Google has brought a variety of features and improvements to Wear OS over the years, with some of these tweaks (like Material 3 Expressive aesthetics) bringing the platform more in line with Android. However, it looks like the company could bring another core Android feature to smartwatches.
Google has published the latest version of its Wear OS emulator, and it turns out this uses the Wear OS 7.1 software (h/t: 9to5Google). This hitherto-unannounced software is based on Android 17. The company says this emulator will also allow developers to try a system status bar in apps.
The search giant outlined the system status bar in the emulator announcement:
To prepare for an upcoming platform release of Wear OS, this canary emulator renders a persistent system status bar over Wear OS app windows at the top position of the circular display. The system status bar displays the current time and system status indicators. These indicators use standardized clock typography, placement, and backplate across the platform and different apps, including your app.
Google notes that the status bar time will appear in apps after two seconds of user inactivity. Furthermore, full-screen dialogs (e.g., date/time picker, alerts, general dialogs) will automatically hide the status bar. The emulator doesn’t actually show final system status icons just yet, though. Instead, this early build only shows a star icon for now.
Unfortunately, the system status bar isn’t actually launching in Wear OS 7.1:
The system status bar is included exclusively in this canary emulator to support early testing and feedback. It won’t be included in the upcoming Wear OS 7.1 stable emulator.
Either way, it looks like a future version of Wear OS will gain a welcome feature from Android phones. This should reduce the need for users to visit the home screen or activate quick settings to see system status info.