Google has announced Android Wear 5.1 overnight which includes a slew of updates for Android Wear devices such as Sony’s Smartwatch 3 (shown above). However, while Google has filled us in on the big picture news, which you can read about in our earlier writeup, Sony has made its own announcement including some things that Google left out.
Sony confirmed that the release is actually version 5.1 (something Google forgot to mention), but has also referred to two features not previously announced:
- Much like your Android smartphone, the new Android Wear update will bring pop up notifications (even when you’re looking at something else), meaning you’ll never miss anything important.
- New adjustable font sizes… will let you see more or less of the text on-screen.
This last one will be a big bonus for devices with a lower resolution, such as the Moto 360, to squeeze a bit more information onto the screen. Sony’s Smartwatch 3 already has a fairly decent amount of screen real estate, so a smaller font size will mean even more information potentially on screen.
Sony’s post of course talks about the Sw3, but its hard to imagine that these features aren’t more across the board and applicable to other Android Wear devices. Pop up notifications could be really cool, but hopefully they’re implemented right; many of us can remember how these kinds of notifications worked on early Lollipop builds, and they weren’t fantastic.
Are you looking forward to the new features of Android Wear 5.1?
