Android Wear 2.0 is due to be released in “early February”. This is the latest information coming through on Android Wear 2.0 and comes directly from what seems to be emails that are being sent out by Google Play to Google Play app developers. The emails look to inform developers of the upcoming launch of Android Wear 2.0 as a means for them to ready their apps to coincide with the launch. Which is of particular importance to developers, as the next version of Android Wear comes with direct support for installing Google Play apps on smartwatches. As a result and while there has been no official confirmation coming through from Google on this, it does stand to reason that the emails are likely stating a correct time-frame.
The emails being sent out (shown below) do not actually specific when in February that the launch will take place and so it is currently unclear as to when in February the launch will commence. Although, this is a much clearer time-frame than what had previously been on offer, where it was expected that the launch was due to take place sometime in Q1 of 2017. It had also been highly-expected that the launch of Android Wear 2.0 will bring with it the launch of two new Google-affiliated smartwatches. At present, it remains to be seen if that actually means that the two watches will also be launched or made available in early February as well.
Over the course of the last few months, Android Wear 2.0 has made the news on multiple occasions and most often due to what has been a significant delay in making available the next-generation of the platform. It had been expected that Android Wear 2.0 was set to hit the market back in late 2016, although for still unexplained reasons, Google delayed the launch. While some have speculated that the delay was the result of not enough smartwatch manufacturers bringing to market late-2016 smartwatches to make use of Android Wear 2.0, others have since speculated that the delay may have been in order to help promote the upcoming ‘Google watches’ (or vice versa). In either case, it now looks as though Android Wear 2.0 will likely launch by this time next month.