Android Wear 2.0 users can now download the Handwriting Keyboard app from the Play Store on their smartwatches and use this as an alternate means of typing up a message or a response. While the keyboard did come on some devices which shipped with Android Wear 2.0 after launching this year, devices which have been bumped to the new software through the update (like the Nixon Mission) weren’t able to use it, but that changes today as the app is now appearing for download.
With this option now available users can type messages using the regular keyboard, by speaking, and by writing out their messages with their finger as if they were using a pen and paper, in addition to drawing emoji for inserting emoji into the context instead of searching for and selecting the ones they want. This makes for a total of four different input options to give users a somewhat varied spread when it comes to communicating with friends and family from their watch. Naturally, the keyboard works just as it does on smartphones and tablets so there shouldn’t be any real difference other than the fact that it might be a little more challenging due to the smaller size of the display, and if not necessarily more challenging it will likely take a bit longer because there is less room to work with.
Still, if you feel that this would be the preferred method for typing on your smartwatch, if it has Android 2.0 installed then the only thing holding you back is the lack of an installation of the app. While a handful of smartwatches have already been updated to Android Wear 2.0 at this point there are still a good few which are waiting on their respective updates. The ZenWatch 2 and the ZenWatch 3 for example won’t be getting the update until sometime in the second quarter of this year. If you have an Android Wear 2.0 watch and you’re looking to download the Handwriting Keyboard app, it should be live on the Play Store from your watch as a direct download, and if not simply give it a little bit of time and should show up.
