The platform, which launched last month, is designed specifically for smartwatches and now has a new app.
Ever since the first Android Wear based wearable technology devices made their way onto the market shelves, last month, there have been a range of new apps that have been stepping into this platform, but now there is one that is designed to allow the wearables to allow for browsing.
The new wearables app is called the Wear Internet Browser, and is pretty self explanatory.
It provides a web browser for wearable technology based on Android Wear. At the moment, that consists of the Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch. Using it allows a wearer to be able to browse the web over the smartwatch instead of having to use the smartphone. Clearly, this makes it even more important for businesses to create mobile optimized websites, as the screen sizes for this category of devices are typically between an inch to an inch and a half at the most.
What has yet to be known is if website optimization will be different for wearable technology.
Businesses are already discovering that there is a difference in the experience that is produced by a website depending on the size of the screen. PCs, smartphones, and tablets all have different display sizes and capabilities and optimizing for each one has become an increasingly common – and required – practice. Now wearables such as smartwatches have changed this environment, yet again, with mobile devices that are a fraction of the size of the smallest screened smartphones.
That said, the Wear Internet Browser (WIB) app is a full browser app that runs on smartwatches based on Android Wear, meaning that it isn’t designed to provide a limited experience. It is meant to display websites. When using it, favorites can be imported automatically from the Chrome that is operating on the smartphone to which the device is connected.
So far it is compatible with only two devices, but it should also work on the Moto 360, when the time comes for the launch of that wearable technology, as well as any other smartwatch that comes along that will be based on Android Wear. What consumers think of surfing on a tiny screen has yet to be seen.
