On the official Android blog, Google has announced that they have begun rolling out a new update to Android Wear. This new 1.3 version for those keeping score is going to be huge with a lot of new interactions and with Google Translate embedded into the release. What Google has done with it is great and should make it much easier to get help in up to 44 different languages right on your wrist.
How it will work is simple. You tap on the Google Translate app on you Wear device and speak into it. When you are done, flick your wrist over and the person you are interacting with can read your question or statement in their own language. You can do it all on your wrist and there is no need to get your phone from your pocket unless you want spoken translations.
Here is an animated GIF to show you how this would work.
Google Translate on Google Wear
This type of interaction is what will make Android Wear devices more useful and appealing but there is a lot more coming in this update.
The new Android Wear will now support interactive watch faces. That means that you can have a lot of different pieces of information on your Wear screen and can tap on one to get more information. Think about weather. You can see the current temperature on your watch face. If you tap on the weather bit on the watch face, you will get a full screen view of weather information. There is already a few interactive watch faces in the Google Play Store but until the Android Wear 1.3 update rolls out (which starts today), the interactions will not work.
Along with the new interactive watch faces will be a new app from Under Armor which will allow you to track fitness stats. Under Armor has also released a new watch face in the Store to support it. Finally there is a new Together feature.
Android Wear’s Together Watch Face lets two people stay close throughout the day by turning the entire watch face into a space for sharing. Once you’ve paired your watch face with a partner’s, you’ll be able to share things like photos and emoji, as well as your activities (like if you’re working out, on the phone, or stuck in traffic).
All-in-all these changes are pretty impressive and will bring a whole new level of interaction with your Wear device.
The Android Wear update is rolling out now and it will take a few hours to a few days to show up on your Android phone.
