A recent interview between OnePlus CEO Pete Lau and Input Magazine covered a range of topics, though, we’re only interested in one at the moment: the OnePlus smartwatch.
According to Lau, OnePlus is indeed working on the watch, but gave no real specifics or details about what it will offer and when it will release. Just to catch you up, we’ve been discussing a possible OnePlus smartwatch for years now, but every time we think it’s going to launch, OnePlus pulls back. Recently, the OnePlus account on Twitter was teasing some potential watch news, so things are really starting to heat up.
In the interview, Lau talks more specifically about Wear OS and even throws a slight, yet well-deserved jab Google’s way regarding the state of the platform.
Wear OS definitely has room to improve. What we’re trying to do is work with Google to try to improve the connectivity between the Wear OS ecosystem, Android TV, and Android smartphones to create this ability for better device interoperability across the ecosystems. This has been something looked at very positively from Google’s side as well, so this is the direction that we’re trying to develop, but we don’t have more than we can share on that right now.
Wear OS dates back to 2014 when it was first called Android Wear. You’d think in six years we wouldn’t have to keep talking about how it still has yet to improve, but it feels like everyone except Google is trying to make it work. Wearables aren’t an easy space to get into with the market dominated by the likes of Fitbit and Apple. Still, there is room for a really good Wear OS watch, so here’s hoping that the wait for OnePlus’ wearable will have been worth it.
// Input Mag
I find it funny that Google continually kills GREAT apps and features that are widely used and loved but keeps absolute trash like Wear OS around.
I know google is all about data collection rather than consumer facing products and services, but how does that behavior work to their advantage there if less people use the garbage they push out to replace the great stuff they kill?
I just can’t figure them out. At least with Apple it’s obvious –> create a dependency trap.
Well, hopefully they come out with something that looks good and is functional. Was looking to replace my Huawei Watch 2 with something from Fossil, but they’ve yet to release a watch with the 4100+. So, I guess I’ll keep waiting.
I’m in the same exact boat. Do you think OnePlus is saying that while they may not use vanilla WearOS, they’re wanting their wearable to be fully integrated into the Google ecosystem? Failure on that front is why I had to get rid of my Galaxy watch, prior to my Huawei.
To be quite honest, and I must be in a minority in this opinion, but I honestly don’t have any issues with WearOS, aside from the fact that it’s kind of a pain to sync it to a new phone (have to factory reset to do so…) and that it’s a worse name than Android Wear. 😛
I was pretty happy with the Huawei Watch 2. Just that I would’ve liked it if the battery lasted longer (which it seems the 4100+ would give a decent boost). I keep seeing people saying WearOS is bad without any solutions as to what could make it better…
Well, I can only guess that OnePlus wants to work with Google to make WearOS better before they release a watch. At least, that’s my take from this.
Actually, I don’t disagree with any of that! I like WearOS plenty. I prefer it by far over Samsung because of Samsung’s lame voice assistant attempts (S-Voice?) and their being walled off from full Google app integration. I’m even okay with my Huawei’s one day battery life (I prefer an always-on display). Should I upgrade my watch, it’ll primarily be for snappier response time / faster processor.
If I’m interested at all in what OnePlus might implement on their own, non-WearOS with some level of Google integration, it’s mostly just out of curiosity. Options are never a bad thing.
“Confirms” that it “might happen”? Ok.
50% of the time it works 100% of the time ????