Android Wear version 4.4W.2 rolling out with subtle notification tweak, building blocks for future features

A new version of Android Wear, 4.4W.2, is rolling out to watches with some extremely subtle tweaks. The new update (software KNX01Q on our LG G Watch) honestly doesn't seem to change much, but there are two user-facing features that are of note — the ability to "dismiss" the top notification from your watch face, and a new "Play Music" command. There are also a couple of back-end changes that hint at future features.

If you're familiar with Android Wear you know that unless you turn off notifications you'll always see a portion of your most recent notification showing up on the bottom of your watch face. In the latest update, you can now swipe down on that card to push it off of your watch face, meaning it won't show up again until you swipe up on the screen to reveal the full cards. It's a small change, but one that's going to make a lot of people happy who want to show off the watch as an actual watch without a notification card taking up space.

Also on the user-facing front is the ability to say "Ok Google, Play Music" — doing so will launch an "I'm Feeling Lucky" radio station on your connected phone, so long as you have Google Play Music installed, and start playing. The option to do this was technically available on the previous firmware, but it seems as though Google is ready to show it off. You can also start the Play Music command from the command list by scrolling down from the OK Google listening screen.

On the back-end side of things, we notice on our own LG G Watch that you can now pair your watch directly with Bluetooth speakers and headphones, though you can't actually do anything with the new technology. Even with connections to both a phone and speaker audio is still coming from just the phone, and considering there's no way to load audio onto the watch itself there's no way to test playback. This seems like more of a "work in progress" feature as much as anything.

The new 4.4W.2 update should be rolling out to all Android Wear users soon, so keep an eye on your watch for that system update notification.