Some of the best smartwatches use Wear OS. This operating system, previously known as Android Wear, has a lot of applications to exploit the possibilities of our smart watch . Today, we review some of the most interesting and essential.
Apps to control our physical activity and health, to organize ourselves, communicate and even to entertain ourselves for a while. The installation of applications for Wear OS is very simple: we can Many of these applications still depend on a “sister app” installed on the mobile, but some already work with total independence. And best of all, many of these applications have received notable improvements with the release of Wear OS 3.0 this year 2021. Which is to be appreciated.
The best apps for your Android smartwatch in 2021
Unlike what we could see at first, smartwatch apps have not limited themselves to showing us a few notifications on the screen for a long time. Now things have evolved a lot, and we can find little gems like these.
Google Pay
Payments from the smartwatch? Correct! Google Pay also has a version compatible with smart watches. It allows making payments through NFC and also serves to store tickets and transport tickets. An essential application if you are already used to paying with your mobile and want to go to the next step.
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Google Pay
Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
Glide
If you’ve ever dreamed of making video calls from your smartwatch , in a futuristic way, you have to try Glide. We have to pair it with the mobile app, but once they are synchronized, we can receive and view video messages directly on the watch.
If our smartwatch has a microphone or camera, we can also make audio or video conference recordings from our wrist.
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Glide – Videochat Messenger
Developer: Glide
Price: Free
7 minute workouts
“7 minutes workaouts” is an app for exercising at home and works completely from the smartwatch, which is much more practical than doing it with the mobile in front of you. It has a clean interface adapted to the small screen of the clock from where we can choose various types of training, and an accompanying app for the smartphone from where we can keep track of all activity.
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7 Minute Workouts
Developer: Fitness Circle
Price: Free
Wear Audio Recorder
We go from video to audio. If you have ever needed to record a conversation or take mental notes expressly, this is the app we need. Fully compatible with Wear OS, Wear Audio Recorder allows us to make audio recordings directly from our Android smart watch .
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Wear Audio Recorder
Developer: BinomV
Price: Free
Telegram
¿ And what about the messenger ? Here giants like WhatsApp should learn from other companies like Telegram. This allows you to send instant messages, stickers, check our chat history, create groups and more. What more can we ask for? In addition, Telegram has an updated version for Android Wear 2.0.
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Telegram
Developer: Telegram FZ-LLC
Price: Free
Wear Store for Wear Apps
Another application that cannot be missing from our device is this. If we have a smartwatch we will see that it is difficult to navigate the Wear OS app store with certain functionality. Wear Store is a third-party app that allows us to download apps much more easily. The only downside is that it is not yet in Spanish, but it is Ideal to keep up to date and discover new apps for our smart watch.
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Wear Store for Wear Apps
Developer: GoKo
Price: Free
Youtube music
The YouTube music app is released with version 3.0 of Wear OS, so now we can also use the app to listen to music directly from the wrist on our smart watch. It has an adapted interface and quite intuitive navigation, although for now it is not yet available in all smartwatches on the market (only Samsung, you can try to install it by searching for the app in the Play Store).
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Youtube music
Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
Strava
Strava is an interesting alternative to Google Fit that has more than 10 million downloads and an incredible 4.5 star rating in the Play Store. It works as an independent app in Android Wear 2.0 and helps us to keep track of our sports activity (racing, cycling, etc.) on the smartwatch.
The best thing if what we want is to go out to do a little sport and we are tired of carrying our mobile with us to be able to collect activity records.
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Strava GPS – Racing and Cycling
Developer: Strava Inc.
Price: Free
Infinity Loop
If you’ve already tried Infinity Loop in its mobile version, you have to take a look at this addictive logic puzzle on Android Wear. Some smartwatch sets suffer from a lack of space on the face of the device, but the Infinity Loop fits the bill. Great to test our mind during the dead times.
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Infinite loop ®
Developer: InfinityGames.io
Price: Free
Lifesum
Lifesum is a health and wellness app that helps us control the food and water we eat throughout the day . We just have to set our goals and Lifesum will help us keep track of the kcal we consume. It also includes some tips and exercises for day-to-day life.
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Lifesum: Recipes to lose weight and gain health
Developer: Lifesum
Price: Free
IFTTT
The name of the app comes from the English “If This Then That” (IFTTT), and means something like “If this happens, then do this”. Basically it is a programming tool that allows us to configure certain conditions or scheduled tasks on our smartwatch.
For example, we can tell you that whenever we take a photo from the watch’s camera, send a copy to the mobile (or vice versa). In short, an automation app that we can take great advantage of if we know what we are looking for. Compatible with more than 600 applications for Android, Google Home and Alexa.
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IFTTT
Developer: IFTTT, Inc
Price: Free
Google Keep
Keep is one of the best apps for taking notes. Once we synchronize it with our Google account, we can access all those lists and reminders directly from our watch. Perfect for making a shopping list and not having to constantly take out your mobile phone or booklet at the supermarket every two by three.
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Google Keep: notes and lists
Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
Honorable mention: Google Maps
We cannot close this top without mentioning one of the most popular and practical mobile applications of all time. With Maps we will have access from the clock to maps, real-time GPS location, routes and all kinds of information to move from one location to another.
The application asks for quite a few permissions, although it is very light – it barely weighs 27MB – and comes from a trusted source, which should be more than enough to give it a try and update our smartwatch with an app of such caliber.
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Google maps
Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
Finally, I would like to mention that there are also versions for Android Wear of other really popular apps, such as Uber, Tinder, Shazam, Sleep as Android, Google Slides (for making presentations) and many others. Which one do you stay with?
