Google has a lot of catching up to do in the smartwatch market in order to compete with Apple, and even Samsung.
To that end, the company has acquired Fitbit last year, and now it’s looking for ways to update its Wear OS platform. Specifically, the Mountain View-based giant is running a survey through the Google User Experience Research program, asking participants for feedback on how they can improve the smartwatch platform.
The survey is heavily focused on health tracking, prompting users to answer about how would they feel if a feature was included in a smartwatch and how would they feel if it wasn’t included. It also asked for participants’ top 3 improvements and how satisfied they were with their current watch.
The bigger topics from the survey, include:
- SPO2 Tracking
- Smart Alarms
- Sleep Apnea Detection
- Sleep Analysis
- Heartbeat Alerts
- Automatic Workout Detection
- Rep Detection
- Activity Logging
- Recovery Time
- Stress Tracking
- Medical Device Pairing
- Gym Equipment Pairing
- Indoor Air Quality
- Share Vitals
- Micro-logging
- Water-Intake Tracking
- Food & Calorie Tracking
- Flights of Stairs
- Breathing Exercises
- Built-in Compass
- Elevation Tracking
- Cycle Tracking
It’s a big list, but we have to add that most of those capabilities already come included with Fitbit smartwatches, and one would think Google will take over those features and make them work in Wear OS, as well. Also, the Apple Watch also ticks many of those boxes, though it fails in the sleep tracking department due to its “all-day” battery life — that won’t get you through the night.
All in all, we do hope that Google manages to make its Wear OS more feature reach while keeping the device running for a few days. Which, again, is already the case with the Fitbit Versa.
Sounds like a plan, if you ask me. 😉