Google officially announced its Android 16-based next-generation operating system Wear OS 6 at the I/O 2025 developer conference. The most striking innovation of the system prepared for wearable devices was the modern design language called Material 3 Expressive.

Google introduced Wear OS 6

Thanks to the dynamic theming feature, the colors of the tiles and application interfaces are compatible with the watch face preferred by the user. Transitions from ambient mode to interactive mode are also supported by animations, visually enriching the user experience.

Serious innovations were also introduced on the developer side. Google simplifies application development processes with new design guidelines and Figma design files. Wear Compose Material 3 and Wear Protolayout libraries offer developers a wider range of motion with rich color options and dynamic shapes.

The new three-pane tile layout was designed to provide a consistent and readable user interface on different screen sizes. Buttons, progress bars and scroll indicators among the system components have also been redesigned and integrated into this new architecture.

Some new features have been added to Wear OS 5.1 ahead of the Wear OS 6 announcement. Pixel Watch users can now authenticate passkeys via the watch thanks to CredentialManager API support.

Google has released Wear OS 6 as a developer preview. There is no clear date for when the update will reach end users. So what do you think about this? You can share your views with us in the comments section below.