Just a few days after new branding for Android Wear was discovered with Play Services, Google's announced that it's officially axing the Android Wear name in favor of Wear OS.
Officially called "Wear OS by Google", this replaces Android Wear both in name and logo. Gone is the Material Design-esque watch and in its place are two lines and circles in the iconic Google colors – very closely resembling the Assistant logo.
Commenting on the new branding, Fossil's Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, Greg McKelvey, said:
Many of our smartwatch customers are iOS users, so we are confident in and eager to see the added benefits that both Android and iOS phone users globally will experience as Wear OS by Google rolls out in 2018.
Google officially started supporting iOS back in 2015, and while improvements were made with Android Wear 2.0, the experience still isn't perfect. Along with the new Wear OS name meant to be more open to Android and iOS users alike, Google also says that it'll be launching a companion app for iOS "in the next few weeks" that'll allow iPhone owners to track and view their Google Fit data.
This dedication to iPhone owners may seem like an odd move when something like the Apple Watch exists, but Google also notes that 1 out of 3 people with an Android Wear watch also have an iPhone.
The feature set for Android Wear/Wear OS is remaining as is for now, but we should see improvements to notifications, health tracking, and more over coming months. Google will likely shed more light on this at I/O this coming May, so we'll be sure to keep an eye out for what's in the pipeline.
