Google unveils Android Wear: Android for wearables
Earlier this morning, Google finally announced its plans for wearable devices running Android – and it’s called Android Wear.
Android Wear is an open source Android-powered platform that will allow developers to easily bring their existing applications to the wearable space, taking advantage of Google services like Google Now and voice search. While Android Wear will eventually branch out to include all types of wearables, Google is starting with watches.
Right now, there’s a preview SDK available for developers who want to get on board right away, which is important since Google says that consumer products are on the way in 2014 (Google I/O in June seems like a great time to announce some actual hardware). Google is encouraging developers to design for both square and round screens, although you do have to sign up to gain access to the SDK – it’s not quite publicly available just yet.
According to Google’s concept videos, Android Wear will include intuitive swipe gestures, with a focus on voice interaction. Android Wear will also take notifications from a paired device, and will be able to control things like music playback. G
You can see from the video how focused Google’s wearables will be on the Google Now experience and intuitive swipe gestures. There’s no keyboard to be found – it’s all voice interaction in the video. Of course, Android Wear grabs your notifications from a paired device and can be used to control things like music playback.
So far, Google says it is working with ASUS, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Fossil, which means we probably won’t just get functional watches soon, but stylish ones, too. You’ll definitely want to check out Google’s videos below.
[Google]
