Smartwatch is eligible for Google Wear OS 3 — can you upgrade?

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How to find out whether your smartwatch is compatible with Google Wear OS 3

Image credit: Tom’s Guide

Wear OS smartwatches, like the upcoming Google Pixel Watch, provide a variety of features and battery life estimations that might help you make a wristwatch purchase. While reading the tiny print is important, there is another incentive to do so.

For smartwatches powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 CPU or older, Google’s unified Wear OS software, known as Wear OS 3, will not work. Several modern smartwatches use the ageing chipset, including the Fossil Gen 5 LTE, Xiaomi Mi Watch, and the Suunto 7, a top-notch running watch.

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In order to take advantage of Wear OS 3, a newer version of Google’s wearable software that fused with Tizen and Fitbit’s fitness platform last year, stay away of smartwatches with the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor.

Smartwatches running on the new OS 3

When Wear OS 3 is released in 2022, only a small number of smartwatches will be able to run it. The updated software is compatible with any Snapdragon Wear 4100-powered device. The Fossil Gen 6, Skagen Gen 6, Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 and the TicWatch E3 are among the smartwatches that are suitable with Wear OS 3.

Snapdragon Wear 4100 smartwatches aren’t common yet, although future TicWatch models are likely to have them. A Fitbit watch running Wear OS is likely, and Google’s first smartwatch might be approaching release.

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The update procedure for current users of the Snapdragon Wear 4100 smartwatch may be difficult. A reboot to the factory settings is required for the update, and Google cautions that this might create problems for users.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 and older versions will get three years of software support for Tizen, even if the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 arrives with Wear OS 3.

In any case, you should think hard before purchasing a Snapdragon Wear 3100 wristwatch. These gadgets may be on sale at Amazon or other retailers when Wear OS 3 nears its official release.

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