Samsung and Google have been long collaborators for many years. Now, they’re taking their alliance to the next level. Both giants announced today that they are combining Wear OS (Google’s Operating System) and Tizen (an operating system used largely by Samsung’s wearables) to form new android tech.
The joint effort is said to improve the battery life of wearable tech products, 30 percent faster loading times for apps and animations as well as to create a central smartwatch OS for the Android platform.
Samsung and Tizen OS have seen much success with their Galaxy smartwatches. This merger and creation of a unified platform will merge select features from the Tizen operating system used in the Korean giant’s Galaxy smartwatches with Google’s Wear platform.
Moving forward, all Samsung Galaxy smartwatches will be powered by the new Wear OS once the company finishes making Tizen-only smartwatches. Thanks to Google, the new Wear OS Galaxy smartwatches will include added apps that Tizen did not have like a standalone version of Google Maps, Google Pay, YouTube Music app that supports offline downloads, Spotify offline downloads as well as health and sports-related apps like Flo, Calm and Sleep Cycle.
In light of this collaboration, Samsung assures that current customers who own the existing Galaxy smartwatches will still receive the promised three years of software updates.
Currently, there are no further details as to when new Galaxy smartwatches equipped with Wear OS will be in the market.