Android Wear update for Android 5.0 Lollipop brings heaps of new features

The Android 5.0 Lollipop update isn't only going to benefit your Android phone or tablet. A newly leaked Android Wear update to coincide with the launch of Android 5.0 has features and functionality coming out of its ears, and it's all targeted at your wrist computer. Here's what the new Android Wear 5.0 Lollipop update will bring to your smartwatch, whether you're rocking a LG G Watch R or a Moto 360.

Android Wear 5.0 Lollipop is jam packed with new features. © ANDROIDPIT

• Best Android Wear smartwatch 2014

Watch battery and storage management

Our friends over at Phandroid got their hands on the new wearable firmware and have shared a wealth of detail about what's in store. The coolest new feature by far is a section in the Android Wear companion app that lets you manage your smartwatch's battery and internal storage. They're pretty much identical to the same sections you already have on your phone, but they're nice to have for your watch too.

Smartwatch battery and storage information is a great addition for Android Wear 5.0. © Phandroid

• LG G Watch R review


• Moto 360 review

Bring back dismissed cards

If you've been using Wear you know that you can occasionally get a little carried away with your swiping and dismiss a card you actually wanted to keep. With the new Android Wear update you can now recall dismissed cards simply by swiping up to reveal an ''Undo'' option.

Watch face management

Android 5.0 Lollipop has an included Wear watch face API, which means you can now customize, switch and manage your watch faces from the companion app. One of the nicest additions to the new faces is that weather icons can now be included on Wear watch faces.

• Got questions about the Android Wear app? Ask on our Android Wear app profile page!

The Android Wear 5.0 update lets you manage watch faces via the app. © ANDROIDPIT

Screen brightness options

This is awesome. One of the main reasons I leave my Wear device at home is if I'm going to meet friends or hitting a movie theatre, because the constant lighting up of notifications is insanely distracting. Even when no notifications come in, the ambient glow from my watch face is enough to make people stare, especially in a bar or cinema. Now you can swipe down for a revamped menu screen that gives you options for Theater or Sunlight modes.

There's some other cool stuff like accessibility settings for those with vision impairments and automatic sorting of menu items based on the most recently used ones (no more scrolling all the way to the bottom to get to Settings!).

What do think of these changes to Android Wear? What additions would you like to see next?

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Android Wear 4.4W.2 update features

It’s the news you’ve all been waiting for - Android Wear version 4.4W.2 brings some changes to the notification setup, as well as the framework for some new features to come up in the future. Read on for more details on the Android Wear update.

Android Wear 4.4W.2 brings even more functionality to your smartwatch. © ANDROIDPIT

The additions which the new update brings are of a “blink and you’ll miss them” pedigree, the only change which you might see being the ability to remove your top notification from the watch face. This is a feature which is sure to please many Android Wear smartwatch users, as before this, a notification would occupy a portion of your display until you opened up the card or dismissed it.

The patch also brings the ability to pair the LG G Watch with Bluetooth speakers or headphones, though currently this has no practical function (seeing as you can’t put music onto your smartwatch to test playback). We presume this is priming Android Wear for some new music functionality in a future update, however, you now have a ''Ok Google, play music'' command at your finger...er, wrist tips...

The Moto 360 has received yet another update to aid its arguably weak battery life. / © ANDROIDPIT

• Read the Moto 360 review.

The Moto 360 also gets a Smart Battery Saving feature that will switch off ambient mode when your battery reaches 15%, better time synchronization to make sure the watch is exactly up to date, and a feature which enables adaptive mood lighting whilst it is charging.

The LG G Watch R has a total of 24 included watchfaces after the update. © ANDROIDPIT

The LG G Watch R practically comes out of the box with the update waiting, adding four new watch faces (to make a total of 24), the Bluetooth section in the settings and the ability to swipe down on notifications to remove them from the main screen without dismissing them.

• Hands on LG G Watch R review.

Aside from the regular back-end and bug fixes, that's basically all for now, but we're sure version 2.0 of the Android Wear platform can't be too far away. What are you looking for from future version of Android Wear? Have you got the update yet?

Source fromhttp://www.androidpit.com