Put on OS 5, the subsequent replace to the favored Android watch platform, will arrive later in 2024. Introduced at Google I/O 2024, the replace will concentrate on three key areas: Battery life enhancements, new watch faces, and a horde of recent health options.
Whereas Put on OS 4 added performance like simpler watch transfers, new apps, and a brand new Watch Face Format, Put on OS 5 appears to focus extra on optimization, making your present Android watch last more and plugging the gaps the place the final OS fell quick.
We’ll clarify each Put on OS 5 function Google has revealed to date, which Android watches we count on to replace to Put on OS 5, and every thing else it is advisable to know.
Put on OS 5: New options
Google’s Put on OS 5 announcement described an extended checklist of upcoming options. We could uncover extra function updates when it launches, however this information gave us loads to begin with.
For starters, Put on OS 5 can have “efficiency enhancements,” such that “operating a marathon consumes as much as 20% much less energy.” This may increasingly or might not be as a result of Hybrid Put on OS interface relegating well being sampling to the co-processor, or else different behind-the-scenes modifications.
Google’s Watch Face Format launched in Put on OS 4 will even add new “Flavors.” Customers selecting a watch face will even be capable to decide between totally different colours and issues for every watch face, together with some new issues like “Purpose progress” that present your proportion completion in direction of a purpose like 10,000 steps.
Google will make this new XML WFF the default choice for Put on OS 5, proscribing uploads of different codecs like AndroidX beginning in early 2025. Your outdated watch faces will nonetheless work and obtain updates, however will not get entry to new issues.
Put on OS builders will discover different backend modifications that may hopefully make Put on OS apps extra user-friendly and dynamic. Particularly, Google says these apps will “guarantee your app works optimally throughout the vary of system sizes and font scales.” Now that you’ll find Android watch shows wherever from 1 to 1.5 inches, devs have to make their apps look good throughout the board.
On the health aspect, the Put on OS background system for monitoring information (Android Well being) is getting new operating kind measurements: Floor Contact Time, Stride Size, Vertical Oscillation, and Vertical Ratio. Health apps can have the choice to share information like this to and from Well being Join within the background for the primary time, in addition to pull information out of your complete exercise historical past — not simply the final month.
Put on OS 5 watches will help “debounced objectives,” which is a elaborate method of claiming athletes can set a exercise purpose like “hold my coronary heart price between 130–160bpm for half-hour” and have the watch warn them after a brief delay in the event that they fall out of vary. In the mean time, Put on OS 4 watches buzz your watch the second you are out of vary, resulting in false positives and aggravated runners.
One UI 6 Watch
Samsung has but to disclose many concrete info about One UI 6 Watch. A Samsung Put on OS 5 take a look at construct was noticed in early Could, however we do not know any specifics besides that it will be based mostly on Android 14 and arrive alongside the Galaxy Watch 7 this summer time.
We do know Samsung, like Google, will concentrate on health updates. This January, Samsung revealed its “My Vitality Rating” replace arriving to the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy Watch 6 this summer time. It’s going to mix your sleep, exercise, coronary heart price, and HRV information to find out your vitality degree and readiness to work out.
Plus, Samsung will generate “Booster playing cards” that “present perception into the ‘why’ behind your well being readings,”
This information would not solely apply to Put on OS 5 for the reason that Galaxy Ring will create this information too, and you’ll see all of it in your smartphone. However we assume One UI 6 Watch will make your Vitality Rating or Booster Playing cards seen on the watch as Tiles or watch face issues.
Put on OS 5: When does it arrive?
Google guarantees that Put on OS 5 will launch “later this yr,” that means someday in 2024. It has but to vow a selected launch date. The Wear OS 5 developer preview went dwell on Could 15.
Samsung sometimes launches its One UI Watch spinoff of Put on OS in the summertime alongside the newest Galaxy Watch. Put on OS 3 and 4 arrived in August 2021 and 2023, respectively, although solely on Samsung watches. We suspect Put on OS 5 will roll out alongside the Galaxy Watch 7 in August 2024.
Nevertheless, the “inventory” model of Put on OS 5 will not arrive till October 2024, when the Pixel Watch 3 launches.
Final-gen fashions will doubtless obtain the replace quickly after the newer fashions; final yr, the primary Pixel Watch obtained Put on OS 4 5 days after the Pixel Watch 2 launch, whereas the Galaxy Watch 5 bought it a few weeks after the Watch 6.
Outdoors of Google and Samsung, the opposite Put on OS manufacturers haven’t got a public replace schedule. Some corporations take months, if not years, earlier than updating their watches to new variations. Mobvoi, for instance, remains to be engaged on leaping its Ticwatch Professional 5 collection to Put on OS 4, so Put on OS 5 might be a methods off for some, if it arrives in any respect.
Put on OS 5: Eligible watches
These are the present Put on OS watches confirmed to obtain the replace, plus our greatest guess of the discharge month:
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (August)
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 (August)
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 (August)
- Google Pixel Watch (October)
- Google Pixel Watch 2 (October)
- OnePlus Watch 2 (Unknown)
As well as, the upcoming Galaxy Watch 7 and Pixel Watch 3 ought to launch with Put on OS 5.
Samsung watches will get 4 main Put on OS updates, so the Galaxy Watch 4 ought to get another replace in 2025 after Put on OS 5. Google guarantees three years of OS updates, so Put on OS 5 might be the Pixel Watch 1’s final function replace.
The OnePlus Watch 2 has two assured OS updates; we are able to hope for a speedy Put on OS 5 replace this fall, however haven’t any precedent to match towards.
As for watches at the moment operating Put on OS 3.5 just like the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional and TicWatch Professional 5 Enduro, we imagine they’re going to obtain Put on OS 4 however haven’t any ensures about Put on OS 5.
Because of obtain Put on OS 5
The Galaxy Watch 6 is the most effective Android watch in the marketplace at present, with 4 years of promised Put on OS updates, strong 40-hour battery life, a cushty design, and glorious pace. This summer time, it will get enhanced battery life efficiency and the brand new “My Vitality Rating,” making it even higher.
