Runkeeper blames 'buggy experience' for killing its Wear OS app

Runkeeper is the latest company to retire its Wear OS app. The reason? They claim the app was buggy for most of its users and so they're just opting to take it out of the app starting with version 9.13, which will come out in the next few weeks. The company said in an email to its users that they "want to provide the best tracking experience possible to everyone who uses the Runkeeper app, and we're just not able to offer it on Wear OS by Google at this time." In a follow-up message, the company said it preferred to focus its "limited resources" on other tasks. Runkeeper developers also mentioned that only a small number of its members used the app, so they opted to just get rid of it.

Source: Android Police

The new Fossil Gen 5 smartwatch will let you take iPhone calls

We already knew that the Fossil Gen 5 is coming, and now we get more details about the smartwatch. And one of the new features is its ability to let you listen to and answer iPhone calls right from the watch. This feature has been available for a while on Android already. But we believe this is the first time Wear OS is offering this for iPhone users. It isn't available at launch, though. It'll arrive via a proprietary app launching in the fall. According to a Fossil spokesperson, "No action is required from your iPhone. The watch becomes another way to take your call via Bluetooth." If you're looking for iMessage support, that still isn't available right now.

All of the specs that were leaked recently were right. But we're here to share additional details we didn't get to share. The smartwatch has 1GB of RAM, NFC, and built-in GPS. And it's waterproof up to a depth of 30 metres.

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Fossil Wear OS watch gets leaked ahead of official launch

Fossil is set to unveil a new a Wear OS watch on August 5, Monday, and the company teased it on Twitter with a video clip that has Google Assistant’s voice saying the words “Coming Soon.” The implication is the new smartwatch will feature a speaker. And shortly after the teaser was released, a Reddit user showed off some hands-on images of the watch being called the Gen 5 version. The watch has also been seen on Fossil’s official Australian site. The specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, 8GB of storage, a speaker, and “smart battery modes” that promise to extend battery life for “multiple” days. It also features waterproofing, an upgraded heart rate sensor, and sleep tracking. The site didn’t mention anything about pricing, though. But we hope to get more details in a few hours.

Source: 9to5Google

Wear OS 2.3 starts rolling out

The newest update for Google’s Wear OS platform is here. And while it’s a full point upgrade, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of major changes to the platform. The Home app gets an update from 2.20 to 2.21, but the update doesn’t bring with it any changes to Google Play Services or security patch updates. So, it looks like this update is more for performance fixes and any bugs that need to be dealt with. To get the latest version, head to Google Play Store on your connected smartphone and download the latest version of the Wear OS app. This should push the update to your smartwatch. Right now, the update seems to have made its way to Montblanc Summit 2, Fossil Sport, and Ticwatch Sport.

Source: Android Authority