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Smartwatches get battery boost when Google launches Wear OS 5, with big battery life optimisations

has finally been announced, and if you’ve been bemoaning the limited battery life on Wear OS smartwatches, that issue might be getting better.  With a 40% growth in Wear OS users in 2023 and , Google now touts users in over 160 countries and regions thanks to Wear OS smartwatch launches from Pixel, Samsung, OPPO, OnePlus, Xiaomi and more brands.  will be a major part of Wear OS 5, with Google providing an outdoor marathon example and claiming that the activity would consume compared to smartwatches running Wear OS 4. That’s certainly an improvement, and should result in better battery life generally as well.  Fitness apps will also be able to provide more information and feedback, including data like ground contact time, stride length and vertical oscillation for runners to improve upon.  has also been improved, which is the tool to make watch faces for Wear OS, and it means we could see more customisation in terms of included complications, the ability to see weather data as part of a watch face and more.  There’s no timeframe for when Wear OS 5 will be launching, but seeing as Wear OS 4 launched with the Samsung Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic back in 2023, we might see the first Wear OS 5 smartwatches announced and released sometime in July or August.