First watch under Wear OS 3.5, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 will benefit from new features by the end of the year. Among those briefly presented by Google during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2022 event, offline navigation with Google Maps.
Partner of Google for the creation of Wear OS 3, Samsung is entitled to the scoop of the new version 3.5 of the Google operating system, inaugurated by its new Galaxy Watch 5 watches. Although these are already benefiting from a good number of applications thanks to the richness of the Google Play Store, Google intends to continue to enrich its Wear OS ecosystem and has taken a few minutes to reveal the next features that will arrive by the end of the year.
Music streaming in the spotlight
Since not everyone uses Spotify, Google has announced the arrival of the Soundcloud and Deezer apps, each with an offline mode allowing you to do without a smartphone (handy when you go to exercise, for example). example). Spotify will nevertheless be entitled to its novelty with its integration with Google Assistant, to start a playlist by saying a simple sentence, if we take the example used during the Galaxy Unpacked 2022 conference.
Google Maps navigation without a smartphone
But the functionality that we expect the most is GPS navigation from the watch. Even today, the smartphone is essential when you want to calculate a route and take advantage of guidance. With the upcoming introduction of an offline mode of Google Maps, this constraint will be a distant memory.
It will then be possible to go out without worrying about taking your smartphone on board and without risking getting lost. A possibility that some connected watches without cartography already offer, in the form of a return to the starting point or a GPX track, for example, but which should be more practical with Google Maps if the you can actually search for a destination and benefit from complete turn-by-turn guidance. It will be necessary to wait to know more about this function to know what will be its limits.
A new personalized homepage for the Google Play Store
Finally, the Play Store will be enriched with a page specific to the devices that we have, to display for example only the applications compatible with our Wear OS watch. In the same spirit, the home page of the Google Play app on Wear OS will be more welcoming and will display personalized recommendations.
New #WearOS experiences are coming soon to a Galaxy Watch near you… ?
✨ New app experiences & a fresh new look for @GooglePlay on your watch
? Explore off the grid with @GoogleMaps
?️ Ask Google to play your favorite tunes on @Spotify#SamsungUnpackedpic.twitter.com/kTdFxytEbe—Wear OS by Google (@WearOSbyGoogle) August 10, 2022