I remember the precise moment I understood smartwatches. I had been using a massive Samsung phablet for a week, trying to understand how people were using these relatively new devices. When it buzzed in my pocket, I thought "I wish I could look at a smaller screen."
With Google staking its future not on big phones but on big data-powered AIs, I wonder if there's a future for Android Wear or any smartwatch.
Android Wear didn't get much time on stage during the main keynote, but all the presenters still wore fashionable Wear devices. At a session later in the day, the Googlers in charge of the Wear platform talked up its success and upcoming changes. There was, they said, a 72 percent growth in device activations. The number of third-party partners has doubled, as have the number of available smartwatches. Customers now have a choice of 46 watches, including new offerings from luxury brands like Tag Heuer, Michael Kors, and newcomer Movado.
But amidst the good numbers and smattering of new tools, the presenters politely, subtly implied that Wear developers are doing it wrong. Googlers urged devs not build phony or uneditable complications (the little bits of information on a watch face), since users simply don't like them. That's sensible, but it carried an implication.
The presenters in the Wear session mostly stressed the importance of battery life. Not only are the more restrictive power and data limits in Android O coming to Android Wear, but there will be additional restrictions for Wear apps and watch faces. They also stressed using fewer colors, animations, and, really, doing as little as possible with Wear hardware in the name of improved battery performance.
The practical upshot? A darker, less functional device, with a screen that is almost always off and rarely dynamic. While I certainly can't argue with the truth of Google's advice, nor their efforts to try and offer Wear users a better experience, it does undercut my confidence in the entire category of wearable devices.
Living on the Wrist
Android Wear was announced three years ago. I saw it on stage, and saw the devs struggling to get the media's Wear devices up and running after the keynote.
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That initial announcement was all about what could be done with Wear, and with wearables in general, which seemed to fumble in 2016. Android Wear 2 was announced, but there was no release date. I managed to get some hands-on time, but it felt sneaky. Wear 2 took nearly a year to be released, just a few weeks before the most recent Google I/O.
While Google was happy to talk about the increasing number of Wear devices, the tenor has definitely shifted. It's less about what can be done with Wear, but what can't be done with Wear. And also a tacit admission that battery and display technology has not grown satisfactorily. It raises the question: what is the point of these devices, if we need them to do less in order to simply get through the day?
I do see a possibility for Wear in the Google Assistant. Using its cloud-based AI and a growing selection of Actions created by developers, it could bring better interactions to wearables without focusing on power-draining visuals and limitations inherent in the devices. For now, I'll stick with my battered solar-powered wrist watch, which I've had for nearly a decade and, yes, has never needed a new battery.