Also worth noting is that, the Wear 3 upgrade likely won’t be coming to compatible smartwatches until 2022. So for those that have them, there is going to be a bit of a wait. Google says it expects partners to roll out the upgrade by mid to second half of 2022. So the wait could be close to a year before the software comes through.
TicWatch smartwatches will get the upgrade to Wear 3
As for which smartwatches will be moving forward, Google says that it includes a handful of smartwatches from Mobvoi. This includes the TicWatch Pro 3GPS, the TicWatch Pro 3Cellular/LTE, and the TicWatch E3. Unfortunately, this locks out just about every other watch. Having said that, things could always change. Though users shouldn’t expect anything different at this point. Because the collection of TicWatch smartwatches mentioned are only compatible thanks to their hardware. Namely due to the Wear 4100 chip that they’re using. These are the only Wear OS smartwatches running on this chip. And although they may not run as well as whatever’s coming from Google, Samsung, and Fitbit, they can still support the changes. Whereas most other Wear OS watches likely can’t. At least not to a degree that Google would be happy with.
Watches that won’t be upgraded will still get critical updates
While most watches won’t be moving on to Wear 3, they will still get updates. According to Google, most watches will still get critical updates for two years. So if there are issues with the software in any way, like bugs, these updates will cover that. Updates could also include optimized performance and improvements, or new features. So all is not lost if you’re using a watch that isn’t being updated to the new software. Going forward though, expect many new smartwatches coming from Google’s partners to use Wear 3.
