Why trust GreenbotIf you were hoping your Android ar watch would get the big 2.0 software update before the holidays, you’re going to be disappointed. In a blog post announcing the availability of Developer eview 3, let it slip that the update has been pushed back to next year.
At the end of the post detailing the new developer preview, the company slipped this in: “’ve decided to continue the preview program into early 2017, at which point the first watches will receive Android ar 2.0.”
ay on Android ar
It’s not all bad news. Developer eview 2 brings a huge new feature to Android ar 2.0: the ay store.
Android Developers Blog Find install apps to your watch, no phone required.
The ay Store on Android ar lets you browse or search for watch apps (by text or voice), download, install them without using your phone at all. In fact, if you don’t even want the phone app, you can install only on your watch.
‘s making the phone entirely optional in Android ar 2.0. Developers can create publish watch-only apps that don’t even have a phone component.
The latest developer preview includes other features for developers, like improvements to complications smart replies in the messaging notifications. This, of course, is on top of all the other new features of ar 2.0.
Android Developers Blog The ay Store isn’t the only change in Developer eview 3.
It’s still a royal pain to install the ar Developer eview, compared to those for phones. You need either an tch Urbane E (2nd edition) or a Huawei tch. You need to unlock the bootloaders. Then you need to download the system image flash it manually. More info on the process for developers can be found here.
It’s a drag to see this big, important update to ‘s watch platform pushed back from its fall release, but with Android ar seeming to struggle lately, it’s more important that really get this right. It needs to be slick, useful, usable, highly polished. The extra development time should help with that.
