
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5 causes the Apple Watch beats its Put on OS smartwatch rivals palms down
Apple Watch > Any Put on OS watch
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Fundamental options ought to work throughout all Android telephones
Cease limiting options within the identify of ecosystem lock-in
Put on OS watches ought to compete with one another by means of higher {hardware} and superior options, not by artificially proscribing sure functionalities to gadgets from the identical model. For instance, in the event you pair the Galaxy Watch with a non-Samsung cellphone, you lose superior well being monitoring options like ECG and blood stress monitoring, irregular coronary heart price detection, and digital camera controls. You additionally lose fundamental options like Do Not Disturb syncing between the cellphone and watch.
Samsung just isn’t the one wrongdoer. Google is equally at fault. The Pixel Watch solely syncs Bedtime mode together with your cellphone when paired with a Pixel gadget. You additionally miss out on digital camera management and alarm sync. These are basic smartwatch options that ought to work seamlessly, whatever the cellphone the wearable is paired with.
I can perceive Google limiting Pixel Watch’s AI options to Pixel gadgets. Nevertheless, not having the ability to management your Android cellphone’s digital camera from a Put on OS watch as a result of it is from a distinct model makes little sense.
Put on OS updates must get larger and higher
Put on OS is not as refined as Apple’s watchOS, however it is catching up. Very like the early days of Android, Google ought to prioritize delivering main yearly updates to Put on OS to deal with its shortcomings and introduce significant new options. Nevertheless, that hasn’t been the case. Put on OS 4, 5, and 5.1 have primarily centered on under-the-hood enhancements, with solely minor characteristic additions.
This isn’t the suitable strategy. Whereas Put on OS has improved considerably in recent times, it nonetheless lags behind watchOS in delivering a comparable person expertise. Here is hoping Google makes amends with Put on OS 6 later this yr, addressing the above limitations and including a number of main new options.