Google’s upcoming Wear OS 5.1 may be based on Android 15

Google has begun testing Wear OS 5.1, its upcoming operating system (OS) for Android-based wearables like smartwatches, according to a report. Test builds of the OS have reportedly been spotted for the Pixel Watch 2, suggesting it could be based on a different version of Android. Google first announced its Wear OS 5 platform at I/O 2024 in May, highlighting several features such as improvements to the watch face format and grid-based app launcher.

Test builds of Google Wear OS 5.1

According to a report According to Android Authority, Wear OS 5.1 may be based on Android 15 – the upcoming operating system for Android devices. This would break the trend of previous years, where Wear OS was based on the previous year’s version of Android. For example, Wear OS 3, released last year, was based on 2022’s Android 13.

A similar pattern was seen with the Android 14-based Wear OS 5 that debuted with the Galaxy Watch 7 in July in the form of One UI 6 Watch. If this alleged operating system does indeed launch, it will mark the first time in two years that Google has rolled out a mid-point update, with the last similar update being Wear OS 3.5 that arrived in October 2022. However, the report adds that the name is not official and the tech giant may choose to change it before release.

Test builds of Wear OS 5.1 are reported to have identifiers starting with “AP4A.” However, there is no information on features or release timeline.

New dial format

With Wear OS 5, Google confirmed that watch faces designed for smartwatches without Watch Face Format (WFF) will no longer be supported in the Google Play Store. While smartwatches running Wear OS 2 or later will still have access to existing non-WFF watch faces, data will not be transferred if the user decides to upgrade to a smartwatch running Wear OS 5. Additionally, certain watch faces may also not be available for download.

This change came after Google introduced WFF in 2023, in partnership with Samsung.