Android Wear v1.1 APK has Apple references in it, but when is iOS support coming?

That Google is working on iOS support for Android Wear is nearly undeniable at this point, but even more evidence has surfaced in case you aren’t a believer. We peeked inside the latest Android Wear update APK to see what hidden bits were swarming about, and we came across some very interesting references.

Google has strings related to Apple software packages, namely “com.apple.tips” , “com.apple.AppStore” , and “com.apple.Tap-to-Radar”. We’re not sure what these package names mean on their own, but lack of context doesn’t keep us from guessing that this is all going toward the effort to get Android Wear compatible with iOS.

There are still some hurdles for Google to get over, even if they have somehow figured things out from a technical standpoint. The biggest hurdle will be Apple’s good graces: Android Wear support on iOS would likely require some sort of app, and as we all know you can’t legally obtain apps on iOS unless it’s through the App Store (yes, it is possible to sideload apps through jailbreaking or advanced methods, but we doubt Google would encourage it).

We wouldn’t have given much thought to it just a year ago, but Apple’s own smart watch has been announced and is officially available as of tday, and we doubt they’d want to allow the competition to “duplicate their efforts.” We’ve also seen Apple banish anything with “Android” in its description or name in the App Store in the past, so having an entire “Android Wear” app in the iOS App Store doesn’t seem very likely to happen.

But as we always say, never say never. We’re still not sure when Google is expected to finish preparing the goods and announce their plans, but we’ll certainly be keeping our ear to the streets.