Google I/O 2016: The forgotten Android Wear is going standalone in 2.0
Phones to be phased out?
Remember Android Wear which launched back in 2014? We don't either, but it's Google's smartwatch platform that synced up to your phone and let you send messages on the fly, track fitness, and, well, check the time.
At this year's Google I/O, Google announced Android Wear 2.0 which includes, rather impressively, support for standalone apps.
Yes, that means you can chuck away your phone and go entirely smartwatch if you're on Android, as your smartwatch can now connect to WiFI and use apps without phone supervision.
There's also a cool keyboard integrated which supports Glide Typing, reinforcing that move towards a standalone platform.
Aside from those two features, there's also a bunch of improvements to messaging (improved auto replies), fitness capabilities (it recognises exercise and syncs up to Google Fit and other fitness apps), and notifications (you'll see data from all apps now - right on the watch's face).
Android Wear 2.0 will launch later this year. So just be patient for now.
