Google announces Android Wear

Last week was Google’s annual I/O developer’s conference  which was where Google unleashed Android Wear. Here's all you need to know:

Usability

Android Wear seems to have taken a different route on the smartwatch, almost focusing entirely on notifications. The different kinds of notifications can be scrolled though, by swiping up and down.

Swiping from left to right allows you to perform actions, such as view the weather for current conditions.

The swiping actions are a lot easier to control than having to precisely tap on a small icon like you have to do with the Samsung Gear 2 and the Sony Smartwatch 2.

Both watches are constantly listening to you and can be activated by saying ‘O.K. Google’, once activated the watch will accept verbal commands. This will allow you to set reminders, send messages, along with many other actions. Reviews suggest that the speech recognition is on par with Google Glass, which is pretty good.

Visuals

The first Android Wear devices, the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live are very similar. The only real difference is the colour; the Gear Live has a silver trim whereas the G Watch is black. Both are rectangular and the screens are practically the same size.

Although they may look the same, the builds are slightly different. The Samsung Gear Live has a SuperAMOLED screen (just like their phones) and the LG has an in-plane switching LCD.

Overall

The two devices are very similar despite a few minor differences in design but they give users practically the same experience.

With Android Wear, Google seems to be heading in the right direction focusing its attention to notifications. The watches seem to be designs to deliver useful information at a glance.

Both devices are available now through Google Play.

The Motorola Moto 360

The Moto 360 was available to try out to at Google’s I/O conference too but it won’t be available until later this year. The device however has the winning design being big, beautiful and round making it the most wristwatch-like smartwatch so far which could lead to its bright future.

The device works pretty much the same as the G Watch and Gear Live but the design is what other smartwatches will have to aim for. If Apple can manage to create an iWatch with the same sort of visual appeal as the Moto 360 then a bright future for wearable technology.