Android 5.0 for Android Wear gets software to analyze battery usage

An extensive preview has appeared online, in which a site publishes images and discusses features of the Android 5.0 update for Android Wear, Google’s operating system for smartwatches. This includes software to monitor battery usage.

The software works in the companion app on an Android phone and can display, among other things, which apps demand the most from the battery on the watch, writes the Android fan site Phandroid. Although in Android 5.0 for smartphones and tablets all software has been converted to Google’s new design philosophy Material Design, this does not apply to Wear: it looks largely the same.

The companion app can also customize watchfaces on the watch. On the watch itself, it will be possible to switch brightness from the quick menu, which can be reached from the home screen by swiping down from the top of the screen. This should prevent people from having to go through all kinds of menus when they come outside to increase the brightness: by no means all Android Wear watches have a light sensor to automatically adjust the brightness.

When the update will appear is unknown. Google is expected to start rolling out the Android 5.0 update for its Nexus devices on Wednesday, but Google hasn’t announced the Android Wear update yet.