Android Wear 2.0 won’t be hitting the ZenWatch 2 and the ZenWatch 3 until the second quarter of the year, the North American branch of ASUS confirmed earlier this week. The company recently took to Twitter to respond to one owner of the ZenWatch 2 who was wondering when the latest major iteration of Android Wear will be released for his device. In a short response to that question, ASUS revealed that Android Wear 2.0 will start rolling out to the ZenWatch 2 and the ZenWatch 3 in “early Q2.” While no further details have been provided by the firm, this comment certainly implies that the aforementioned pair of ASUS-made smartwatches will get updated to Android Wear 2.0 in April.
Google announced the launch of Android Wear 2.0 a few weeks back and while the new iteration of its operating system is expected to roll out to dozens of existing devices, most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are still in the process of testing and optimizing the OS for their product lineup. As it seems that manufacturers didn’t receive their early builds of the OS months in advance, it’s unlikely that ASUS will end up being the only company that isn’t updating its wearables to Android Wear 2.0 before the second quarter of the year. The firm will probably reveal more details on the software upgrade for the ZenWatch 2 and the ZenWatch 3 in the coming weeks.
Regarding the software itself, Android Wear 2.0 represents a major upgrade over its predecessor as the new build ships with numerous new features like the Google Assistant and Android Pay integration. As of this OS version, owners of Android Wear devices can download apps directly to their smartwatches and run them from their wearables, meaning the platform isn’t as reliant on being paired with a smartphone like it used to be. Furthermore, watch faces are now much more customizable and can be modified using information from apps and even shortcuts to direct actions. The latest iteration of Android Wear also introduces some Google Fit improvements and user interface tweaks. Overall, the Mountain View-based tech giant managed to deliver a lot of new functionalities that many users will likely be pleased with, so hopefully manufacturers update their existing devices to Android Wear 2.0 as soon as possible.