Smartwatches powered by ’s Android ar operating system will soon become a little more useful, with features like G support offline music playback.
said Friday that previously released Android ar watches as well as new ones will be receiving the features in the coming months. It’s part of a larger, gradual push to bring more of the functions available on smartphones to people’s wrists, which might eventually support altogether new applications that make particular sense for a “smart” watch.
th the upcoming features, users will be able to listen to music stored on their watches via Bluetooth headphones, said. If a watch includes a G sensor, users can track their distance speed when they go for a run, or receive navigation directions on-the-fly.
so coming are downloadable watch faces, to let people customize the visual design of the watch’s home screen organize their apps as they see fit, said. The watch faces will be made available in the ay Store.
In addition to the software updates, more watches themselves are on the way. ’s G tch Samsung’s Gear ve comprise the first Android ar watches, but a number of new ones are being made available soon.
The Asus Zen tch, which has a bio sensor for physical activity tracking, is planned to go on sale later this month for $199. The G tch R will hit stores in October, according to a report in the ll Street urnal. The Sony Smarttch 3 will cost 230 euros when it goes on sale this fall.
so, Motorola on Thursday evening officially launched its Moto 360 smartwatch for $250—the first Android ar device with a round display.
l of those watches will receive the new software updates as they’re ready in the coming months, said.
The updates, to be clear, are incremental, said Ramon amas, an industry analyst with IDC who studies mobile devices. “This is the continued evolution of Android ar, not a revolution,” he said.
Developers vendors, he said, are still in search of a killer app for a smartwatch, he said, whether it’s on a device powered by ’s software or Samsung’s Tizen. But as brings more core software functionalities to Android ar smartwatches, this helps lay the groundwork.
