Android Wear 2.8 Update Introduces AMOLED Theme

Jan. 19, 2018

Despite its high price tag, Apple Watch dominates the smartwatch segment. It’s not even close. Google has lately been trying to gain back control over the market, by recently introducing Android Wear 2.0 and then theOreo update for Android Wear. Now, the company has recently released a new update for its smartwatch OS and seems to have brought about a new look altogether.

According to a thread onReddit, a couple of users have reported getting an all-new black AMOLED style theme update for their smartwatches. This was introduced in thev2.8 update forAndroid Wear.From what we can tell, there isn’t any noticeable functional additions and just the all-black theme.

If you recall, the original Android Wear theme used to sport a grey styled UI. Now, with this new update,everything has gone black – including the quick settings shade, the app drawer, and some other pages as well.

While the new update is great, a noticeable thing is that the new theme is a forced update. That means thatusers will not get a toggle for switching back to the grey-tone UI.

Some early recipients of the new theme suggest that the latest update could be for smartwatches sporting an AMOLED screen, but there is no confirmation on it yet. The new theme, however, does indeed look good, andan all-black theme should help the battery life departmentsince it’s advantageous for AMOLED displays.

As per the users, the new theme was bestowed upon them after receiving an update to the Android Wear app on Google Play. Considering the fact that Google did state that users will now be able to update their firmware via the Play Store, this makes sense. As you can see, thenew theme is available on watches running the v2.8.0.181612071.

While users have already started getting the new update, there are still plenty of people out there, including me, who are yet to receive the update on their smartwatches. In case you’re someone who has received the all-black theme on your device, do let us know your thoughts on it in the comments section down below.

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