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New Wear OS Tiles give you easy access to the info you need most (Update: Rolling out)
Update, May 2, 2019 (1:24PM EST): On a Reddit thread, users commented that they’re already seeing the new Tiles feature on their Wear OS devices.
Reddit users are seeing the feature on the HUAWEI Watch 2 Classic, Movado Connect, Misfit Vapor 2, Fossil Q Founder Gen 2, Montblanc Summit 2, TicWatch E, E2, S, and S2, and Fossil Sport. Users also reported seeing Tiles on other smartwatches, but keep in mind that this is a server-side switch.
Our Fossil Sport has yet to receive the update, but it did come to our SKAGEN Falster 2. Screenshots can be found below:
Original article, May 1, 2019 (11:00AM EST): Wear OS has gone through many iterations — including a name change — since its launch, the most drastic of which rolled out in September 2018. Google isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with the launch of its new Tiles feature, but it does hope to make navigating around the smartwatch OS a little easier.
A big gripe with navigating around Wear OS is if you want to launch an app that’s not the Google Assistant or Google Fit, you need you open the app drawer, scroll down to your app, and tap on it. This can be tedious on a smartwatch. Now, Google is adding something called Tiles that will give you swipeable access to the features most important to you.
Google is introducing six Tiles to Wear OS at the start: goals, next event, forecast, heart rate, headlines, and timer. Once the Tiles are added to your watch, a swipe left will allow you to scroll through each one for quick access to the information in each app. So, instead of navigating to your app drawer and manually launching the Timer app, a simple swipe over to the Tile is all you need.
Google says more Wear OS Tiles will be added in the future.
It’s pretty easy to add and rearrange Tiles on your smartwatch — just tap and hold a Tile to move it around, or tap and drag one inside the Wear OS app.
The Tiles feature will roll out to Wear OS devices over the next month, but Google notes that “certain features will vary by phone OS, watch, or country.”
We haven’t had the chance to try out Tiles yet, but the feature will be on display in the Android Sandbox at Google I/O 2019. Android Authority will be in Mountain View covering the developer conference May 7-9, so stay tuned for more Google coverage.