Android Wear is slowly but surely growing into something that is a useful add-on to our everyday technological lives, and while most would probably agree that it’s great to have, there are still things which could turn this still-early platform into a truly useful wearable one couldn’t live without. More application compatibility would be a great place to start, which is continuously chugging along. Still, some of the most used apps have yet to receive Android Wear support, Google’s Maps application being one of those apps. That seems to be changing however as Maps for Android Wear appears to be in the works to go live for users soon.
As noted by Android Police, it might take some tweaking for things to start working as Maps on Android Wear seems to require both the latest version of the Maps apk as well as latest version of Google Play Services apk which your devices may not have at the moment. With Maps gaining accessibility from the wrist, users will be able to pull up the Maps interface without having to pull their phones out of their pockets and use the voice access to speak to the watch for directions, locations etc. I wasn’t personally able to get the app working on my Moto 360 although I was able to get the app installed on the watch.
Upon attempting to open Maps on the Moto 360 I was greeted with a message that stated “support for Maps coming soon!” This suggests that even with the necessary pieces in place, (the latest versions of Maps and Google Play Services) that Google still has to enable things on their end before everything works and plays nicely together. When Google plans to officially flip the switch and turn on the Maps functionality for Android Wear is still unclear, but things could very well be right around the corner in this regard. When Maps becomes fully available, it seems that most of the functions will be there like navigation, nearby places, and the ability to pinch-to-zoom on the display so you can see things more close up or further away. If you already have an Android Wear device watch for Maps to go live as it should be any time now.