10 Features Android Wear Should Have

I've been using Android Wear on a daily basis over the last month, and in some respects it's great. I love receiving notifications directly on my wrist, and being able to Google basic pieces of information via phonation controls. And the smartwatch I've been using to exam Android Wear – the Motorola Moto 360 – is stylish and decent enough on the hardware forepart.

Simply the ane thing that struck me virtually Google's smartwatch platform, which has received one major update since its launch more than half dozen months ago, is that information technology can't actually do very much. It can display the time, show notifications, and y'all tin use Google At present vox controls and run a few apps, merely that's about it.

Seeing as though the platform is in its infancy, and at that place's a lot of potential for Android Wear to be awesome, I thought I'd requite Google some ideas for new features. Here's ten features that should be included in the next generation of Android Wear, nearly of which don't fifty-fifty require hardware updates.

1Universal Reply

Replying to notifications and letters on your Android Clothing devices requires you to speak to your watch, and that tin make you lot look similar an 80s spymaster, then it's not e'er practical. However, when I want to reply to a bulletin immediately after I read it on my wrist without using my smartphone, I want that petty reply button to be present. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

This is why Android Wear needs universal reply. If I can reply to a message on my smartphone using the keyboard, I should besides exist able to reply to said message using voice on my smartwatch. Some apps can do this, including Gmail and Facebook Messenger, simply others – including the stock SMS awarding on many smartphones – can't. Introducing a clever universal respond API would allow me to quickly respond to any bulletin, regardless of the app.

twoPersistent, Integrated Sports Scores

If you lot've always Googled a major sporting effect y'all've probably noticed that Google will provide y'all with a snapshot of results, even if the match is currently in progress. On Android Wear, though, searching for the same event volition go out you with basic website links. Instead, I'd like to run across sports scores from Google direct on my wrist, without needing to download a 3rd party (and often clunky) application.

Even better, I'd similar to encounter sporting events that I've searched for persist on my wrist equally a carte, with notifications for major scoring events. Not at home or most a TV to lookout man your team contest a football game match? Having your wrist vibrate for every goal would be an awesome experience, complementing a score card for when y'all glance at your smartwatch. All of this could be activated by simply asking Google At present to "go on me informed about Commonwealth of australia five England", for case.

3Song Recognition

This is a pretty unproblematic one. Google Search on Android smartphones will allow y'all to identify songs via audio input and vocalisation search. On Android Wear, which besides has voice search and sound input, you tin't. Extending the Android Wear feature prepare to let song identification without pulling out your smartphone would exist a very handy addition for those times you only tin can't retrieve where you heard that runway before.

fourMap View During Navigation

This is another fairly straightforward addition to Android Wearable. Currently, y'all tin become plough-by-turn navigation on your smartwatch with the assist of your smartphone, but it simply shows basic data such as the upcoming turn on your wrist. I'd like to run across this functionality expanded so that I can see a pocket-size map on my wrist, showing me my surrounds and allowing me to navigate more hands without reaching for my phone.

This could be specially handy for navigation while walking, where a better view of your surroundings can definitely be useful. Showing nearby locations could also give yous a better idea of what places are available to eat at, for instance, equally you lot walk around a shopping hamlet.

fiveMore Quick Controls

One thing Android Clothing isn't specially groovy at is giving you easy admission to smartwatch controls such as brightness, sunlight way, Bluetooth devices, airplane manner, and power off. Adjusting each of these settings requires multiple swipes and taps, which is far from an excellent user experience on a small display.

Having a small, slide out tray filled with settings would be a great manner to approach quick controls on Android Wear. Throw in some icons for most oftentimes adjusted settings, and perchance some smartphone setting controls besides, and you've improved the carte du jour organisation on Android Wear drastically.

6Tv set Remote

For those of y'all out at that place that run the XBMC/Kodi media center app on a HTPC, you can already command the interface on your Android Wear smartwatch through an fantabulous remote app called Yatse. It'due south a pretty decent experience being able to play and pause videos, browse through my content library and see how long a show has to run all on my wrist. Information technology's particularly smashing when my usual remote, my smartphone, isn't in arm'southward reach.

Wouldn't it exist awesome if you could also control your TV through your Android Clothing smartphone? Cypher incredibly complex, but I'd like to come across the ability to change my Goggle box's book, switch inputs and maybe select TV channels without needing to reach for a remote. After all, my smartwatch is ever on my wrist, and information technology'd salve hunting for something that is easily lost.

That said, this is the only feature on this list that would really require new Android Article of clothing hardware. Specifically, you'd need an IR blaster integrated into the body of the smartwatch, and I'm not certain how effective that would be. Hopefully Google, or possibly a smartwatch OEM, is testing a feature like this for a hereafter product.

sevenEasy App Launcher

If y'all're familiar with Android Wear, you'll know that the app launcher is subconscious away at the bottom of a list of actions. Yes, you tin launch apps via voice commands, but this isn't always a practical fashion to do it, especially if you're in a noisy or public environs. Luckily the fix is uncomplicated: provide an like shooting fish in a barrel-to-access app launcher alongside the list of popular commands, assuasive people to apace launch apps or perform commands without needing to use your voice.

Considering sometimes you don't want to expect like you're a CIA officeholder secretly calling for backup.

8Find My Phone

Ever lost your phone inside your house and had to get someone else to telephone call information technology so yous can notice information technology? This could be solved with a modest update to Android Clothing: find my telephone. Through reporting Bluetooth betoken forcefulness betwixt the scout and phone in a elementary interface, it exist able to assist users in honing in on their phone's location. Nothing complex, just a handy tool that could be integrated into the settings card.

9Improved Notification Snippets

This isn't so much of a new feature per se, rather an improvement to the existing notification model. Notification delivery and snippets are mostly fantabulous when you receive simply one notification from an application, but things become harder to handle with multiples. Virtually notably, Android Wear tends to cut off the notification's preview text well earlier it should, making information technology hard to grasp the actual content of the bulletin. Other times information technology won't bear witness yous a snippet at all.

It'd be smashing if Wear notifications were improved so that you could view each notification in a grouping of multiples with ease. This could be achieved by tapping on each line, borer on 'more than', or merely scrolling. I'd as well like to see higher resolution images for contacts, app icons and more, because currently it looks a bit blurry.

10Enhanced Google Now

Google At present already does a decent job of providing contextually-relevant information, such as flight notices for your impending journey, or tourist attractions for when you lot arrive. With a smartwatch on your wrist, however, Google Now could be expanded to provide more location enlightened info that would assist with 24-hour interval to day life.

For example, Google Now could show you a train timetable on your wrist when you enter a train station. You might not take looked at your smartphone while in the station, but a quick glance at your wrist could give yous all the information you need. Walking down a shopping strip? Google Now could put nearby eateries right on your wrist. Head into a gym and Google Now could suggest a workout through Google Fit. You get the picture.

Enhancing Google Now to provide so-and-in that location location based information would exist incredibly handy, and extend on the feature set of a smartwatch in a meaningful way.