Google announces Wear OS 6 with 10% better battery life, first Developer Preview is out

21 May 2025
The final release is coming later this year.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • mts
  • 22 May 2025

Anonymous, 22 May 2025Material 3 Expressive is a goofy and unattractive framework.That's exactly what iOS users want and Google users want. And I mean, if it works efficiently then I'm fine with having it.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • M5C
    • 22 May 2025

    Anonymous, 21 May 2025Now this is one ugly looking wear os. Yak.Material 3 Expressive is a goofy and unattractive framework.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • Iby
      • 22 May 2025

      Vasra, 21 May 2025LOL, no. Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro lasts for 7 days with all fe... moreYou may be right but wear os is much more advanced. That's why its slow and drains battery.

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • 6w3
        • 21 May 2025

        Vasra, 21 May 2025LOL, no. Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro lasts for 7 days with all fe... morebut at least it would give Google a hint to stick what they do the best which is milking their costumers by Google play and blackmailing OEMS by AndroidOS .

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • Hxa
          • 21 May 2025

          why even bother mentioning it @" 10% improvement in battery"

            Anonymous, 21 May 2025Because others are either fitness trackers or basic watches... moreLOL, no. Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro lasts for 7 days with all features on, 14 days with power saving on some features, and it is a fully fledged smartwatch with NFC, ECG, Spo2, HR, GPS, BT, gyro, magenetometer, speakers, mic, 466x466 pixel AMOLED screen, notifications, maps, guidance, waterproofing watch faces, apps, SW updates, sleep/sports/health tracking, etc .

            Google can't make a proper smartwatch OS that does not kill the battery nor can Qualcomm do a proper Smartwatch SoC that is fast enough but doesn't consume too much power, even if their life depended on it.

            So sad.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • 099
              • 21 May 2025

              Vasra, 21 May 2025Wow! 10%! Amazing! Such serious code innovation. The compet... moreBecause others are either fitness trackers or basic watches. That's why they have long battery life.

                Tarabyte, 21 May 2025Samsung's Tizen watches were also very lacking in feat... moreNot really. It had everything. Now it lacks in software, because no one is developing for Tizen anymore (well, not for the watch version anyway; I also have a projector and there are new apps all the time not just from Samsung but from many brands). I'm still using Galaxy Watch 3 and it's great. It has a better battery life after 4 years than a brand new Watch 7 with Google. Yes, I tried. And it has all the functions that the Watch7 has except some useless things. I also have the Galaxy Ring so I'm not missing out on anything that people with a brand new Samsung smartwatch have. Samsung Health imports and syncs data from both devices into one simple section so it's all 100% compatible. If it wasn't, I wouldn't use Samsung. The watch isn't that old. The only thing missing - big apps. But no, thanks, don't really need those. I have only a few apps on my watch and they work great including the official Tidal app, Here maps, and all of the Samsung apps. I get all the notifications from all messaging and calling apps and can reply directly from my watch. For Messenger, it doesn't show photos on watch, only notifications, but for whatsapp and other messengers it does show photos that I receive. My dad has a bran new Amazfit watch and it cannot do pretty much anything that my GW3 can do even today when it's not even officially supported. I'm going to buy the Watch8 Classic when it comes out, but until then, I'm going to count on my lovely Watch3 every day just like for the past 4 years for measuring workouts, steps, taking calls and messages... It's fantastic!

                  • S
                  • Smartwatchguy
                  • Isc
                  • 21 May 2025

                  Tarabyte, 21 May 202510% is seemily system wide, and is also several extra hours... moreYes, but we need to manage our expectations. On May 13, 2025 they said "The new smartwatch software brings a revised UI and up to 10% better battery life."

                  Notice that it said "..up to.." and not "..with.."
                  Those few words change a lot!

                  That said, code is supposedly being reworked for RISK-V so anything's possible. Maybe this OS version will live up to the hype but it's better to wait and see for ourselves. Wear 3,4 and 5 have not lived up to the hype in terms of battery improvements. Lots of cosmetic changes and developers jumping ship. I still love the platform but marketing like this makes me wonder..

                    Solun1, 21 May 202510%? So still not as good as Samsung's previous Tizen ... moreSamsung's Tizen watches were also very lacking in features, software support, and app support/compatibility. If Tizen was better, they would still be using it

                      Vasra, 21 May 2025Wow! 10%! Amazing! Such serious code innovation. The compet... more10% is seemily system wide, and is also several extra hours of battery life, depending on the watch model. It's also good to mention that a 10% battery improvement with just an OTA software update is actually pretty good

                        Vasra, 21 May 2025Wow! 10%! Amazing! Such serious code innovation. The compet... more10% is pretty good for just an update. Also others have more battery life but they also are a lot more basic, so the comparison does not make sense

                          At this Point

                          Huawei Watch 5 is the King of Smartwatch with the Battery Life and OS System which is Hongmeng OS 5 (Harmony 5.0)

                            The problem I have with Wear OS and Watch OS from Apple is the battery life. No matter how much improvement they say they achieved, it lacks behind what other achieve with their own grown OS'es. On the other hand what bothers me with the latter is that, although all necessary functionalities are there, it's most of the time limited to the basics. For example, incoming messages, although they can be synced you can only read the text (sometimes not even the whole message) without any emoji or image. Agreed, it's hard to see an image on such a small screen but emoji's should not be an issue. You can call it nitpicking but it's annoying to see an incoming message where everything like emoji's and more are replaced by some zapf dingbats characters. Either you skip them all or you show them. By now that's a pretty universal thing. Some can make and receive calls, some only receiving calls and some only limited to some phone numbers the one or the other or both. Again, as most of them do this over Bluetooth via the phone, why doing it in such a crappy, limited way. Again, either you do it decently or you don't. Smartwatches aren't so smart so don't add features that won't be supported completely and focus on what it can but then fully.

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                              • Anonymous
                              • Ix9
                              • 21 May 2025

                              Now this is one ugly looking wear os. Yak.

                                Lister, 21 May 2025You mean those competitors that do less?Do less?

                                Smartwach should:
                                -show notification.
                                -additionally have call mode(but its like least usefull feature)
                                -show app informations.
                                -have calendar with appointments
                                -have stoper/timer etc.
                                -track your health.
                                -have sport tracker.
                                -show weather forecast
                                -have gps.
                                -have additional apps like calculator or maybe notes.
                                -maybe nfc for payments.

                                And all that with MINIMUM week on battery.

                                Quick look competition like Amazfit, xiaomi, huawei and few others that have proprietary OS. All have 90% of those features and work from week to two weeks. And when using those features, not just put it on side and watch it.
                                WearOS? average battery life is 3-6 days if you barely use it, maybe one or two days of heavy usage.

                                Oh right, but on WearOS you can browse internet... or watch movies... who care that its on 1.5" screen and you have phone in your pocket...

                                  Now if you had to charge the watch 3 times a day, now it will be 2 times until the next update when you will have to charge it 4 times.

                                    10%? So still not as good as Samsung's previous Tizen watches.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • Le@
                                      • 21 May 2025

                                      and amazfit batery life is up tu 3 weeks

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                                        • yalim
                                        • iKx
                                        • 21 May 2025

                                        I see the best approach with ticwatch. you can have a full wearOS for functionality or you can switch to a smartband mode for better battery life. I wish more wearOS watches would do that.

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