Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 4 adds new features

Fariha Khan
December 14, 2016
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With Fitbit acquiring Pebble and Motorola choosing to miss the launch of Android Wear 2.0, the future of smartwatches does not look very bright. As Android Wear delayed to ensure it’s really shippable, Google is continuing to launch more developer previews. Today, we have got to know that Android Wear has added one-click Google Sign-in and authentication and a number of other exciting features.

The newest developer preview of Android Wear is continuing to strive to make the watch entirely independent from the device. It is due to the all-in-one authentication that enables user to log into watch apps and services from an Android or iOS device with the OAuth API for Android Wear.

Using wear devices on-device Play Store for browsing and downloading you can authorize in-app purchases with the help of a 4-digit Google Account PIN. Google considers it as a possible monetization strategy for making development more enticing.

In addition, DP4 is going to add support for Wear 1.0 apps that have are still to be updated and are yet packaged with an analogous full phone app. It is one issue that a number of developers had with previous Android Wear 2.0 previews.

Return of swipe-to-dismiss presently found in Wear 1.0 include the other UX tweaks. Now activities automatically support the swipe and the hardware button is not used any more for going back.

One more improvement to peeking behavior will enable users to take action without scrolling to the top or bottom of a list. Besides, burn-in protection will make sure hitches in always-on mode do not harm the display.

With Wear 2.0 still just available on the Huawei Watch and the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition, after this, there will be another developer preview.