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Amidst all the Pixel 2, Google Home and Pixelbook noise yesterday, there was one line of Google products that certainly had no reason to cheer: Android Wear. Not only did we not get any new Android Wear announcements, but Google even made it a non-existent entity on the Google Store.
If you go there right now, you will find sections for Phones, Home and Entertainment, Laptops and Tablets, VR, and Accessories. Android Wear doesn’t have a home in any of those. And even if you happen to have direct product links handy, they show out of stock.
The first immediate question: why? Well, the first immediate guess is always that “Android Wear is dead.” Google always seems to come back with word that it isn’t after long periods of stagnation or new devices, but it happens so often that we’re beginning to worry.
It’s especially odd considering Google just launched a new beta program for an Oreo-based Android Wear update for owners of the LG Watch Sport, which might not necessarily be a strong declaration of life but at least there was a pulse.
It’s fair to say Android Wear hasn’t been Android’s brightest adaptation, and sales numbers of partner watches to date certainly reflect that notion. But this is the first time in a timeline of uncertainty that Google has evicted the entire line from their online storefront, and that’s worrisome. Our hope is that they’ve temporarily taken the section down so as to prepare it for a swath of incoming devices, but we’d just as soon believe that this is the beginning of the end.
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