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Google introduced Wear OS 6 at Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday, presenting a big visual revamp with the new Material 3 Expressive design language. The upgrade will provide new colors, animations, and buttons to smartwatches. The tech giant has also published the first developer beta of Wear OS 6, which is based on Android 16. This enables developers to test apps with the most recent UI updates and themes. The Wear OS 6 upgrade has been validated to enhance battery life compared to Wear OS 5.
The first developer preview of Wear OS 6 is now available
At Google I/O 2025, Google unveiled the first Developer Preview of Wear OS 6, the next generation of Google's wearable platform based on Android 16. This preview enables developers to see how their apps respond to the revised themes and interface modifications. Wear OS 6 introduces a new design framework known as Material 3 Expressive. This design is believed to allow for additional customization with new visual and motion components.
Google believes that moving from Wear OS 5 to Wear OS 6 would enhance battery life by up to 10% due to Wear OS platform optimisations. The redesigned interface will have a revised always-on display functionality.
The Material 3 Expressive design is perfectly optimized for round displays. It will have dynamic color themes that mirror the colors on the Pixel watch faces. Google has published the Wear Compose Material 3 and brand-new Wear ProtoLayout libraries for developers, which include new color schemes, typography, and shapes for future apps.
The initial developer preview of Wear OS 6 has a three-slot tile arrangement that improves visual uniformity in the tile carousel. This layout features a title slot, a primary content slot, and a bottom slot to accommodate various screen widths. This design pattern creates more room within the circular form factor. Google has also introduced progress and scroll indicators, which allow users to watch their progress as they scroll.
The revised Wear OS Material 3 components now scale fluidly for bigger displays, adding to the large screen capabilities introduced in Wear OS 5. Shape morphing is supported by elements such as buttons and lists in applications. It offers the CredentialManager API, which provides integration points for passkeys, passwords, and Sign in With Google via the watch. It also gains more advanced media controls, such as the ability to fast-forward or rewind podcast episodes.
