Google Acquires Smartwatch OS Startup Cronologics to Improve Android Wear

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Published 13 Dec 2016

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Cronologics

Google has acquired a started called Cronologics in a bid to bolster its Android Wear division. The startup was working on an OS for smartwatches and other wearable devices. Started in 2014 by former Google business employees, the startup will now join Google “to help grow the portfolio of watches powered by Android Wear.”

Cronologics has only launched one smartwatch so far, the CoWatch after it successfully met its crowdfunding campaign. The wearable device features integration with Amazon’s Alexa thereby allowing one to issue commands to Echo right from their wrist. It remains to be seen how long Cronologics’ CoWatch will continue to be on sale.

We started Cronologics in 2014 as a platform for smart, diverse smartwatches. Today, we’re excited to announce the next phase of our journey — we are joining Google to help grow the portfolio of watches powered by Android Wear. We see strong alignment with Android Wear’s mission and look forward to working with our new colleagues at Google to continue pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond.

It’s unclear how Google will use Cronologics expertise to improve Android Wear. Perhaps the company will use the company’s expertise to make Android Wear more resource efficient and further improve its voice recognition engine.

Google and Cronologics did not reveal the terms and financial agreement of the acquisition.

[Via Cronologics]