It’s been a while since developers had a new build of Android Wear 2.0 to test out, but that drought ends today.
Google today unleashed Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 3. The most notable addition here is Google Play, which lets you browse and search for apps on your watch. You can also switch accounts, update or uninstall apps, and the ability to install an app on your watch but not on your phone. Google says that devs can now build and publish watch-only apps in Google Play.
Android Wear Developer Preview 3.0 includes a few other goodies, such as complications improvements and Smart Reply responses. The addition of the Play Store is definitely the biggest addition, though, giving you control over your watch’s apps directly on your watch. It’s also nice that users can skip a phone app and publish apps only on their watch, which will let them avoid cluttering up their phone with apps that they only want for their watch.
Google today also revealed that it’s delaying the full release of Android Wear 2.0. Rather than release Android Wear 2.0 to the public this fall like it originally planned, Google now says that it’ll continue its preview program into early 2017, at which point it’ll release Android Wear 2.0 to everyone.