Moto 360 Finally Receives Android Wear 5.1.1: It's About Time!

Rex Macadangdang, Tech Times 18 June 2015, 06:06 am

Google's Developer Advocate Wayne Piekarski has announced through his Google+ that Android 5.1.1, the latest version of Android Wear, is finally rolling out to all Moto 360 owners via an over-the-air (OTA) update.

A number of Android Wear devices have already received the update, but Motorola says there were some performance issues with the latest software that caused the delay. The good thing is Motorola has resolved these issues and the wait is over for the Moto 360.

Since it is an OTA rollout, it might take days for the owners to receive Android Wear 5.1.1, but one can always manually check under Settings if the notification does not come up on the Moto 360 screen.

This update brings a handful of new features, such as Always-on apps, media browsing, Wi-Fi connectivity, emoji input and gesture support for UI navigation.

The Always-on screen functionality for the time display has been expanded for apps so that running apps such as MapMyRun and Endomondo could always display updated information. Similar to the watch faces feature, the always-on apps functionality will consume minimal power by reducing the refresh rate and colors of the display.

With the media browsing support, one can now browse songs directly from the watch, while the emoji input allows the user to draw emojis on the watch screen. After the watch recognizes the drawing, the appropriate emoji will pop up so the user can insert it in an email or instant message.

Moto 360 has integrated hardware support for Wi-Fi connectivity and the update will now enable software support as well. This will also allow the watch to connect automatically to a set up Wi-Fi network after it loses the Bluetooth link to the smartphone.

With this latest update, users can now access contacts and apps by swiping left from the watch face. Moto 360 owners can now scroll just by flicking their wrist with Google's new navigation gestures.

For the device's protection, one can turn on the Screen Lock function so that the watch can sense if the owner is not wearing it for some time and automatically require a user-specified swipe pattern to unlock it.

Check out this video below that shows some of the best features of Android 5.1.1 and let us know if the Moto 360 is great with the update.