Google’s next Wear OS update could go all-in on health features
As per a user survey
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We’re still waiting to see exactly howGoogle’s acquisition of Fitbitwill affect its future wearables, but it seems increasingly likely that the next version of Wear OS is going to be a lot more focused on your health.
GoogleFit already does a decent job of activity and stat tracking on Wear OS, but a user survey spotted byDroid Lifesuggests that lots more is on the way in the next version of the software that Google puts on its smartwatches.
The survey, sent out through the Google User Experience Research program, polls participants about what they’d like to see included in future Wear OS upgrades, whenever they might happen to arrive.
Included in the options are SPO2 (oxygenation) tracking, sleep apnea detection, sleep analysis, heartbeat alerts, recovery time monitoring, stress tracking, pairing for medical devices and gym equipment, rep detection and more.
Ask and you shall receive
The survey also mentions water, food and calorie tracking, as well as logging elevation and flights of stairs climbed. If all of these new features get included when the next version of Wear OS rolls around, we could be talking about some serious upgrades.
Wear OS doesn’t currently track sleep, for example, though you can import this data from other apps. One new feature proposed by the user survey is a smart alarm setting that wakes you up when it best suits your natural circadian rhythms.
Of course just because these options are mentioned in a user survey doesn’t mean that Google is going to include them in the next version of Wear OS – but it does at least give us a few clues about the areas that might be improved upon.
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We could well hear more about the future of Wear OS and Google’s wearables in general atGoogle IO 2020, the developer conference which is scheduled to take place between May 12-14 later this year.
Via9to5Google
Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
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