Android Wear has enhanced the user interface for its smartwatches, which are now much easier to use without direct contact to their touchscreens.
Voice command can now play a bigger role, with users able to recite voice messages via apps like WhatsApp and Google Hangouts. This enhancement comes in the wake of a major advancement in Google’s speech recognition technology last September, and the company’s acquisition last October of Mobvoi, a company specializing in both speech recognition and smartwatches, and founded by a former Google researcher.
Another major new development is enhanced gesture recognition allowing users to navigate the user interface with a flick of the wrist, lifting and shaking the smartwatch to toggle between apps and otherwise navigate the OS. And, finally, users can make calls via Bluetooth, enabling live video conversations via the smartwatch itself.
All of these enhancements make the smartwatch easier to use when one’s hands are occupied, or bundled in mittens in winter; and they could help to broaden the appeal of smartwatches generally as consumers take note of their improving functionality. Android says the improvement are coming to all Android Wear smartwatches (though they’ll need to have speakers for the video calls), and should be enabled across the board within a few weeks.
Source: Android Official Blog
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