Right now, Google I/O 2015 is in full swing, we’re in attendance and while the connection isn’t great in the hall, there are more of us here picking up the slack, and you can read live here. Last year, during I/O 2014, Android Wear was a big part of the search giant’s announcements and while they launched with just two smartwatches, the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, things have changed rapidly. There are many different watches from the likes of the Moto 360, the ASUS ZenWatch and now the LG Watch Urbane with the latest version of Android Wear. On stage, David Singleton, head of Android Wear demoed the new Android 5.1.1 update and shared some pretty surprising stats with us.
On stage, there might not have been anything new as far as features were concerned, but Singleton was keen to push the idea of choice to the audience. Pushing the idea that once again, it’s better to “be together, not the same” and further highlighted the idea that there’s a choice of watches, a choice of development tools and well, just a whole lot of choice. In just a year, it was announced on stage that Android Wear now has over 4,000 Android Wear apps. Judging by the selection that Google showed off on stage, it appears that Google is including apps that have some sort of extension into Android Wear, rather than just apps built specifically for us on a watch. Still, this number is presumably more than the Apple Watch can boast, and predictably the reason Google wanted to share these numbers with us today.
Further driving the point home that Android Wear offers users choice, Singleton was happy to point out that Android Wear has more watch faces available than any other platform and there’s a whole lot more in store for Android Wear in the future.
