It’s hard to argue with the numbers, but the Apple Watch remains the most popular smartwatch for many users. Google’s Wear OS 3 update was met with mixed results, and Wear OS 4 seems like more of an iterative update. Now that both Wear OS 4 and watchOS 10 have been announced by Google and Apple respectively, we decided to take a look at a few things we’d like Google to “borrow” from Apple.

One stop shop for your health metrics

Google Fit. Fitbit. Which one should you use if you want to check your workout stats from your Pixel Watch? You can probably get away with using both, but that’s not the point. With Apple Watch, simply access the Health app that came to iPad with iPadOS 17.

Health Connect was announced last year and is coming to android 14 with the goal of providing a seamless way to connect the various fitness tracking apps you use. However, it may not work with some smartwatches, such as the TicWatch Pro 5, which uses its own separate software.

It’s pretty clear that Fitbit will eventually find itself in the Google Graveyard, and the Google Fit app itself is pretty great. So instead of sitting on the fence, why not just come out and say “Google Fit is now the only place to track health on android!” don’t you say? Yes, there are third-party OEMs to worry about, but that’s what Health Connect should be for, and Google should basically force Wear OS watchmakers to implement APIs compatible with wearable apps.

Uniformity across the entire platform

It’s kind of misleading, but I’d still like to see Google “push the issue”. If you go through the interface on the Pixel Watch and TicWatch Pro 5, you get almost the same experience. Mobvoi offers different watch faces and there are a few minor tweaks here and there, but essentially the same.

But if you compare the Galaxy Watch 5 to the Pixel Watch, you might not be sure that Samsung isn’t still using TizenOS until you hit the Play Store. As someone who prefers Google’s software flavor to Samsung and other android OEMs, I feel the Wear OS platform would benefit from a little more uniformity.

Maybe instead of giving OEMs a base for Wear OS and letting them run with the interface for free, Google should pull back the reigns a bit. I mean, how cool would it be to have Google’s great watch faces, complete with the Material Design interface available on the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro? Personally, I think it would be a perfect fit, but I’m also the one campaigning for a Google Play Edition foldable phone until the Pixel Fold comes out.

Improved fitness features and automatic exercise detection

During the WWDC 2023 Keynote, Apple spent as much time on watchOS 10 as it did explaining the boring features coming to iOS 17. But there was a good reason for that, as there were improvements in the Bike and Walk workouts as well as being able to watch. topographic maps and elevations, directly from your Apple Watch.

As my colleague Michael Hicks points out, Samsung is expected to offer some improvements to the Galaxy Watch 5 (and Watch 6) via the One UI 5 Watch update. However, all these new features will be limited to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch devices, and we wouldn’t be surprised if some of them require you to use a Samsung phone.

Simply put, Google should pay attention and start offering the same updates for the Wear OS platform. A perfect example of how the Pixel Watch falls short of nearly any of the best android smartwatches is its inability to automatically track workouts. Some updates have been released to improve this, but it really should have been available on the Pixel Watch from day one.

Apple may be the leader, but it’s still trailing the competition

You might be surprised if I didn’t mention how watchOS 10 has been improved to make better use of screen real estate on the Apple Watch. That’s because Google announced it’s doing pretty much the same thing with Wear OS 4, but we’re still waiting to see what that looks like.

Despite the massive market share the Apple Watch has, it’s pretty clear that watchOS 10 isn’t Apple just sitting around and waiting. Whether you’re using an Apple Watch or a Wear OS smartwatch, Smartwatch apps are crap. Google and its Wear OS partners have overcome this with a carousel of cards that you can scroll through on your watch face.

With watchOS 10, Apple is copying Google’s homework, but actually changing it up a bit thanks to the introduction of Smart Stack. These are mini-widgets that you can scroll through “by simply rotating the Digital Crown from any watch face.” It’s a great way to view data and interact with different apps without having to open the app every time.

This means that while Apple has a huge lead, there is still work to be done, and the Apple Watch is no exception. I’m just crossing my fingers that the Pixel Watch 2 will at least meet my expectations and that Google will release a product that can make a serious dent in the wearable market.