After dragging its heels for three and a half years, the wearable operating system will work on both wrists.
Google had been losing its drive to move forward with its Wear OS wearable technology platform until Samsung came along to help.
This assistance recharged the tech giant and encouraged it to take on a substantial user problem too.
When Samsung came along, it helped Google to build the Wear OS 3. With that build, Google has finally opened itself to overcoming one of the major challenges its smartwatch wearers have been complaining about for more than three years. This began with adding support for left-handed users.
A recent Gizmodo report cited a member of Google’s team who confirmed that an update to the wearable technology operating system that will allow smartwatches running on it to be usable upside down – flipped 180 degrees – making it possible for them to be worn on either wrist. This is very helpful to people who are left-handed or anyone else who typically wears their watches on their write wrists with the buttons facing inward. This way, when worn on either wrist, the display can be shown upright.
This suggests that smartwatches running on Wear OS will no longer need third party apps for this function.
Until now, smartwatch users have been downloading third-party apps to fix the problem of the display turning so that the device can be worn on the right wrist.
“Our development team has implemented the feature you have requested and will be available on future new devices,” said an unidentified Google user cited in the report.
While Google is being applauded for this reported new feature being added to the smartwatch operating system, it’s important to remember that they waited three and a half years to make the change available, and it took the assistance of Samsung to get there. During that time, many smartwatch users claim that they had already switched to an Apple Watch or flat-out swore not to choose a Google wearable until the problem was addressed. Moreover, according to the cited Google employee, the option will be available only in new devices and won’t be a patch for existing wearables.
