Android Wear 2.0 to be a major overhaul with standalone apps, handwriting recognition

Google today announced Android Wear 2.0 with support for standalone apps, handwriting input and customizable watch faces.

Android Wear 2.0 is the biggest update to the platform yet and brings forth some much needed improvements. First, it makes your smartwatch less dependent on your smartphone with standalone apps. Android Wear smartwatches will now connect over WiFi or go cellular on their own with their own SIM cards.

You now have improved watch faces as well with Android Wear 2.0. In the new update you would be able to customize watch faces with information from any app, be it Google Fit, Weather, Task lists or any other. Your smartwatch will now be able to leverage the Google Fit Data API to automatically start tracking your workout without a prompt from your phone.

You will now be able to stream music directly from your smartwatch without the need of a smartphone, but you would need to be either connected to a WiFi network or have a data connection on the watch itself like the LG Watch Urbane LTE, we are going to see more standalone watches this summer as well. 

Watch cards have now been re-worked, gone are the white cards that you need to swipe through, instead you get a corresponding app color to get your attention, so handouts notifications would be green, Gmail read and so on.

There is a tiny gesture enabled keyboard on the new Android Wear version as well with handwriting recognition. It also learns how you type and gives quick replies as suggestions. Developers can download a preview of Android Wear 2.0 today with the public release coming later this fall.