Google’s Wear OS 6 update is better than I could have imagined

Wear OS 6, Google’s next major smartwatch update, is official. We’ve been speculating and talking about Wear OS 6 for the last few months, but the update was (surprisingly) shrouded in secrecy. We knew it was likely coming at some point this year, but we weren’t sure exactly what to expect from it.

Well, we no longer have to keep guessing. During its Android Show event ahead of I/O, Google revealed its Wear OS 6 update in full. And, I’ve got to be honest — it looks even better than I could have imagined.

Wear OS 6 is still very much Wear OS at its core, but it’s been modernized and refreshed to the point where it looks brand new. It’s the biggest Wear OS update I’ve seen in years, and it’s made me excited about Wear OS in a way I haven’t felt in ages.

Fundamentally, Wear OS 6 works exactly like it does today in Wear OS 5. You’ve got your clock face as your “home” screen with customizable tiles to the left and right. You still swipe up to view your notifications, swipe down to see your quick settings, and press a button to access your app drawer.

This is very much still the Wear OS you know and love, but the set dressings in Wear OS 6 are completely new. Similar to Material 3 Expressive in Android 16, Google’s big focus with Wear OS 6 was to make the software feel more alive — or, as Google says, to add “emotion” to it. There are new transition effects, scrolling is much smoother, and UI elements expand/retract as they pop in/out of view on the screen. You can see what it looks like in action in the video above.

And there’s more to it than just new animations. Many of the buttons have been redesigned to look like they’re hugging the sides of the screen, tapping certain buttons causes them to briefly morph shape, and you can now set a color theme for the UI based on your clock face.

A lot of this is stuff we’ve seen on Android for some time now, and its absence from Wear OS has long felt out of place. Our phones have had a similar level of charm and personality since Android 12, when Google introduced Material You. Yet, for whatever reason, Wear OS never got that same treatment.

Now that it’s here, I think it was worth the wait. Not only does it add much-needed harmony between Android and Wear OS, but something about this design language works incredibly well on this form factor. Smartwatches are inherently more personal devices than smartphones, and as such, this playful, animated UI in Wear OS 6 feels right at home. We’ve seen some excellent Wear OS hardware over the years, and it’s wonderful that we’ll soon have software that’s just as stylish and expressive.

Having worn the OnePlus Watch 3 for most of this year, I speak from experience when I say that Google Assistant on Wear OS has aged … poorly. It’s slow to answer the most basic questions, often misinterprets my commands, and is unreliable for something as simple as setting a timer. Nothing about it is a good experience.

As expected, Google is mercifully putting Google Assistant to rest and replacing it with Gemini. I still have questions about how fast it’ll be and if/when it’ll be able to perform certain functions on-device, but even so, it looks like a massive upgrade over the Assistant experience we have today. Google promises more natural conversing, the ability to recall information, and being able to perform actions with other apps on your watch. It sounds a lot like how Gemini on Android phones works, and that’s how it should be.

Like Wear OS’s UI, its voice assistant has also felt forgotten and neglected. Google Assistant has continued to work, but it’s been noticeably behind Gemini on our Android phones. Seeing Google correct that with Gemini’s arrival on Wear OS is precisely what I was hoping for, and, at least for how I use my smartwatch, should significantly improve my day-to-day use with Wear OS watches.

I can see how some people may look at Wear OS 6 and not feel the same excitement I do. Outside of Gemini replacing Google Assistant, functionally, not much has changed. There aren’t any groundbreaking new features, new apps, etc. When your watch eventually gets updated to Wear OS 6, you’ll largely be able to use it just as you do today.

But I think that’s OK. Wear OS 5’s current interface layout, core features, navigation, and so on all work well. The problem is that it all feels lifeless without a proper identity. And here comes Wear OS 6 to fix that. It gives Wear OS a vibrancy it hasn’t had in ages. It’s a fresh coat of paint executed masterfully. Paired with a much-needed voice assistant upgrade, Google did exactly what it needed with this update.

I can’t wait to get my hands on Wear OS 6, and with a release date scheduled for later this year, it looks like we shouldn’t have too long to wait.