In Defense of Android Wear

[garak0410]

I've been an Android Wear user since my LG Watch Urbane and AW 1.5. I understand the market hasn't really taken off with smartwatches and Android Wear has been slow to catch on but I have to say, I really like the experience.

I used the first gen Samsung Gear smartwatch but I felt it was lacking in functionality. While it seemed polished and slick, it just seemed "lonely" with the lack of apps or inherently working with other apps without the need of other apps. I even considered the Gear S3 for the better battery life but it still seems like there isn't a lot of development for it.

I admit AW 2.0 still needs some refinement but it is surprisingly effective and perhaps underrated and unfairly reported in the media.

Thoughts?

 

[B. Diddy]

I agree with you -- I really enjoy my Huawei Watch, but then again, I don't use too many apps on the watch. It's nice to check notifications for incoming texts and the like, but I'm old school and still like wearing an actual watch. So it's important to me that the smartwatch look like a business or dress watch, and that watchfaces look good on it.

To be fair, I don't think any smartwatches have taken off -- even the Apple Watch. For Android Wear to survive and be robust, I wonder if they'll have to figure out a way to incorporate it into AR or something.

 

[garak0410]

I agree with you -- I really enjoy my Huawei Watch, but then again, I don't use too many apps on the watch. It's nice to check notifications for incoming texts and the like, but I'm old school and still like wearing an actual watch. So it's important to me that the smartwatch look like a business or dress watch, and that watchfaces look good on it.

To be fair, I don't think any smartwatches have taken off -- even the Apple Watch. For Android Wear to survive and be robust, I wonder if they'll have to figure out a way to incorporate it into AR or something.

Yes, you have way more options with Android Wear, more so than Samsung Gear S3. I think Android Wear is vastly underrated with room for improvement.

Yes, agreed. It seems like people who have Apple Watches get them "just because." To be honest, I can never put mine on again and I'd be OK.

 

[mrwallyy]

Very recently bought a Fossil Q Explorist 3rd gen, and I must say the app support is absolute garbage. Here's a copy/paste of my rant in another thread:

"Google/Android need to get their **** together. Why isn't there a messaging app (SMS) that syncs with my text app on the phone? Why do I have to download one, and end up having TWO messaging apps on my phone. So dumb. I downloaded the Messages app by Google, which of course it forced me to make it the default texting app, and I would have been okay with this except I can't use gifs from my SwiftKey Keyboard (on the phone). It keeps saying "No connection". So I uninstalled it.

Terrible, terrible app support. And maybe I'm doing this wrong, but, when I go to the Play Store on my phone, and I browse the Android Wear category, I try to install an app (CNN for example), but nothing flows over to my watch. This confuses me to no end because I don't understand why it's in the Android Wear category if there isn't a watch app for it? This goes for many other apps I found. I install them on the phone (again, through the Android Wear category), and nothing bleeds over to my watch.

Why aren't there proper apps for things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc?"

Followed up by:

"Messaging - I downloaded the Messages app, it works perfectly as in it shows my conversations and allows me to compose messages without having to wait for a notification. However, again, I end up having two messages apps on my phone (I'm okay with this, I can disable notifications on one of them and hide it). and as I mentioned earlier, apparently the Messages app by Google doesn't support gifs by SwiftKey or something.

In regards to Whatsapp, I want an app that, again, lets me look at my conversations and compose messages without having to wait for a notification to pop up for me to reply. One time I got a Whatsapp notification and I accidentally swiped it away so I had to pull up my phone to reply when I easily could have done so on my watch.

Also, I just noticed this. The keyboard on the watch doesn't let me type up a message and include an emoji. Why?!

As far as other apps, let me tell you what I like to see and you tell me if it's reasonable, and if there's anything like it right now:

Social media: I'd like to browse timelines. Why can't I read tweets on my watch? Why can't I go through Instagram and Facebook feeds? The screen supports pictures and colors, why can't I browse them?

News: One thing I consistently do on my phone is look at top headlines. Once again, I can't seem to get the CNN app to boot up on my watch, although the app description clearly shows it's Wear enable. Why isn't there a Reddit app where I can also look at the front page posts?

Banking: Why can't banks have apps that show balances? I don't want to my business on my watch, but why can't I get a quick glance of my balances on my watch?

I don't think I'm asking for too much. I don't want Youtube on my watch, I don't even want games. But for some reason, it appears there are more crappy games available for the watch than common sense convenience apps.

Sorry for the long post."

 

[Woknox]

I agree that Android Wear has unjustly received a bad reputation. I use my watch (Moto360) very often for several purposes. Mainly for the whatsapp, time (watch faces), stepcounter, weather forecast, and a timer for some proper egg-boiling .

