Google WearOS gets faster pairing between smartwatches & headphones
The latest Google WearOS update brings the recently teased Fast Pair support. This translates into quicker pairing between smartwatches and headphones.
This was a feature that was announced in January at CES 2022. The company said at the time that Fast Pair would be brought to Android televisions, Chromebook’s and other connected devices. But even before, at last year’s I/O, Google said Fast Pair would be made available more widely. Smartwatches and WearOS were not specifically mentioned, but obviously the search giant has reconsidered its position on the matter.
The upgrade was announced on The Google System updates page. The feature comes as part of version 22.24 that can be downloaded from Google Play services. The update has started rolling out a few days ago.
“Fast Pair on Wear OS to allows previously paired headphones to be discovered and connected to wearables”, the change-log reads.
When the feature arrives to your wrist, it means it should be a breeze connecting a pair of previously paired headphones to your wearable. This is a gradual rollout so you may not have received the update just yet. It is also not clear whether all Wear OS models will support the features or only the more high-spec ones.
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One watch that definitely will support Fast Pari is the upcoming Pixel Watch. In fact, the product page on the Google Store explicitly stats that Pixel Watch will support Fast Pair and that this will enable users to quickly “connect your earbuds, watch, and phone with each other.”
However, it doesn’t say whether the feature will land on other Wear OS smartwatches or not. It is something that is useful so we don’t really see Google limiting it if the tech can support the feature.
The timing of this latest update should not surprise. We are expecting non-Samsung devices running Wear OS 3.0 to start dropping in a couple of weeks. One that has been confirmed is the €1,250 Montblanc Summit 3 watch. Launching on July 15th, the luxury timepiece is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100+ processor. So it should have no problem supporting Wear OS 3.
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