Since today, the Beta Program of Google is providing a prototype version of the next release of Android Wear. It is referred to as ‘technical upgrade to API 26’, which is chiefly an update of the infrastructure. Most importantly, it is available only for the LG Watch Sport.
Alongside the technical upgrade, Background Limits and Notification Channels are two other updates for the Android Wear this far. Firstly, Background Limits aim at improving battery life. Secondly, Notification Channels can help in noise from busier apps. Apart from these, there are a few other minor improvements as well.
As per the update’s release notes, there are several warnings on bugs in notifications. Likewise, other mentionable improvements are heart rate sensor and contact syncing.
On a similar note, unstable software and a small list of new features may not attract developers initially.
Get the Android Wear updates
You can join Beta by signing in here. Next, find the LG Watch Sport in the list of devices, and click the green button for enrollment. As for the watch, you need to go to Settings -> System -> About -> System Updates. This will initiate the download of the update. It is better that you put a watch on the charger before download starts, even though the battery remains full.
As far as the release is concerned, Android Wear is the only Beta release, according to Google’s blog post notes. It does not have any indication that there will be a final production release.
