The smart wearables market is dominated by the likes of the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear, with Wear OS-powered smartwatches slowly dwindling in number. Wear OS hasn’t seen much traction from bigwigs like Motorola, LG, and others in recent years and well, there’s a ton of reasons to blame for this situation. However, it now looks like Google is charting a revival plan for Wear OS in partnership with Xiaomi.
As per the latest APK teardown of Wear OS 2.28 app by 9to5Google, there’s a possibility that Xiaomi is developing a smartwatch of its own and it will be powered by Wear OS. It sounds odd and exciting at the same time, but the string of code hint at an unreleased “Mi Wear’ companion app being in the works.
Xiaomi already has a companion app for its fitness band lineup called Mi Fit and it also supports Huami’s Amazfit smartwatch lineup (which doesn’t run Wear OS), so it’s quite confusing that the company is developing a dedicated app for Wear OS smartwatches.
Also, Wear OS code not only hints at the companion app is under development but also names the watch when you further deep dive into the APK. There’s a reference to “Mi Watch,” which sounds like a plausible name for Xiaomi’s first-ever smartwatch. It falls perfectly in line with their branding for other devices including their smartphones, TVs, fitness band, and more.
Well, if you ask me, Xiaomi could help Google revive the Wear OS smartwatch platform merely by offering users a bang for the buck smartwatch. It’s the same strategy which previously worked for the revival of the Android One program with the Mi A1. Also, we know that the users are waiting for Xiaomi to unveil a smartwatch to further its fitness tracking portfolio.
It all makes perfect sense, but it could be a mountainous task to get users interested in Wear OS once again. Don’t you think so too? Let us know in the comments down below.
