Wear OS survey may be a sign of a new health-focused platform
Despite being from Google, Wear OS is not the most robust nor the most popular smartwatch platform. They have fallen behind their fierce rivals Samsung and Apple. The feature set for the platform has not improved over the years, causing a bit of frustration for the partners who have continued making smartwatches based on the platform. But now it looks like they’re preparing for a major overhaul as they’re conducting a survey on how they can improve the Wear OS platform.
Droid Life shares that there’s a survey on the Google User Experience Research where they are asking for feedback on how to improve Wear OS. A lot of the things mentioned in the survey are about health-related things like sleep tracking, SPO2 tracking, pairing with medical equipment, etc. This, of course, leads us to believe that they will be making the platform into a health-focused one, which is what the other wearables and smartwatches have been focusing on.
The survey asks how you would feel if a feature was included and how would you feel if it wasn’t. They also asked what are the top 3 improvements on Wear OS and if they are currently satisfied with their existing smartwatch. The list of topics or items included in the survey is mostly focusing on health things, which is what Wear OS has been sorely lacking. Hopefully, the results will spur them to really overhaul the platform.
Some of the things mentioned in the survey include the following: SPO2 tracking (level of oxygenation in the blood), Sleep Apnea detection, Activity Logging, Medical Device Pairing, Indoor Air Quality, Activity / Vitals Tracking, Water-Intake Tracking, Breathing Exercises, etc. A lot of the features mentioned here can be seen in other apps or devices, so having them on Wear OS would be a great bonus.
Despite some excitement over the survey, there is, of course, no guarantee that we’ll be seeing all of these features on Wear OS eventually. There is no timetable yet as to when and if we’ll see changes to the platform so it’s all a matter of a wait and see game.
