We asked, you told us: This is your least favorite part of Wear OS

Google’s Wear OS is a contentious OS. As the firm’s watch-based operating system, it’s a necessary evil for some due to its tight integration with Android. And unlike its smartphone counterpart which receives an annual major revision, Wear OS doesn’t quite enjoy this luxury.

Adding to Wear OS’s troubles is its sub-par battery life on some models, its narrow variety of apps, and its relatively thin fitness offering. You could argue that it’s no longer a true pioneer in the wearables game.

This got us wondering about how readers feel about Google’s smartwatch OS. We asked you to vote on what you believe is the platform’s biggest shortcoming. Here’s what you told us.

What’s your least favorite part of Wear OS?

Results

More than 4,700 votes were cast across this poll’s seven options, but there’s one clear winner. With just under 1,600 votes – 34.9% of the tally – users seemingly lament Wear OS products’ questionable battery life. Most user comments below definitely reflect this, too.

The platform’s lack of software updates polled second with 18.6% of the vote, highlighting Google’s seeming lack of ambition with its wearable OS.

Read more: The best smartwatches you can buy right now

It was a close race for third between the OS’s interface and software, available apps, hardware choices, and “the overall package.” These four options were separated by less than 1.6% of the vote.

Finally, with just 329 votes, users seem least concerned about Wear OS’s fitness features. Arguably, this is one potential bright spot for Google thanks to its recent acquisition of Fitbit. However, it remains unclear if, how, and when Google will implement the fitness company’s tech into Wear OS.

Here’s what you had to say

• Caleb Gardner: Honestly, though battery life could be better, I’ve been really happy with my Fossil Gen 5. I’ve never had any issues with performance and it performs all the tasks I want it to.
• Alan Burnstine: I selected battery life since it is absolutely my biggest issue. However, the fact that Google keeps breaking the ability to have it respond to “OK Google” is a near second.
• topher: Speed, responsiveness.
• Dave Richards: For me, the main annoyances are software related, partly because they seem so easily solved.
• Anon #3999: In between the lack of updates and the horrible battery life. Wear OS has a much better app selection than Tizen, but what’s that worth when your watch can’t even make it past a day with something as basic as raise-to-wake enabled?
• Mike Bastable: It just lacks ambition. Some lite wearable OS from China OEMs have more flair. Google obviously loses interest quickly in some projects. WearOS is like their least fave child. They feed and house it, but show it no love.
• sacg96: The fact that I can’t use GPay, although is available in my country.
• Bobby Salvin: My problem is a lack of control over the GPS source. If you’re going to use the watch to track a run, you want to be able to switch GPS to the watch, not a tethered phone you will leave behind, and I don’t see a straight forward control for that.
• Matthew029: Wear OS shows the approach that Google has had on different platforms, such as smartwatches or tablets. Google creates the platform then does not continue its development, leaving the developers completely alone.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. If you have any additional input, be sure to drop a line in the comments section below.