Late last year, Google launched Wear OS 2.0 — a huge overhaul for its wearable operating system that aimed to make Wear OS simpler and easier to use. A big part of Wear OS 2.0 focused on new swipe gestures, and with another update that's rolling out now, Google's slightly tweaking how these work with the introduction of Tiles.
Prior to this change, Wear OS consisted of four main swipes:
- Swipe up — Notifications
- Swipe down — Quick settings
- Swipe right — Google Assistant
- Swipe left — Google Fit
While most of that is staying the same, swiping left now takes you to Tiles. Rather than being limited to only seeing Google Fit data, Tiles now showcase shortcuts for checking the latest news headlines, seeing your fitness goal progress, upcoming calendar reminders, weather forecasts, and more.
Some of this sounds like overlap with the contextual Google Assistant page, but Tiles does go beyond Assistant-related info with the ability to quickly check your heart rate, start a workout, etc.
Google's rolling out Tiles to Wear OS "over the next month", with Google noting that "certain features will vary by phone OS, watch, or country." Google will be showcasing Tiles at Google I/O next week, so it won't be too long before we get to go hands-on with them.
Wear OS 2.0 review: Simplicity, speed, and Assistant's wearable redemption

Oddworld: Soulstorm doesn't impress in PlayStation Plus
Sony's delivering more incentives to purchase a PlayStation Plus membership by offering new games that launch for free. Oddworld: Soulstorm is the latest, but it's just an ok addition.

The chip shortage means Google has to get its own chip out ASAP
Google can fix the global shortage of Snapdragon chips. All it needs to do is build its own, and then get them into devices that it can actually sell to people.

Mint Mobile launches a free trial to test its affordable prepaid service
Mint Mobile already offers some of the best value for prepaid service, and now anyone interested in trying out the network can do so with Mint's new limited-time free trial.

Tracking your heart rate is easy with these Wear OS watches
Believe it or not, some Wear OS watches don’t have a heart rate sensor. Avoid unwanted headaches with this list of all the best watches that do have one!