Android Wear now supports watches with a built-in Wi-Fi connection so that you can continue to receive notifications from your phone over a data connection even if your watch isn’t connected to it.
If you ever lose or misplace your phone, you can ask your watch where it is and track it down from your wrist. It could be a useful feature if you need to find a phone in a hurry.
There are some new features to help with handling notifications, detailed on the Google blog. If you are carrying lots of things and a notification comes in, it can be inconvenient or difficult to reach a watch and read it.
Google has fixed this predicament by allowing you to scroll through your stream of unread notifications by simply flicking your wrist, allowing you to see what’s new without dropping your things.
Clearly inspired by the Apple Watch, you can now send hundreds of emojis via text or message to your friends by simply drawing them onto the watch face. A fun and quirky way of showing your feelings, it could become popular with users of Android Wear watches.
Android Wear already allows you to constantly display the watch face even when you are not using the device. This functionality has now been expanded to apps though. The app is rendered in black and white like the watch face to save on battery life. It makes it possible to keep referring to an app for as long as you need it.
The update is substantial and will be rolling out to existing watches over the next few weeks. The release will begin on the LG Watch Urbane but will spread gradually as support for new devices is implemented.
