Over the next month, Google will be rolling out a new element of its Wear OS smartwatch software interface that’s meant to improve the ease and simplicity with which you access information. The new feature, announced today, is the introduction of swipeable widgets Google is calling Tiles, following on the heels of the introduction to Wear OS over the last few months of swipeable access to health coaching via Google Fit — as well as more generalized proactive help and suggestions courtesy of the Google Assistant.
Google published a blog post today that explains what’s coming with the addition of Tiles, which are grouped under the following categories: Goals, Next event, Forecast (for the weather), Heart rate, Headlines and Timer. Swipe left on your Wear OS watch face, once you have this feature, and you can cycle through all of those — everything from checking out what’s next on your calendar for the day, getting a look at your heart rate, catching up on breaking news headlines and more.
“To arrange the Tiles in the order you wish to see them, touch and hold any Tile on your smartwatch, or touch and drag one in your Wear OS by Google app,” explains Wear OS product manager Frank Deschenes in today’s post. “You’ll be able to stay connected to what’s important to you, and still keep tabs on other information and actions. We’ll continue to add more Tiles over time to help you stay connected to what matters most.”
If you own a Wear OS smartwatch, you should see this feature sometime in the next few weeks, as it will be rolling out over the next month. Google will also be showing off the Tiles feature in person at the Android Sandbox during I/0 2019, which starts next week.
About the new feature, the other thing that’s important to note is that certain features will vary depending on your phone’s operating system, the particular model of watch you own and where you live.
