Wearable Android: Android Wear and Google FIT App Development

Chapter 6Android Wear Platform

6.1 Android Wear

Android Wear is the official Wearable flavor of the Android OS from Google, Inc. designed for smart watches and similar devices. Android Wear was formally announced in March 2014 and released soon after. Many major hardware vendors, chip makers, and jewelry designers announced their support, and some of them released Android Wear devices to the consumer market shortly thereafter. The numerous Android Wear partners include Samsung, Motorola, LG, HTC, ASUS, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Intel, Fossil, Inc., MediaTek, and Imagination Technologies, and the list is growing.

The open nature of the Android platform makes it possible for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and businesses to port and extend the Android OS to a wider range of devices over and above those supported officially. There are innumerable such efforts and one such endeavor was the WIMM One smart watch from WIMM Labs, which was released in 2011.

The WIMM One was based on the Android OS version 2.1 code base. Figure 6-1 shows a WIMM One watch from WIMM Labs, circa 2011. Google, Inc. acquired WIMM Labs sometime in 2012. Thus, the Android Wear platform appears to have its origins in the WIMM One smart watch.

Figure 6-1 WIMM One Android-based smart watch from WIMM Labs, circa 2011.

Attribution: Wikipedia user Bostwickenator, under Creative Commons Sharealike license 3.0.

6.2 Android Wear ...