Wear OS 6 is months away from your Android smartwatch, but Google has already outlined nearly every feature and UI change to expect. Even better, we got a surprise hands-on with an early Wear OS 6 build, giving us a visual look at some of the key changes.
The new version, expected sometime in summer or fall 2025, brings a redesigned UI based on Material 3 Expressive with new scrolling animations and transitions, dynamic color theming, and redesigned buttons and tiles meant to take full advantage of the Pixel Watch's curved display.
We're also expecting a major shift from Google Assistant to Gemini soon, though this replacement could occur before Wear OS 6 officially arrives. This will provide LLM-backed answers and better Google app integration.
Samsung's variant of Wear OS 6 — rumored to jump from One UI 6 Watch to One UI 8 Watch — will allegedly add key features like the Now Bar and Shortcuts to streamline your Galaxy Watch experience, as well as confirmed Samsung Health AI upgrades.
While Wear OS 5 focused a lot on AI and health, Wear OS 6 will combine new AI smarts with a larger system overhaul. This guide will break down which Android smartwatches are due to receive Wear OS 6 and every key change to expect.
Material 3 Expressive
Flashy UI changes are coming to Wear OS 6, starting with Material 3 Expressive. This new UI language for Android phones and watches focuses on fluid scrolling animations and transitions, dynamic color theming picked from your watch face, space-efficient content that hugs the display edge, and new Tiles with more condensed information.
Specific to Wear OS, the Wear UI Design guide explains how they've embraced a round shape framework, controls that "respond more accurately to user gestures," a third accent color, and a new Roboto Flex font. And some UI elements morph when tapped; on a keypad, for example, tapping the "5" will enlarge that button while shrinking the 2, 4, 6, and 8 buttons to make space.
The GIF above shows the new dynamic scrolling in action. Scrolling through the app drawer causes icons to shrink as they leave the screen or expand as they reach the center. Plus, the new Edge Hugging button rises from the bottom in a semi-circular shape; this is a new element of most menus and Tiles.
You can also see some of the new Tiles in the gallery below. All Tiles now have a 3-slot tile layout, with an app icon and name on top, a main content slot with up to five button actions, and an optional bottom-edge button. They resize to match your screen size, though the Pixel Watch 3 41mm Tiles had the same number of buttons as the 45mm Tiles, only smaller.
Along with these more space-efficient and dense tiles, your notification stack also benefits, morphing the Cards so that they still show some information with limited screen space.
In addition, developers can now show limited visual data from their apps while in AOD mode until the app times out, such as the song name and media controls remaining visible in a music app (except without color).
Overall, UI and UX on Wear OS 6 will feel like a very different experience from Wear OS 5. And in the backend, this version is 10% more battery efficient with a promised boost to performance quality. Based on our early Wear OS 6 test, we didn't experience any lag to go with the more dynamic UI.
New watch faces
Wear OS 5 prioritized battery efficient Watch Face Format (WFF) XML faces, blocking all third-party watch face apps like Facer. But Wear OS 6 will bring Facer back, along with other apps, thanks to the new Watch Face Push API.
As outlined in the Developers blog, this version lets 3rd-party watch face marketplaces back onto Wear OS watches. Users can buy faces directly in apps like Facer — or switch between faces — and have it instantly sync to a Pixel Watch. Each app gets one "Slot" in the watch face settings; the rest will be first-party Google watch faces.
Your old battery-guzzling watch faces still won't work on Wear OS anymore. But apps like Facer make it easy to search between thousands of options and save your favorites, instead of buying them individually in the Play Store.
In addition, the WFF has received some minor upgrades. Faces can show a Photos gallery that shows new photos at set intervals or with a user tap. Devs can create a custom transition between AOD and active mode, too.
For complications, devs can show different colors based on the value, such as brighter colors for higher temperatures or step counts. And text can autosize to fit a specific cell, so that 100 or 10000 steps fit inside the same amount of space.
Gemini on Wear OS
Google has promised Gemini will come to Wear OS "in the coming months." This may happen before Wear OS 6 launches, but it's still an important future update that's worth highlighting here.
Gemini will serve the same purpose as Assistant, and you'll summon it with "Hey Google" or a button shortcut as always. But Google promises you'll be able to speak more "naturally" when having Gemini perform actions.
You'll also have better access to other Google apps, so you can ask the assistant to summarize your Gmail inbox or check your Messages for info.
One UI 8 Watch
Several May 2025 leaks have revealed Samsung's alleged plans for its spin-off of Wear OS 6, starting with a surprise rebrand: The software version will jump from last year's One UI 6 Watch to One UI 8 Watch, to better align with its phones' One UI 8 and remove any confusion.
Naming aside, an APK deep dive into a leaked version of One UI 8 Watch revealed Samsung plans to add a Now Bar that you can summon to the main watch face with a double-pinch gesture, showing contextually relevant apps or information based on Galaxy AI suggestions.
