Google Fit is lacking

Last week, Fossil introduced the Gen 6 Wellness Edition, its first Wear OS 3 smartwatch. But beginning in the present day, the corporate can also be starting to roll out the Wear OS 3 replace for affected person house owners of current Gen 6 smartwatches. The replace has a couple of vital omissions, however one of many extra stunning ones is Google Fit — an app that was as soon as preloaded onto practically each Wear OS 2 smartwatch. The app can also be lacking from the newly launched Pixel Watch.

First reported by 9to5Google, the dearth of Google Fit was confirmed in an update that Fossil posted in r/WearOS. The gist is the Google Fit app hasn’t been up to date to help Wear Health Services, a brand new system layer in Wear OS 3 that collects well being knowledge for apps in a extra battery-efficient means. Wear Health Services is a type of high quality management that requires producers to check and validate metrics whatever the {hardware}. This is nice for Wear OS in the long term, because it’ll “ensure” a extra uniform expertise throughout the platform. But proper now, it leaves of us upgrading from Wear OS 2 with nothing to tide them over — form of like how customers needed to wait eternally for YouTube Music to point out up as soon as Google killed Play Music. The publish additionally notes that Fossil is “eager to see the Fitbit app for Wear OS 3 come to [its] watches in the future,” however for now, Fitbit isn’t an possibility. You’ll need to go for both Fossil’s Wellness app or a third-party app like Strava and hope for the most effective.

Technically talking, you’ll be able to nonetheless obtain the Google Fit app on the Gen 6 or Pixel Watch. I did it on the latter, however you’ll be able to’t truly use the app in any significant means. Instead, you’ll see a message that reads “Fit is not currently supported on this device, please check for future updates.”

That would indicate that it’s attainable an replace is within the pipeline. That’d be a boon to anybody who’s bought an current Wear OS 2 watch and isn’t all for shopping for a Samsung or Google Wear OS watch, particularly because it’s unclear if a separate Fitbit Wear OS 3 app is within the works or if it’ll stay a Pixel Watch-exclusive. Without Google Fit or Fitbit, producers would haven’t any alternative however to make their very own well being apps (which Montblanc and Fossil are doing) that sync with Google’s API. That’s a headache when you would simply obtain Google Fit.

Another large omission is that the Wear OS 3 improve received’t embrace Google Assistant. Fossil smartwatch house owners can nonetheless use Alexa, and Fossil’s publish asserts that Google is engaged on bringing Assistant to Wear OS 3 on Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100-powered gadgets. But there’s no clear timeline as of but. This isn’t probably the most stunning omission provided that the Montblanc Summit 3 additionally launched with out Google Assistant earlier this summer time. Google Assistant took roughly a yr to return to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 lineup, too. In the meantime, nevertheless, it offers customers extra of an incentive to glom onto Google and Samsung’s {hardware}.

This final bit received’t affect Android customers, however iOS customers received’t be capable of use Google Wallet at launch, nor do they formally get help for Google Maps. This was the identical for iOS customers who purchased the Summit 3 and the Fitbit Sense 2. While it’s not the worst, it successfully nerfs Fossil as a really viable platform-agnostic smartwatch in the intervening time. It would’ve given Fossil a slight edge, as neither Samsung’s Galaxy Watches nor the Pixel Watch help iOS. Now, there’s even much less of a purpose for iPhone house owners to get something apart from an Apple Watch.

Meanwhile, you shouldn’t rely on seeing a Snapdragon W5 Plus watch from Fossil this yr. The firm famous that it selected to not launch a Gen 7 line this fall as a result of provide chain points would bump up the price. Also, Google didn’t have a variety of steerage for when Wear OS 3 could be prepared for non-Samsung and Google gadgets. This isn’t the primary time Fossil’s needed to wait to launch a brand new flagship, both. The similar occurred with the transition from the Gen 5 to the Gen 6.

As for when different eligible Wear OS 2 watches — like Mobvoi’s numerous TicWatches — will get the Wear OS 3 improve is anyone’s guess. Google spokesperson Ivy Chen Hunt instructed The Verge that updates will fluctuate by OEM.