Samsung and Google are bringing the best of Wear and Tizen into a single, unified platform. By working together, the two giants have been able to take strengths of each and combine them into an experience that has faster performance, longer battery life and make more apps available for the watch.

For performance, Google’s and Samsung’s teams collaborated and made apps start up to 30% faster on the latest chipsets with smooth user interface animations and motion. To achieve longer battery life, they worked to optimize the lower layers of the operating system — taking advantage of low-power hardware cores to enable better battery life. That includes handy optimizations like the ability to run the heart rate sensor continuously during the day, track the user’s sleep overnight and still have battery for the next day. Finally, the unified platform will make it easier for developers to build great apps for the watch.

Why does it matter?

This isn’t just for Google and Samsung. All device makers will be able to add a customized user experience on top of the platform, and developers will be able to use the Android tools they already know to build for one platform and ecosystem. And because of these benefits, users will have more options than ever before, whether it’s choosing which device to buy or picking which apps and watch faces to display.

The new interface lets users access shortcuts to important functions, like switching to the previous app, from anywhere in the watch. Also, there are more ways to customize the home screen carousel with Tiles from the favorite apps like Calm, Sleep Cycle and Flo. You can easily choose what information you want at a glance, and which actions you want to have just a swipe away.

On Google’s end, the company has redesigned and improved Google Maps and Google Assistant. Google Pay will also be redesigned and add support for 26 new countries, beyond the 11 countries currently available. YouTube Music will also arrive on Wear later this year, equipped with features like smart downloads for subscribers to enjoy music while on the go.

When it comes to health and fitness, with the latest Wear update – it is also getting the best of Fitbit, including features like tracking your health progress throughout your day and on-wrist goal celebrations, will motivate you on your journey to better health.

More apps…

Perhaps more important is that it is now easier for the developer community to build great apps (including new Tiles) for the platform, and reach millions of consumers all over the world through the Google Play Store.

New tools, like a Tiles API and a watch face design editor built by Samsung, make it a breeze to develop new experiences on wearables. New and rebuilt apps from developers like Strava, adidas Running, Bitmoji and many more are coming to the platform.

Availability

These updates will begin rolling out later this year. From a unified platform with Samsung, to a new consumer experience, and a world-class fitness service from Fitbit, this is a new era for the wearables ecosystem.