Google recently released the Pixel Watch and breathed new life into Wear OS after years of neglect, but how serious is Google about its second step into the smartwatch market? Getting their flagship apps up and running on the platform would be a good sign of support, and a new report from 9to5Google says there are a few big hitters on the way. The report states: “We have learned that Google is testing both Gmail and Calendar for Wear OS. The experience was described to us as “complete”, although we were unable to find out if this involved creating an event or composing a new one. emails”.
Building any apps for wearables would be a big step for the Google Workspace suite, which for some reason has been very hesitant about wearables over the past eight years. Workspace doesn’t even have Apple Watch apps, let alone Wear OS. Google’s biggest competitor, Microsoft, has an Outlook app for both wearable platforms.
Wear OS copies your smartphone’s notifications, so for something like Gmail, you can still see and read a new Gmail message if it comes in your notifications and you can send a reply. You can even send a new email by voice if you know the address or have a contact, all without an app. What you can’t do is most of the normal browsing tasks like browsing your inbox and looking for old mail. It would also be nice to have watch-centric notification options instead of just mirroring the settings for your phone.
A full calendar app would be nice too, but Wear OS already has an indecisive calendar app called Agenda, which only seems to be built-in and not in the Play Store. As you might expect, this is a really simple app that only shows the Google calendar schedule for the next three days.
Gmail is an odd omission, as Wear OS already has a ton of similar apps. The Google Messages app shows a list of SMS messages in your inbox that you can tap and read. It works great and a Gmail app with exactly the same layout would be a good start; Google just needs to build it. Google Chat also lacks a wearable app and would fit perfectly in a similar layout.
Indeed, Google’s only Wear OS productivity app is Google Keep, so Google has a lot of work to do to bring its line of Wear OS apps to a reasonable level. Plus, it’s been seven years and the Apple Watch doesn’t seem like a passing fad or anything, so Google might want to start working on a Gmail app for that as well.