Google is warning that its new smartwatch operating system, Wear OS 5.0, unveiled at the I/O conference in May, will not support older watch faces built for previous versions of Wear OS.
This could be disappointing, especially if you're planning to get Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 7, which will ship with Wear OS 5.0 pre-installed.
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If you are used to an old but beloved watch on your Samsung Galaxy, you may not be able to install it on the Watch 7 and may need to choose something else temporarily, until it is updated.
The lack of support for Wear OS 5.0 is limited to watch faces that aren't designed with the new Watch Face Format (WFF) that Google introduced last year. This XML-based developer platform makes it easy to create watch faces, add new features, and keep them consistent across Wear OS versions
“For new watches with Wear OS 5, you will only have access to watch faces that meet our performance and quality standards,” Google states, adding that “select watch faces will no longer be accessible in the Google Play Store.”
Specifically, those who buy a smartwatch now can use any available watch face built for Wear OS 2 or later. However, if they get a new device with Wear OS 5, “some watch faces may not be available to download on their new smartwatch, even if they were available on their previous one.”
Additionally, creating backups of all settings and content from your old smartwatch for transfer, e.g., to a Galaxy Watch 7 or Watch 7 Ultra, will not restore your previous configurations if they are not compatible with the current Google Watch Face format.
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However, it remains uncertain how many developers will devote time to recode their original screens into the new Watch Face format. If you are using an old smartwatch, be prepared for possible incompatibility with the Galaxy Watch 7, and you may need to get used to a new screen layout.
Source: phonearena
