Current Wear OS users will have to wait to see if their devices are eligible for the new version

At I/O 2021, Google announced a surprising partnership with Samsung where both companies will be working together to overhaul Wear OS. It sounds good and we’re sure that upcoming smartwatches will no doubt benefit from this partnership, but that also begs the question, what will become of current or older models of Wear OS devices?

You might assume that these devices will be eligible for an update to the new version of Wear OS, but it seems that Google wasn’t very forthcoming on that. When asked by 9to5Google whether current Wear OS smartwatches will be able to take advantage of this revamp to Wear OS, Google basically told them that users would have to wait.

“We will have more updates to share on timelines once the new version launches later this year.”

There is actually a very good reason as to why this is a good question. This is because as part of the changes to Wear OS, Google mentioned upcoming features like better health focus, suggesting that maybe better processors or new health-related sensors might be needed to take advantage of it.

Since we can retroactively add new hardware to already-built smartwatches, does that mean that current Wear OS smartwatches will be left in the lurch? It seems highly unlikely that this will be the case, but we’ll have to wait for more details from Google in the future.

Source: 9to5Google