’s Android ar smartwatch operating system has captured the world’s imagination ever since it was first announced on h 18, all signs point to a huge Android ar coming-out party at this year’s I/O.

At this dnesday’s keynote, we expect to announce the full Android ar SDK; share more details on Android ar hardware pricing availability; even seed developers with free Android ar watches, so that they can get started on building custom apps.

But what does Android ar mean to you? Here’s a FAQ on perhaps the most exciting wearable product of 2014. It pulls the best information available prior to I/O, we’ll update this resource as more details emerge. If you have FAQ requests, tweet them to @SF.

at is Android ar on a fundamental level?

Android ar is most notable for sending Now alerts other Android notifications directly to your wrist. The system is aware of your location the time of day, uses these signals to push “useful, glanceable information when you need it.” In parlance, it’s called a “context stream.”

For example: You may get an invitation to join a walking tour if you wer into an historical district when on vacation. Accept the prompt, points of interest will begin appearing directly on the watch face, along with directions to the next lmark. 

The experience is designed to be serendipitous, pushing you helpful data even before you think you need it. Android ar can also automatically push weather alerts, sports scores, travel itinerary updates, all the other card-based data points that already appear on Android phones via Now.

The system also relays a full suite of smartphone notifications, so if you receive a phone call or text message, you can take action directly from your Android ar watch. It looks like every Android ar watch will include a microphone, so if you receive a text, you can use voice recognition to dictate a reply directly into the watch’s Hangouts app.

describes the concept as “information that moves with you,” illustrates it to great effect in the video below.

How is Android ar different from other smartwatch operating systems?

is intent on making Android ar navigation as painless as possible, relieving the user of excessive UI manipulation. Android ar watches will run apps, but unlike other smartwatch systems, it doesn’t expose a home screen with a typical grid of app icons. Instead, all Android ar apps, notifications Now alerts appear as cards that sweep on off the home screen—either in reaction to an external signal (e.g., a location trigger) or by a user voice comm (e.g., “OK , where’s the nearest sushi restaurant?”). 

In the video below, developer advocate othy explains that Android ar is designed to be “simple, glanceable built on micro-interactions.” This would st in contrast to Samsung’s smartwatch platform, which includes relatively complex, oftentimes fussy features like photo-capture, voice calling, heart-rate monitoring. 

In essence, Android ar emphasizes brief, fleeting information snippets. The idea is to keep you out of the Android ar interface until you really need contextual information. It’s a philosophy, says, that’s designed to help users be “more present in the real world yet more connected to the virtual world.” 

How do you navigate an OS without a home screen?

There doesn’t appear to be much to navigate. You can expect a default watch face that reveals the current time weather. Beyond that, it looks like Android ar surfaces contextual information app notifications on an ad-hoc basis. You can swipe through these cards with basic touch gestures, also get information on dem with voice comms.

To keep the user interface as simple as possible, employs two rudimentary navigation schemes—“stacks” “pages”—for both native third-party apps. Multiple notifications from an individual app are grouped together in a single “stack” of cards, when you receive a particularly lengthy notification, it can be broken up into a series of “pages.” Both navigation principles help mitigate the screen real estate constraints of small smartwatch displays. 

ll you need third-party apps?

Not necessarily. is promising developers that their existing smartphone apps will still send simple notifications to Android ar, even if they don’t change a single line of code. However, developers will be encouraged to take a few extra steps to improve user experience.

According to , adding “just a few lines of code” will allow developers to leverage stacks, pages simple notification replies. And by using the full SDK—which still hasn’t been released—developers will be able to customize their services for a more robust Android ar experience. Among other tricks, the SDK will facilitate the creation of custom app UIs; the ability to gather sensor data from other wearables expose it on the watch; the registration of entirely new “OK ” voice actions.

ich companies have announced Android ar hardware?

Motorola has announced the Moto 360, while has announced the G tch. Beyond those two highly anticipated smartwatches, we know that HTC, Samsung, Asus the fashion br Fossil have been announced as Android ar partners. It’s just currently unclear whether this second group of manufacturers will be making watches, or merely supporting Android ar hardware from other companies.

That said, the rumor mill is rife with murmurs about other watches. One report says Samsung will reveal an Android ar device at I/O on dnesday. Another rumor says HTC will launch a watch called called the One ar in late August or early September. 

at are the specs release date for the Moto 360?

This watch is most noteworthy for its circular display wireless charging. don’t know its exact dimensions, but a photograph of a prototype in a blog post suggests it will be a relatively large device—at least compared to a traditional wristwatch.

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The Moto 360 has no B port (reinforcing its wireless charging method), just a single physical button that mimics the crown of a traditional watch. It has a water-resistant stainless steel case, will launch “in a selection of styles.” expect both steel leather b options, Motorola says the b can be swapped out by the user. Because the display is fully digital, its orientation can be flipped, allowing the Moto 360 to be worn on either h with the “crown” button still pointing away from your elbow.

It will not come with any camera. one support will be limited to hsets running Android 4.3 later Android OSes. Motorola says the Moto 360 will launch this summer. There’s no word yet on pricing (let alone processor, storage or battery specs), but the Moto 360 is expected to be one of the more expensive Android ar devices available.

at are the specs release date for the G tch?

en it comes to the G tch, we have the official word from (which doesn’t share much) an unsubstantiated leak from @Upaks (which shares a whole lot, but may not be true).

This is what’s been confirmed: The G tch will have an always-on, square display that never sleeps. The device features a metal body that’s scratch- water-resistant, the watch comes in two color themes: white black. There doesn’t appear to be a traditional B port on the watch, but there is some type of five-contact dock connector, suggesting a proprietary ( traditional wired) charging method. The G tch clearly has a microphone for voice comms, but beyond that we don’t know any verified hardware specs.

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The tweet from @Upaks tells a much more detailed (if unverified) story. According to the purported leak, the G tch will weigh 61 grams; measure 37.9 x 46.5 x 9.95 millimeters; boast a 1.65-inch, 280×280 D display. A 400 mAh battery is rated for 36 hours of use, the leak suggests the G tch includes 4GB of storage.

Obviously, all of this tweeted information is hearsay, but we should know details in short order, as maintains the watch will be released in Q2 2014, which is almost over. Most pundits expect the hardware to be given away free as a development tool to all I/O attendees.

Onward upward

’ll update this FAQ as more information becomes available— there’s sure to be an avalanche of new details at I/O 2014. In the meantime, please tweet your FAQ requests to @SF. want to answer all your questions.