You can customize different watch faces for different use cases. Switching watch faces is as easy as swiping left or right on the active watch screen, so you can simply change from one to another depending on where you are. Indeed, the Android Wear team took care to make navigation a priority with the 2. Swipe down from the active screen and you'll see toggles for airplane mode, Do Not Disturb and as a settings shortcut.
One press of the side button launches the app menu, and navigating through the list can be done either via a rotating crown if your watch has one or the touchscreen. If you'd rather not scroll through your lengthy list of apps, you can also long-press a favorite to pin it to the top. The menu will list recently accessed apps first, followed by favorites and then the rest by alphabetical order.
Notifications have changed drastically as well. Instead of glaring white cards that take up the bottom half of the screen, there are now subtler notification icons. Also, the notifications themselves are now color-coded and contextual. So Gmail notifications have a red background, for example, while Hangouts are green. They only appear when you bring the watch up to your eyeline; a few seconds later, the watch face resurfaces again. If you like, you can access all of your recent notifications by swiping up on the main screen.
The watch's overall UI is also much darker. As for those incoming message notifications, replying is as easy as tapping; do it once and you'll immediately be brought to the reply menu.
Though bear in mind this is the experience on Android; the feature is extremely limited on the iPhone. In addition to using your voice or drawing an emoji, Wear 2. At first this sounds pretty ridiculous on such a small screen, but it's surprisingly intuitive. You can either swipe through words like you can on Swype or SwiftKey, or you can use handwriting recognition.
There are loads of new features coming in Android Wear 2. Assistant will be available in English and German at launch, and other languages in coming months. Assistant can make reservations for you, or give you a weather report. Assistant will also work with certain smart home devices, so you can tell it to turn the lights on in your home — complete hands-free.
Complications: One of the biggest arrivals in Android Wear 2. These are coming to the always-on display, too, meaning permanent at-a-glance updates from your favourite apps. Related: Android Wear review. In traditional watch-making circles, a complication is any feature on a watch face that provides information beyond hours and minutes.
Once Android Wear 2. Google gives the example of knowing your next appointment, progress towards your fitness goals or stock price updates. Different watch faces can have different complications, too, so you can swipe between one for home, your commute and the office. Notifications: Google is also overhauling the way notifications work. Currently, they occupy the whole screen, which can be a little overwhelming. But with Android Wear 2.
Related: Best Android Wear watch faces. This includes the addition of two interactive drawers. Long-press the power button on your watch to activate Assistant, and then ask questions or give commands. Swipe up from the bottom of the Assistant screen for suggestions of what you can ask and do with Assistant.
Alternatively, you can raise your wrist and use the "OK, Google" wake phrase to begin talking to Assistant. Tailor how Google Assistant functions on your Android Wear watch by opening the Wear app on your phone and tap on the Settings icon. Under the Assistant section, tap on Settings. With a quick swipe to the right or left across your watchface, you can switch between faces with ease. It's a quick gesture to switch between, say, a watch face for work, complete with complications that you can use while on the job and another watch face for workouts, encouraging you to run faster.
When viewing your watch face, press the power button to view your app list. On other watches, you'll need to use gestures to scroll up or down to view your apps.
Tapping on an app will launch it. More importantly, you can now pin apps to the top of the list with a long press on its icon. You now have two new options tools to help you respond to messages from the watch. There's a teeny-tiny keyboard that's nearly impossible to type on at least in my experience , and then there's a handwriting recognition tool that lets you scribble words on the display. The next time you compose a message or reply, tap on the keyboard icon. The default setting is the small keyboard, but you can quickly switch between the two keyboards with a long press on the keyboard icon.
Android Pay is currently only available on devices with NFC compatibility. What is the big deal with Android Wear 2. JC Torres is in the know :. Anything else noteable about the update? Alex Wagner thinks there are a few more features worth mentioning :.
Rebecca Linke is a Senior Associate Editor at Computerworld who writes about social media and personal technology. Here are the latest Insider stories. More Insider Sign Out.
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