The latest Android Wear version will now allow users to send each other messages, images, doodles and more using their devices. They can also take advantage of the new interactive watch faces which now support a single tap gesture.
Google plans to launch a brand new watch-to-watch communication feature that is akin to the one found in Apple Watch wherein users can swap heartbeats and doodles. With the latest version, Android Wear users can exchange items using the feature called "Together."
Currently, the "Together" feature seemed limited to a single watch face. Users who want to send messages may have to do so using the same watch face since the feature lacks system-wide availability.
"It's not known if this feature will launch as a system application or stay tied to this particular watch face," reports Phandroid. "The former would be very unintuitive as users would have to have the watch face selected to send and accept messages from one another."
The new version will also add support for "interactive watch faces" that are responsive even to a single tap gesture because of the device's improved gesture controls. Google will soon be promoting these interactive watch faces on Google Play as a brand new collection. Users should be able to find them easily as soon as the update arrives.
Some of the things that can be achieved through the tap gesture include changing the watch face's color, changing the displayed information, toggling between different states on the watch, and opening a new activity.
"With the launch of interactive watch faces, Google will now officially support the single tap gesture," Phandroid added in the report.
To make things more exciting, Google has just expanded its watch faces collection in Android Wear with 17 new interactive watch faces. These include well-loved characters such as Hello Kitty and Angry Birds. There are also more sophisticated looks included in the collection such as Triwa, Lulu Frost and Cynthia Rowley.
Another notable addition to Android Wear is the new Wi-Fi capability which will be introduced to owners of LG G Watch R. While this feature was ruled out when Android 5.1.1 arrived on the LG device, users should be happy to know that they are finally getting the Wi-Fi functionality through an OTA update soon.
Google originally planned to launch the update on July 28. However, the company is changing the date to any day in August.
