Android Wear VP of engineering leaves Google for Stripe

Google has lost its vice president of engineering for Android Wear. David Singleton has taken up a new position at Stripe, a company that specializes in online payments.

Singleton made several appearances at Google I/O to reveal the latest Android Wear developments during his time in Mountain View. According to his company profile, he also led the Google Fit, Android Essentials app, and Google Store teams — and worked on other projects like Voice Search.

Delighted to welcome @dps to Stripe to lead engineering.

(Leading big teams at Google is great and all but have you seen the Fitbit for Bonsai Trees? https://t.co/A5rqMFKElD)

— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) December 1, 2017

Singleton joined Google in 2006 with a degree from the University of Cambridge. Outside of his role, he was an adviser to several startups, Google says. His departure is yet another indication that Google’s interest in the Android Wear platform is fading.

Wear certainly isn’t dead, but it doesn’t carry the same level of excitement it once did. It didn’t even get a mention during Google I/O 2017, and Google no longer sells Android Wear devices through its Google Store. The next major update to Wear will be a somewhat uninspiring “technical upgrade.”

Are you still excited by the Android Wear platform?