Incoming Android Wear update could add support for standalone WiFi and new gesture controls
What’s the best way to respond to a competitor’s product unveiling? Well, probably to improve your existing counterpart. Not that we needed a report to know that Google was working on some new updates for Android Wear, but The Verge claims to have some fine detail about what’s coming in the next upgrade.
Two of the biggest things to expect are support for standalone WiFi and gesture-based UI navigation. The former would do away with the need to use Bluetooth to communicate with whatever device your Android Wear device is paired with. This is great for situations where you might not be close enough to your phone for your smart watch to pick it up, though it obviously means you have to have both devices on the same WiFi network.
As for those gestures, there isn’t much — a flick of the wrist can now help you scroll through the user interface instead of having to navigate with your finger — but it’s a nice and natural step forward for those who might need to control their watches hands-free.
One last change we’re told to expect is easier access to both contacts and applications menus. When’s all this coming? There’s no word yet, though Google hasn’t been terribly slow to iterate with Android Wear to this point, and if we’re already hearing details about what the new upgrade will bring we imagine it’s almost ready to come out of the oven.