Marshmallow Just Hit Android Wear and the Moto 360

Marshmallow just hit Android wear and it’s rolling out now. 

GSM Arena says “as for availability, we understand that last generation Moto 360 watches already ship with the new Wear 1.4 OS. As for other devices, it appears a rollout has been in progress for a few days now, but no official update schedule has been provided. It is also worth noting that the new update brings support for speakers and making calls (currently limited to the Huawei Watch and the 49mm Asus ZenWatch 2, which have a built-in speaker), as well as a number of new gestures and voice controls.”

moto 360 2 marshmallowOne of the main improvements from the new OS is improved battery life for the wearables.  Doze is a key feature of Android 6.0 and it appears it will be carried over to the wearable version as well. It’s hard to say how much this will extend average battery life, which currently sits at around two days, depending on usage, but iany improvement is welcome.

What changed?

  • Battery life should be greatly improved thanks to the addition of Doze. 
  • Speaker support – hey have opened up the microphone for new functionality
  • New permissions
  • New Gestures
  • New Reminders app
  • Learn more at Android Wear Help

google wear

Control messages through voice command: Voice control can be steered in a way with the new update that lets you command your smart watch to send messages from apps like Google Hangouts, Nextplus, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, and WhatsApp. For instance, if you are getting late to work you can command “OK Google, Send WhatsApp message to Boss: I’m stuck in traffic will be late for work.”

Make calls right from your wrist: Now you can make calls and listen to messages right from your wrist pretty much like James Bond. But your watch must have speaker support for this to function along with your bluetooth headset.

I think the new gestures are a bit silly and unrealistic in a business setting, but here’s how they look.

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