Google reportedly has Gmail and Calendar apps in the works for Wear OS

Enlarge / The Pixel Watch colors and their default bands. There are three watch body colors here: black, silver, and gold.

Google recently launched the Pixel Watch and is breathing new life into Wear OS after years of neglect, but how serious is Google about its second swing at the smartwatch market, really? Getting its flagship apps up and running on the platform would be a good sign of support, and a new report from 9to5Google says some heavy hitters are on the way. The report says: "We’ve learned that Google is testing both Gmail and Calendar for Wear OS. The experience has been described as “full” to us, though we weren’t able to find out whether this involves event creation or composing new emails."

Building any wearables apps would be a big step for the Google Workspace suite, which, for whatever reason, has been very wearable-hesitant over the last eight years. Workspace doesn't even have apps for the Apple Watch, let alone Wear OS. Google's biggest productivity competitor, Microsoft, has an Outlook app for both wearable platforms.

Wear OS mirrors your smartphone notifications, so for something like Gmail, you're still able to see and read a brand-new Gmail message if it arrives in your notifications, and you can send a reply. You can even send a new email by voice if you know the address or have a contact, all without the app. What you can't do are most of the normal browsing tasks, like looking through your inbox and searching your older mail. It would also be nice to have watch-centric notification options, as opposed to just mirroring the settings for your phone.

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