In a move to make Android smartwatches more independent and self-reliant, Google has today introduced the Play Store built exclusively for Wear apps to your watch. This will make it even easier for users to find and install apps directly on their smartwatch, without having to reach for their phones.
In the official blogspot, Google says that it ran multiple surveys and asked developers about what they wanted most out of Android Wear? The simple answer they got everytime was to make app discovery easier for the end-user, by giving them a way to find them right on the watch itself. So, the company looked into the possibility of the same and here we are today. The Play Store(for Wear-only apps) has been ported to the watch itself. Awesome!
With Google Play on Android Wear, users have the option to browse recommended apps in the home view, and search for more of them using voice, keyboard, handwriting queries. And if you’re thinking that Google would’ve made feature cuts to cram the Play Store into the watch, then you’re sadly mistaken my friend.
The users have access to the complete feature-packed Play Store on their watches. It not only allows them to switch accounts; manage apps from the ‘My Apps’ section; install,update or uninstall apps; be part of alpha and beta tests, but also choose to install a certain app only on their watches and not the phone.
This Wear 2.0 developer preview makes the smartphone redundant and phone apps are no longer necessary. In a move that is very much alike to it arch-enemy Apple, Google is also allowing watch apps to exist independently without the need of a companion app on the phone. I’m comletely pysched about Google’s decision to bring the complete Play Store to the watch but still apprehensive to the miniature keyboard(and the complacent voice commands) which I might need to use to discover new apps.
Alongside the debut of developer preview version 3.0, Google has also announced that it has got of tons of user feedback that pushes its launch timeline a bit farther. The company has decided to continue the preview program into early 2017, until when Android Wear 2.0 update will start rollling out to the first few watches.
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