Update (5/2/19 @ 2:24 PM ET): Users are reporting that the Tiles feature is showing up on devices without an OS update.

Wear OS has changed so much since it debuted as Android Wear back in 2014. There have been a number of major design and ideology shifts in the last 5 years (including a complete rebranding). Many would argue that Wear OS is a dead platform, but Google doesn't seem to think so. The latest update adds a new feature called "Tiles" to put common actions just a swipe away.

Tiles are designed to give you easy access to the things you check the most. The first tiles are Goals, Next event, Forecast, Heart rate, Headlines, and Timer. The Tiles are accessible by swiping left on the watch face. You can rearrange the Tiles to your preference by long-pressing on the watch or dragging and dropping in the Wear OS phone app.

Google says these first Tiles are just the start and they plan on adding more over time. They will be rolling out to Wear OS smartwatches over the next month and they say certain features will be dependant on phone OS, device, and country. Wear OS Tiles will be shown off at Google I/O at the Android Sandbox next week.

Source: Google


Update: Rolling out

According to users in the Wear OS Subreddit, the Tiles feature began showing up on watches several hours ago. The feature appears to be a server-side change as the OS and watch app don't require an update. It has shown up for users of the LG Watch Urbane, TicWatch Pro, Fossil Sport, Misfit Vapor, Wear24, and others.