Android Wear has been under a fair degree of scrutiny lately and specifically surrounding the future direction of the platform, if any. This somewhat began when Google confirmed that Android Wear 2.0 was being delayed. This was also around the same time that select manufacturers were reportedly confirming that they were not bringing out anymore Android Wear devices before the end of 2016. In the case of Moto, that absence of commitment to the platform now seems to be extending throughout 2017 – something else which fueled speculation about the current status of Android Wear. Well, in a strange turns of events, it seems like there is news today on the development of Android Wear, as Cronologics has now been acquired by Google. Specifically, Cronologics is joining Android Wear.
For those unfamiliar with Cronologics, this is a company who has already developed a smartwatch, the CoWatch, which runs on CronologicsOS. This essentially made the CoWatch one of the few alternative to the likes of Android Wear and watchOS and especially as the watch was able to connect to smartphones running on either Android or iOS. Although, many of the higher-ups and starters of Cronologics originally did come from Google in the first place. At the moment, almost no details are available on what the acquisition will mean for Cronologics or for Android Wear. However, the Cronologics website does make it clear that now they have joined “Google to help grow the portfolio of watches powered by Android Wear”. The brief announcement goes on to note that there is a strong synergy between the two platforms and that they intend to help “Google to continue pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond.”
What could be of particular interest though, is that the CoWatch draws on the powers of Amazon’s Alexa to offer an improved voice command user experience. So there is some speculation already that this purchase by Google could be to hone in on making use of similar functionality to improve the voice commands for Android Wear. Not to mention, there is always the possibility that this could have been one of the factors that led to the delay of Android Wear 2.0 in the first place. Especially if Android Wear 2.0 does launch with features that are akin to CronologicsOS.
