Google has commenced the testing of Wear OS 5.1, its upcoming operating system (OS) for Android-based wearables such as smartwatches, according to a report. Test builds of the OS are said to have been spotted for the Pixel Watch 2 which suggests that it may be based on a different version of Android. Google first announced its Wear OS 5 platform at I/O 2024 in May, highlighting several of its features such as enhancements to the Watch Face Format and grid-based app launcher.
Google’s Wear OS 5.1 Test Builds
According to a report by Android Authority, Wear OS 5.1 may be based on Android 15 – the upcoming OS for Android devices. This is said to break the trend of previous years where Wear OS has been based on the Android version from a year prior. For instance, Wear OS 3, which was released last year, was based on 2022’s Android 13.
A similar pattern was observed with the Android 14-based Wear OS 5 that debuted with the Galaxy Watch 7 in July in the form of One UI 6 Watch. If this purported OS indeed launches, it will mark the first time in two years that Google introduces an interim point update, with the last similar update being Wear OS 3.5 which came out in October 2022. However, the report adds that the moniker is not official and the tech giant may choose to change it prior to its release.
Wear OS 5.1’s test builds are reported to have identifiers starting with “AP4A”. However, there is no information about any of its features or the release timeline.
New Watch Face Format
With Wear OS 5, Google confirmed that watch faces developed for smartwatches without using the Watch Face Format (WFF) will no longer be supported on the Google Play Store. While smartwatches running Wear OS 2 or later will still have access to the existing non-WFF watch faces, data won’t be carried over if the user decides to switch to a Wear OS 5-powered smartwatch. Furthermore, select watch faces may not be available for download either.
This change arrived after the introduction of WFF by Google in 2023, in partnership with Samsung.