Google has spent the last year refining its Wear OS smartwatch software to make everything feel simpler, more intuitive, and easier to use. The improvements have gone a long way in making Wear OS feel smoother and more useful. Today, Google is announcing another new addition: Tiles. Tiles are glanceable widgets that you can swipe between to get information quickly, including the weather, your next calendar appointment, your heart rate, news headlines, etc.
You access Tiles with a left swipe on your Wear OS watchface, which previously took you to Google Fit. Your Fit data is still in that spot, but now you’ll have these other widgets available to you as well.
“With a swipe left, you’ll be greeted by these Tiles and can check your progress towards your fitness goals or start a workout, know where you need to be next, plan ahead with the latest forecast, check your heart rate, follow the latest breaking headlines and set a timer,” Wear OS product manager Frank Deschenes wrote in a blog post.
Tiles can be rearranged to your liking with a tap and hold, and layout can also be adjusted with the Wear OS mobile app. Not all smartwatches running Wear OS will have all of these tiles; if your device lacks a heart rate sensor, you’re obviously not going to see that one. Google says it plans to add more tiles as time goes on.
Tiles will roll out to Wear OS over the next month, according to Deschenes. Now, if we only had a flagship Google smartwatch to use them on.
Article source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/1/18525335/google-wear-os-tiles-widgets-new-feature-announced