Wear OS backups seemingly one step closer to reality

What you need to know

• Pairing a Wear OS smartwatch to a new phone usually requires manually re-configuring settings and apps.
• Google has reportedly been working on introducing Wear OS backups via Google One.
• The feature will save information, including device settings, Tiles, app data, and more.

Google is seemingly preparing to introduce a long-requested backup feature for Wear OS, and a new look at the feature provides more details about what we can expect when it rolls out.

9to5Google dove into the latest version of Google Play services, which reveals information about how extensive Wear OS backups will be. According to 9to5, it will include app data, device settings, and "Watch faces and tiles."

This isn't too far off from how backups are handled on smartphones and should significantly reduce set-up time when pairing a Wear OS watch to a new smartphone. Currently, pairing to a different phone requires resetting the watch, which unfortunately includes manually configuring settings, re-downloading apps, and setting up tiles and watch faces how you want.

From the looks of it, the Wear OS backup feature should take care of a good portion of the set-up, making the re-pairing process less of a hassle. It will also handle data such as permissions and Wi-Fi passwords, and backups will occur when the watch is connected to a charger and Wi-Fi.

This isn't the first time we've caught wind of an official backup feature in the works for Wear OS. In August, it was revealed that the feature would be opt-in, and backups would be carried out by Google One, similar to Android smartphones. Samsung has its own backup system for Galaxy Watches, although it's surprising that Google hasn't already set this up alongside the Pixel Watch launch.

It's unclear when the backup feature is expected to appear, but 9to5 suggests it may not be long before we see the feature come to Wear OS 3 watches.