Android Wear New Features Debut at Google I/O Conference

The War of the Smartwatch rages on. It’s Google against Apple in a fight for survival and dominance in the smartwatch market. Google highlighted the latest improvements to their line of Android Wear watches at this year’s Google I/O conference, so here is a quick roundup of some of those advancements:

• Unlike Apple Watch, Android Wear allows for an Always On screen. You know, just in case you want to flaunt one of your awesome 3rd party watch faces.
• Gestures will become more integrated. For instance, a flick of the wrist in one direction can help you scroll through pages.
• Director of Engineering for Android Wear, David Singleton wants to let you know that the key word in the Google Play marketplace is “choice.” Android Wear is already compatible with 4000+ apps, and about 1500 custom watchfaces. There’s new functionality on it’s way too that promises to utilize improved voice recognition and GPS tracking to expand on apps such as Uber, Foursquare, and Google Maps.

Although new models of Watch weren’t specifically announced, Google hinted at a plethora of new Wear models by the end of the year. With all the choices Google already affords the consumer, what else could Apple Watch do to stay competitive in the smartwatch market?