Of all the smartwatches that are available today on the market, why should you seriously consider the Google Wear OS smartwatch? There are several reasons, but we are going to look at the top 4 reasons in this article. For the sake of building my argument, I will list them in reverse order, culminating in the best reason why you should seriously consider purchasing a Google where OS smartwatch.
Google Wear OS Is Mature
Wear OS has gone through some name changes. It was first named, “Android Wear”, and then Google changed the name to “Wear OS by Google”. Not satisfied with that name, they landed on “Wear OS” because they did not want to alienate iPhone users. After all, their direct competition is the Apple watch, and they wanted to make sure that people knew that the where OS watch will easily pair and integrate with the iPhone.
In 2015 Google introduced Wear OS 2.0, which introduced a simpler means of navigating the watch. With the release of any new product, it is very easy for the company to want to show off all that it has developed. But that’s not necessarily what the users really want. They want Simplicity, and at the same time, they want the ability to customize they’re watching to their liking. Wear OS 2.0 delivers on that very point. They made the features that you access readily available, and for geeks like me, they allow you to bring those not so often used features by the mainstream, to the forefront. This is the biggest thing that I like about Google. They allow you to customize pretty much anything to your liking because it’s all about you and not the way the company wants you to think. Did you hear that Apple?
One really great feature offered in the release of Wear OS 2.0 that really shines is the ability to take advantage of “rotational” input. This means that you can navigate via the crown on the watch (if it has one), or the horizontal bezel on the watch. I don’t know if they stole this idea from the Samsung Gear series or not, but it’s a very needed and welcome addition to the operating system.
Google has delivered an operating system that is flexible enough to allow for a variety of hardware implementations from any one of dozens of vendors. It’s really good to see that Google provides for both the needs of the vendors as well as the needs and wants of the public. Flexibility at its finest. This is what I mean by mature.
Read also: Best Smartwatches for Google Pixel in 2020
Google Isn’t Going Anywhere
Anybody under the age of 21 does not know what life was like before Google. Millennials have never known what life is like without the internet. Google has always been there for them to assist in their research papers, their homework, and finding anything they wanted to know about anything, without having to visit the public library. For the past 21 years, Google has been grown by delivering more accurate with each passing day, and the more time that goes by, the more accurate the information they deliver becomes. Google never stops crawling the internet in search for new content to index.
If there ever was a time when it could be said that a company could not die because its product was too valuable, Google would certainly be one of the few top contenders. Will people ever not want information on any topic that they want to know more information on? I would argue no. Given this, Google has provided yet another means of getting that information. You are not limited to the Desktop / Laptop, or even cell phone. You can now access this information from your wrist.
Google provides Wear OS as a convenient way to get information. If we have learned anything, we have learned that smartwatches are here to stay and given that Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, doesn’t it make sense that they “make it universally accessible and useful” via a smartwatch? If you think of it, half of its mission statement speaks to the use of it on a smartwatch.
Get Notified About Anything
Admittedly any Smartwatch worth its salt will notify you about upcoming events, email, text messages, etc. It’s not that Wear OS necessarily does this any better than any other operating system, but I want to stress the significance of getting notifications. Getting notifications on your smartwatch is arguably the primary reason for getting a smartwatch in the first place. The second reason is to stay fit, but we will get to that in a minute.
Long gone are the days where we need to spend a ridiculous amount of money on Day-timer Planner organizers, let alone the outrageously expensive “refills” that they offered, to keep ourselves organized. Is it just me that sees the irony and using a Day-timer planner organizer? You had to remember to look at it in order to be reminded about an upcoming event. Now, our watches do all that for us without us having to remember to look at our organizers in order to be reminded about an upcoming event.
The only shortcoming of Wear OS in regard to its use with the iPhone is that it does not integrate with iMessage. That will almost certainly never change of course, because Apple wants to use its leverage to sell and Market the Apple watch. However, that is the only shortcoming of using a Wear OS smartwatch with the iPhone. You will get all other notifications on your Wear OS smartwatch.
Check also: Best Smartwatches for Texting
Google Wear OS Helps You Stay Fit
As mentioned earlier, Google Wear OS smartwatch helps you stay fit. Don’t think that smartwatches are only for those triathlon Olympians either. I have found that in wearing a smartwatch I am challenged to walk more (I don’t run). If running and intense exercise is not your thing, (as it is definitely not my daily routine), not to worry. It tracks how many steps you have walked. It even reminds me to get up every hour from my desk to stretch. In fact, when I get up from my desk to use the restroom, it tells me, “Great Job!”, because I got up from my desk and started walking towards the restroom. I try not to take offense, but I’m beginning to think that it thinks that I’m a fatty.
Like other smartwatches out there, it will tell you how many flights of stairs you have steps you have taken so far today, calories you have burned today, and it will even continually measure your heart rate. So what separates this from the rest? It’s easy to get to what you use the most and you don’t really even have to think about it. Once you have set up Google Fit on your phone, your watch takes care of the rest.
Not only do not have to set it up from your watch, But you can do so from your phone or even from your desktop by visiting https://fit.google.com/. After downloading the app, simply enter your weight, height, and activity goal, and that’s all there is to it. as long as you keep it running in the background, it will remind you and provide ongoing statistics that track your health to help you stay fit. It could not be easier. It’s like having a training coach with you all the time and yet you get to tell the train coach when the stop bothering you without it’s taking offense.
Google Assistant Is Second To None
In my opinion, the number one reason for purchasing a Wear OS smartwatch is the built-in Google Assistant. although you can download Google Assistant on other platforms including Samsung’s Tizen OS, (Gear Series), and even the Apple watch, it runs natively on Wear OS. This means that I don’t have to launch an application in order to get the Google Assistant to function, I just simply speak to my watch and it does what I tell it to do when I tell it to do it.
Most importantly, Google’s assistant is by far the most accurate assistant out there today. And it should be. I would be surprised if it were not. Doesn’t it make sense that the company whose mission has been “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, is the company that has the best assistant? Google.com was registered on September 15, 1997, and the company formally incorporated it on September 4, 1998. They have been at this mission for 20 years and are providing more accurate information day by day. For a detailed comparison of digital assistants out there, you may want to read the article, “The ONE Thing That Samsung Could Improve on the Gear S3”. In that article, I compare the leading digital assistant contenders by asking each digital assistant the same set of questions and finding a variety of answers, some of which had nothing to do with the question.
I love that I can ask Google Assistant a question and it gives me an accurate up-to-date answer.
I love that I can ask Google Assistant a question and it speaks back to me with accurate information regarding the question asked.
I love that Google assistant is cross-platform, meaning that you use it on your Wear OS smartwatch, but also on your phone with the Android or iPhone, or even on the desktop computer.
I love that I can rely on the accuracy of the information provided, whether it be driving directions, sending a text message, or writing an entire email while driving my car without even looking at my phone or touching a button on my smartwatch. Google Assistant may be reason enough alone, to purchase a Wear OS smartwatch.
The flexibility, ease of navigation, and given that it serves as the best digital assistant on the market today, makes it an easy pick for me.