Google unveiled Wear OS 5 a few hours ago alongside Android 15 Beta 2. The new version of Wear OS brings much-needed improvements to battery life.
This battery life improvement will most likely come to Wear OS-based Galaxy Watches later this year with the next major One UI Watch version.
Wear OS 5 brings longer battery life, improved health data collection
Google's primary aim with the release of Wear OS 5 appears to be to improve battery life. It is based on Android 14, and its first Developer Preview update is now available via Android Studio.
Google says Wear OS 5 is more power efficient than previous operating system versions. For example, the company says running a marathon should result in 20% less power consumption than earlier. Moreover, Google is pushing developers to build more power-efficient apps and watch faces.
With Wear OS 3, Google adopted Samsung's new Watch Face Format. The company then made it the default format for watch faces with Wear OS 4. Around 30% of third-party watch faces on the Play Store already use the new Watch Face Format.
The company is making some health and other complications unavailable for the older watch face format, indirectly forcing watch face developers to adopt the new format. Early next year, Google will stop accepting watch faces that use the old format.
Check out our review of the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in the video below.
Since the release of Wear OS 3 two years ago, multiple brands have started making smartwatches based on this platform. Some smartwatches are also using higher-resolution screens. For those higher-resolution screens, Google is making it possible to build good-looking apps and watch faces.
Google has also introduced an app launcher that resembles a grid rather than a list-based one that is already available. Users can choose between the two formats. Since this app grid uses adaptive icons, the company is urging app developers to make app icons adaptive.
While playing back audio or video, Wear OS 5 lets users choose the audio output. For example, you can play music using the Spotify app on your Galaxy Watch and switch the music output to a Google Nest Hub.
