Android Wear

In a blog post on the Google Blog, the company confirmed that Android Wear for iOS is rolling out from today and it means that owners of an iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6 or 6 Plus running at least iOS 8.2 can use an Android Wear smartwatch in conjunction with it.

When it comes to the compatibility of individual devices, the LG Watch Urbane is the only one that has the stamp of approval thus far and owners of smartwatches from Huawei, Asus and Motorola are told to “stay tuned for more”.

Until now, the Apple Watch has had the iOS domain almost completely to itself when it comes to smartwatches with the only real competition coming in the shape of activity trackers from the likes of Fitbit and Nike.

The move will almost certainly give Android Wear smartwatches a kick up the backside in the sales department thanks to the competitively priced level of the wearables in comparison to the Apple Watch.

Large numbers of Apple iPhone owners unhappy at the exorbitant price of the Apple Watch may prove the ideal breeding ground for new Android Wear owners and it will be interesting to see if Apple does anything to address this by bringing the price its wearable down.

Via: Google

What’s up next for Android Wear? Google’s smartwatch OS is to get official support for watch faces you can interact with and a system that’ll let you send your heart rate or a scribble to another Wear user.

One is long overdue, the other nicked from the Apple Watch, but we’ll be glad to see them arrive in August, which is when Phandroid says the update is coming.

Interactive watch faces will let you do things like switch the colour of the clock with a tap, or cycle through screens such as weather, fitness tracker stats and your next calendar appointment. It sounds like watch face devs will have much more control in the future.

With any luck it’ll mean you have to use Android Wear’s insides even less often.

• Best Android Wear watches you'll want to own

The new Android Wear communicator feature is called Together, and will let you send little digital notes to your Wear-wearing friends. If you have any.

Phandroid says, according to the code, this is actually restricted to a single special watch face, but we imagine it’ll be opened up by the time we get hold of it.

With any luck the Android Wear update will feature a few more goodies than this leak covers too.