Google Adds Handy 'Tiles' Widgets Interface To Wear OS Smartwatches

Google has announced an update to its Wear OS that powers many of the wearables available on the market today. The big change here is that Wear OS now has Tiles, which are essentially little information cards that you can scroll through. The update lets users continue to swipe right-to-left to access information like more detailed fitness graphics and upcoming calendar apartments.

Tiles are customizable and include Goals, Next event, Forecast, Heart Rate, Headlines, and Timer. Goals pulls information from Google Fit, Next event comes from the Google Calendar, Forecast comes from Weather, and Headlines draws from Google News.

Google notes that the Tiles will let users check progress towards fitness goals or start a workout. The timer Tile appears to be the most actionable widget; it allows the user to start or stop a timer from the Tile. Tiles are customizable by touching and holding them until the editor UI launches. Tiles can also be customized via the Wear OS companion app.

Google has noted that it plans to add more Tiles over time and right now all are from Google first-party apps. Tiles will roll out over the next month to Wear OS devices, and some features will vary by the watch or country. That could mean that some devices will never see the Tiles feature. Interestingly, the Tiles feature is very much like the cards you see on Tizen OS, the operating system that Samsung uses for its wearable devices. The video above gives a look at Tiles in action starting around 50-seconds in.

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC last year to power Wear OS devices and the first Wear OS device to use that SoC was the Montblanc Summit 2.