Samsung stopped manufacturing Android smartwatches a while ago, the latest being Gear Live announced in 2014 – at the time Wear OS was called Android Wear. Then he turned to his internal Tizen operating system and hasn’t looked back since. However, that may be changing, as it is rumored that the South Korean company’s next smartwatches will run Google’s Wear OS or its own Android-based UI.
This development comes from Ice Universe, which does not share any additional information about a specific future watch. However, Galaxy Club report that Samsung is working on two devices with model numbers SM-R86x and SM-R87x. They speculate that they may be part of the Galaxy Watch Active 3 or 4 series. Given that the regular Galaxy Watch series has already been updated last year, it would make sense for the next models to come under the Active brand.
The alleged Samsung Wear OS watch may be a successor to the Galaxy Watch Active2.
Samsung and Google have been tightening their ties lately, and the Galaxy S21 series is proof of that. The phones replaced Samsung’s SMS app with Google Messages and even gave users the option of having the Google Discover feed to the left of their home screens. Last year, the two companies came together to make their smart home products more interoperable. There were even reports from Google convincing Samsung to abandon Bixby and the Samsung App Store. However, this has not yet materialized.
Over the years, Samsung’s Tizen OS for smartwatches has been refined to offer a superior experience to most Wear OS watches, especially in the areas of energy efficiency and performance – something Corbin noted in his review of Galaxy Watch3. If the next Galaxy Watch adopts Wear OS or a new customized version of Android, it remains to be seen whether Samsung will be able to offer such a good experience.
If the rumor spreads, it could end up being a shot in the arm that Wear OS so badly needs.
