Why do wearables exist? We’ere absolutely certain that isn’t the first time someone has asked that question. That of course isn’t the way we personally feel about wearables, as most of us here have a deep seeded love for technology and yes, that includes wearables. That’s not to say that we like all of them though. Still, it’s a bit ironic to have something like this Android Wear video(think of it like the Dev Bytes videos that Google puts out every so often)ask why wearables exist, seeing as how Android Wear is all about wearables. As the video suggests and as Google has pointed out, their vision for the wearables space is simply to take what we already have, our smartphones, and enhance them in a way with wearables like Android Wear smartwatches, utilizing the Android Wear devices by creating a new type of ecosystem for us to interact with them. When you get down to the basics, the idea is not to replace the smartphone with the wearables like so many people are hoping for,(at least not from Google’s point of view)but to allow for a harmonized experience between the two devices, while still offering the user a chance to complete a quicker interaction then what the smartphone can give us.
Besides offering users quick interactions at a faster and more convenient pace then pulling their smartphones from their pockets, Android Wear devices must have a few key elements if they’re to work as Google intends and follow along the vision that they see for the future of wearables. Responding to voice commands from the user is a big must, and an obvious one at that as the Google Now based OS for the Android Wear devices will lean heavily on the voice interactions that we use Google Now for currently. Another thing that Google sees as a definite need for the Android Wear device is the ability for it to respond back to the user like our smartphones and tablets do now, meaning that the Android Wear devices have to have mics built in so that Google Now can talk back. Everything is simply built around micro interactions, so that the user can reduce the time needed to interface with certain things like notifications incoming from your device. Which by the way, Google says works right out of the box with no effort needed. Give the video a “watch” as there’s some other cool information in there but the basic idea of the wearable from Google’s view is to give you quick, glancing capabilities to interact with your world.