After releasing the Google Home app for Wear OS on the Play Store shortly after announcing the Pixel Watch earlier this month, Google is now prepping a Wear OS version of the Google News app. The app has already made an appearance on the Play Store, giving us an early look at its UI and features.
First spotted by Reddit user u/adan89lion (via 9to5Google), the Google News app for Wear OS appears to have a fresh layout optimized for the tiny display on Wear OS smartwatches. It shows the headlines for “Top news,” along with pictures and previews of news posts that you can open on your connected smartphone. However, the Play Store listing doesn’t clarify if the app will also let you open posts on the watch itself.
Screenshots via 9to5Google
It’s worth noting that the Google News app for Wear OS isn’t available for download on the Play Store yet. It only appears thanks to a clever workaround using the Google Assistant. According to the Redditor, asking the Google Assistant to “open Google news” brings up a prompt to install the app from the Play Store. This gives you access to the Play Store listing, which includes the screenshots attached above. We tried the workaround and it works on our Galaxy Watch 4. 9to5Google reports that it also works on a Pixel Watch. However, the app is marked incompatible with both smartwatches at the moment.
Google is yet to announce the app officially but, since it has already popped up on the Play Store, it shouldn’t be long before the company rolls it out to users. We’ll share more details about the app as soon as it’s available for download.
Are you looking forward to the Google News app for Wear OS? Would you prefer reading entire posts on your smartwatch, or would you much rather open them on your phone using your smartwatch? Let us know in the comments section below.
Source: Reddit
Via: 9to5Google