Android smartwatches pale in comparison to the Apple Watch, especially after the headline-grabbing Apple Watch Series 4 launch. Google looked to change things around with the Wear OS rebranding from Android Wear, as well as some much needed polish to the underlying software.

The H Update will extend battery life by turning on Battery Saver which will only display the time once your battery falls below 10%.

Improved Off-Body Power Consumption

Google says your smartwatch will go into a deep sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity i.e. when you have taken off the watch and kept it aside. This should mean less battery drain when you are sleeping, for example.

The H Update will also bring Smart App Resume which lets users pick up where they left off across all apps on their watches. This is especially great if you are developing for watches and you can resume apps across a number of test devices seamlessly. It’s also great if you have dedicated smartwatches for different activities – one for workouts, and one for your workplace.

Google will also add a 2-step power off functionality that would enable users to turn off their watches by holding the power button until they see the power off screen and then choose to either “power off” or “restart.”