I'm a developer and I developed an Android Wear app, just for fun.

Of course I have frustrations, especially when I have connection issues. In the beginning my watch got unpaired for unknown reasons but this got solved automatically over time. Another frustration is that certain apps or watch faces got installed on my phone but never appeared on my watch. Then its just guessing why, really frustrating. I think this is because the apps are compiled for specific processors which makes them incompatible for certain devices.

Despite these issues it does its job great for me. For me it doesn't need to be perfect to still have a lot of fun with it.

I think that people are a little bit too demanding.

 

[kramer5150]

My experience with AW on a moto 360 gen-2, 46mm has been hot and cold since the 2.0 release in march 2016. When it works its great. When it doesn't work it has been completely useless. Its an open source platform so I expect some level of inconsistency. But for a $330~400 device to work great for 11 months, and then not work at all for 5-6 months (with the 2.X update), that's sub-par IMHO.

With all the $$, human resources and technology Google has in spades, AW as an eco-system should be WAY more reliable and consistent than it is.

 

[Woknox]

I can agree on that, how is it working now?

 

[kramer5150]

as of 2~3 days ago its been fine. Someone in another thread was saying the ~2.6 release fixed all the bugs. I can't say for certain which release it was. I just took it off the nightstand the other day just for the heck of it, factory reset it and downloaded the latest AW onto my phone and it works fine.

My watch has been on airplane mode for 6-7 months since April. I've been using it as a night stand clock since it was useless as a smart watch.

I hope others have had better experiences with AW than I.

 

[anon(661246)]

as of 2~3 days ago its been fine. Someone in another thread was saying the ~2.6 release fixed all the bugs. I can't say for certain which release it was. I just took it off the nightstand the other day just for the heck of it, factory reset it and downloaded the latest AW onto my phone and it works fine.

My watch has been on airplane mode for 6-7 months since April. I've been using it as a night stand clock since it was useless as a smart watch.

I hope others have had better experiences with AW than I.

What did you find useless about it? It does everything it is supposed to do.

 

[Woknox]

as of 2~3 days ago its been fine. Someone in another thread was saying the ~2.6 release fixed all the bugs. I can't say for certain which release it was. I just took it off the nightstand the other day just for the heck of it, factory reset it and downloaded the latest AW onto my phone and it works fine.

My watch has been on airplane mode for 6-7 months since April. I've been using it as a night stand clock since it was useless as a smart watch.

I hope others have had better experiences with AW than I.

Good to hear it's working after updating, I can imagine that have lost confidence in the platform. Let's hope you will enjoy it for the rest of the watches lifetime.

 

[anon(9895094)]

Pixel 1 and Polar M600 here. For about a month now, so far so good. Sleep as android wakes me up nicely in the morning with smart alarm. Assistant has been assisting Don't have to drag the phone everywhere now. The learning curve is being little steep and the annoyances are plenty, but I find that I'm getting used to it more and more. The fitness part of the watch, by Polar, is very good.

 

[kramer5150]

What did you find useless about it? It does everything it is supposed to do.

Keep in mind my useless commentary was directed specifically and only at the time when my watch was unusable, from March 2017 - Nov 2017.

The AW 2.X update ruined my watch, after 11 happy months running AW 1.X. It took google/android a very long time to fix it... several months as near as I can tell. During that time my watch had no connectivity to my phone so I could not get updates or notifications at all. It was essentially a dumb-watch, and all it could do is tell time... but with a ~35 hour battery it was pointless to even wear it. So it sat on my nightstand charge cradle and I used it as a bedroom clock during those months.

From what I can tell the basic crux of the problem was how the AW 2.0 app on my phone could not acquire my google user ID, password and identity. Without that information the AW2.0 installation on my watch stalled, and could not complete. At the time there was no way to manually enter that data into AW, either on the phone or directly on the watch.

When android wear works its been AWESOME... everything I could ask for. I am on AW 2.6 now and its GREAT!! The AW platform itself is amazing. My pain points have been with how google / android (the mother ship if you will) rolls out AW updates. That aspect has been totally brutal. To the point where I discourage family and friends from buying an AW watch. If you are a tech-geek, into enthusiast forums and not afraid of open source beta-testing... android wear I think is OK for that kind of person. If you want something reliable that just "works" from month to month... look elsewhere. Tizen, iWatch... etc.

So the next AW update is (what they are calling) "Android Wear Oreo"... and its only going to be rolled out for the newest devices. I am keeping my fingers crossed they don't screw it up again.