Google Unveils New Wear OS Hybrid Interface to Dramatically Extend Smartwatch Battery Life
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Google debuted a new "hybrid OS interface" for Wear OS to improve battery life by delegating tasks between the main chipset and a secondary low-power chipset.
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The hybrid interface consists of APIs for Display, Health Services, and Notifications to seamlessly hand off workloads.
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The OnePlus Watch 2 takes advantage of this to deliver up to 100 hours of battery life in "Smart Mode."
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VP Björn Kilburn said whether other watches adopt the hybrid interface "depends" on their architecture and "power strategy."
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Even if other watches don't fully adopt the hybrid interface, there are other Wear OS power improvements coming that OEMs can build on.