In addition, this version could add the option to place app icon shortcuts onto the main watch face, so you don't need to pull up the app drawer. And you'll be able to rotate randomly between your favorite watch faces, apparently.
Another leaked feature is an adaptive charging tool to preserve your Galaxy Watch battery life by halting charging at a custom percentage. We've also seen this feature rumored for Pixel Watches.
While none of this is official, Samsung did confirm that Gemini will replace Assistant on Galaxy Watches. And at the January 2025 Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung's head of Digital Health, Dr. Praveen Raja, spent a few minutes on stage describing Samsung Health features coming later this year.
He described Vascular Load Indicator, a Samsung Health Labs feature that tracks how your "daily activities impact your cardiovascular system" so you can "reduce strain on your heart and maintain long-term heart health."
Samsung Health Labs will also have "tailored meal plans and recipes" with "personalized nutrition advice," both built by Galaxy AI. And the Galaxy Watch 8 should have an antioxidant index, generated by tracking your body's beta carotene levels.
Most intriguing, Raja promised that Samsung Health will have an AI "Coach" that will let you "ask questions, get real-time insights, and receive personalized coaching as if you would from your own personal health assistant."
Wear OS 6 eligible watches
Wear OS 6 will arrive on the Galaxy Watch 8 and Pixel Watch 4 in late summer or early fall this year, before any other smartwatches. After that, there are a dozen other Android smartwatches eligible to receive Wear OS 6.
Samsung has promised that all Galaxy Watches will get four years of major updates. The Galaxy Watch 4, which started with Wear OS 3 and received Wear OS 3.5, 4, and 5 in subsequent years, should end its update cycle with Wear OS 6.
All other Galaxy Watches with Wear OS software should receive the latest update as well. We technically haven't gotten confirmation whether the budget Galaxy Watch FE will get four years, but Wear OS 6 is a given.
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 / Watch 4 Classic
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 / Watch 5 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 / Watch 6 Classic
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
- Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy Watch FE
Samsung delivered Wear OS 5 to last-gen watches from November–December 2024, so expect Wear OS 6 around that same window in 2025.
Google has promised three years of updates for its Pixel Watches, but wasn't entirely clear on whether that meant version updates or security updates. The first Pixel Watch launched with Wear OS 3.5, so Wear OS 6 will be its final update if Google does support it.
- Google Pixel Watch*
- Google Pixel Watch 2
- Google Pixel Watch 3
Assuming Google doesn't have any update issues like its Wear OS 5 rollback, the Wear OS 6 update should come to these Pixel watches shortly after the Pixel Watch 4 in late summer or early fall.
OnePlus confirmed that its Wear OS watches will receive two version updates, making Wear OS 6 the final update for the OnePlus Watch 2 and Watch 2R.
- OnePlus Watch 2
- OnePlus Watch 2R
- OnePlus Watch 3
OnePlus also confirmed these watches won't get Wear OS 5 until "Q3 of this year," meaning sometime between July and September. So we can assume Wear OS 6 will be similarly delayed into late 2026 for the OnePlus Watch 3 and Watch 2. The unannounced OnePlus Watch 4 should get it in spring 2026, in theory.
Mobvoi doesn't guarantee updates, and its most recent models like the TicWatch 5 Enduro and TicWatch Atlas currently remain on Wear OS 4, with that update arriving in September 2024. It's possible they receive Wear OS 6 eventually, but Wear OS 5 is the first priority; plus, TicWatches no longer support Google Assistant, so Gemini would be wasted on them.
The only other Wear OS brand worth mentioning is Xiaomi, which (like Mobvoi) is about a year behind Google and Samsung's updates. It's possible the Xiaomi Watch 2 and Watch 2 Pro will receive Wear OS 6, but not until 2026 at this current pace.
Wear OS 6 wishlist
Google and Samsung have already confirmed many Wear OS 6 features we had on our original wishlist: more efficient battery life, UI improvements, the return of 3rd-party watch face apps like Facer, and Gemini smarts. But there's still more we'd like to see.
We've seen two separate leaks suggesting that adaptive charging will come to both Galaxy and Pixel Watches, halting charging at a fixed percentage to preserve long-term battery capacity. We'll simply hope that this feature does come to Wear OS 6.
Wear OS 5 focused heavily on fitness updates. Wear OS 6 should continue this trend with downloadable and shareable courses in Google Maps, better syncing with accessories like HRMs or cycling power meters, and better non-running sports guidance like counting gym reps.
On the Gemini front, a Gemini Coach LLM that gives you personalized health advice based on your nightly stats or judges your training load and walks you through future workouts would be a nice perk.
The Galaxy Watch 7 made gestures a priority, so perhaps we could see more recognized gestures across Wear OS brands, not just Samsung watches.
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