Samsung and Google Preview Unified Wearables Platform

Samsung unveiled new details about its upcoming wearables platform built jointly with Google at its Mobile World Congress this week. The arrangement will allow developers to make a single app compatible with Google Wear OS and Samsung’s Tizen OS. The deal could further extend the recent partnership between the tech giants that integrated Google Nest and Samsung SmartThings.

Watch Sharing

The shared platform proposed by Google and Samsung will debut later this summer. Samsung’s new One UI Watch platform also showcased at the Mobile World Congress, will be the first to run the joint apps. The shared platform offers many benefits to the wearables, according to Samsung and Google. Wearers will have access to far more apps both from Google and third-party developers, downloadable from the Google Play Store to the Galaxy smartwatch. The upgrades to the platform will make the battery last longer and perform operations more quickly, too, the companies claim.

“Samsung and Google have a long history of collaboration and whenever we’ve worked together, the experience for our consumers has been dramatically better for everyone, Google Android and Wear vice president of product management Sameer Samat said in a statement. “That certainly holds true for this new, unified platform, which will be rolling out for the first time on Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch.”

Google Samsung Sharing

Samsung is keen on deepening connections among its own devices as well. The One UI Watch platform also serves to deepen the connection between Galaxy smartwatches and Galaxy smartphones, opening the watch to more apps and a similar kind of interaction. For instance, any app installed on the smartphone that is watch-compatible will also be downloaded to the smartwatch, and any calls or messages blocked on the watch will be blocked on the phone as well. Even customized clocks on the phone showing different timezones will now appear on the watch simultaneously.

Google Nest’s integration with Samsung SmartThings was announced last year but really took off in January when SmartThings introduced a Google Nest app for its platform, giving extensive but incomplete control over Nest devices to SmartThings users. The app lets users add Nest devices to the SmartThings controls. Android Auto added its own SmartThings app this spring, too, providing control of SmartThings devices via Google Assistant from a vehicle and control of the car through SmartThings. Nest can integrate devices certified in the Works With SmartThings (WWST) program. The certification also streamlines, ensuring the apps meet the tightened safety and quality standards Google introduced for voice-enabled apps in March.

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