Google announces Android Wear – a new platform for wearables

Google has announced Android Wear, the company’s new Android platform designed for the wearable market. A big focus of Android Wear is receiving the most important notifications on your wrist such as from calls, texts, social applications or other messaging apps. Google Now plays a big part too, especially with its voice commands.

You can ask questions by saying “Ok Google” into the watch, like finding a particular location or setting an alarm. This can also be used to control other devices from your wrist such as to cast a movie to your TV or play an album on your phone.

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Google has released a developer preview of Android Wear today. The Android Wear SDK and new APIs will launch over the coming months. Developers will be able to customize and extend app notifications to accept voice replies, feature additional pages, and stack with similar notifications.

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Google has said that it is working with a number of manufacturers including Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung to release products later this year. Sony is conspicuously absent from the list. Sony has, of course, been producing its own smart watches for some time and there remains a possibility that the SmartWatch 3 will run Android Wear when it launches later in the year.

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