Portable gadgets is trending these days. And thanks to technology, it has become better. Some of these hot items include smartphones and smartwatches. These two items are widely used among kids, teens, and adults.
What’s in the article:
Smartwatch – What is it?
Smartwatch vs fitness trackers – Which one fits you?
Android Smartwatch Cellular Connectivity
Android Smartwatch Battery Life
OS Compatibility with Smartphones
Third Party Apps Compatible with Smartwatch for Android
Built in GPS in Wear OS Smartwatches
AMOLED Display on Wear OS Smartwatch
Price of Android Smartwatches
Because this topic is too broad, we are going to narrow it down to android smartwatches for kids. We are going to talk about smartwatch for android. There are many things you need to look into upon selecting the best one for your android smartphone.
Let’s talk more about it in the succeeding paragraphs. We hope you have a great time reading and that you’ll learn a lot from our guide. Below are the best factors you need to consider in selecting the best smartwatch for your android phone.
Smartwatch – What is it?
Smartwatch is like a smartphone that is made wearable on your wrist. It has an LCD display where you can see time and other data. As time goes by, technology has greatly improved smartwatch features. Before it just tells time and alarms, but now, you can use it to send sms or call. That’s a wonderful improvement all users enjoyed.
The fitness tracking features of most smartwatch for android and iOS is also a hot-selling item for most customers. Indeed, there are many benefits your kids can get from having this modern device. But as parents, you still need to monitor and guide them for using gadgets.
Smartwatch vs fitness trackers – Which one fits you?
Are you also confused whether to have a fitness tracker or a smartwatch? Well, there’s a slim difference between the two, and your preference will be the judge. Definitely, you need to look into your needs and budget.
A fitness tracker has the main goal of health and fitness tracking. It’s a band with a screen to display all your health vitals. These vitals include blood oxygen levels, blood pressure, calories, and sleeping hours. The main goal of this device is to help you monitor your health.
On the other hand, smartwatches have a more advanced features than fitness trackers. Besides fitness tracking, it serves like an extension of your android phones or iOS phones. This device now allows you to make phone calls and send sms. Mobile payments can even be done by scanning your smartwatch. These things are made possible due to the operating system inside the best smartwatch.
In terms of price, fitness trackers are cheaper than smartwatches. Before buying, make sure to look into your needs, and how much are you willing to spend. If you’re willing to pay more for versatile features, then smartwatch is good for you.
Android Smartwatch Cellular Connectivity
Some modern android smartwatch allow you to call or text without the need to connect to your android phone. These electronic watches have cellular connectivity, and it’s an amazing feature. You can find a few known brands like Samsung galaxy watch 4 who has this feature.
Wear OS is the OS of Samsung galaxy watch 4. This gives the feature that let you stream online music, call, and text. Other android and iOS phones also has this operating system. You have hundreds of options to choose then.
Because of that, you don’t have to always have your android or Samsung phones with you. That’s the convenience brought by android smartwatches with cellular connectivity function.
The main setback of this function is price. There will be an additional charge on your android phone monthly bill. Before making any move, understand if you are willing to pay for this convenience.
Android Smartwatch Battery Life
It’s nice if your Wear OS watches have long battery life, right? Perhaps, it can have a two day battery life? That is one of the important things you need to look into upon choosing the best android smartwatch for your kids. The same is true for Apple watches in the market.
Wear OS platform offers a variety of function that makes your android smartwatch like Galaxy watch 4 more valuable. Generally, it allows you to collect information and send messages. Here are other functions Google’s wear OS offers:
Gather messages, make phone calls, and other information like text, emails, calendar, traffic, and applications
Allows you to check your schedule, the traffic, weather conditions, and more
Do math computations, translate words, convert units, and locate places
Get travel directions and location details on Google maps
Fitness features like health tracking
Built in GPS
Music storage and listening
The many features of a Wear OS smartwatch drains its battery life. Some have bright AMOLED display but they have incredible battery life. This is one key features you need to look into for the best android smartwatches.
OS Compatibility with Smartphones
Android Smartwatch is an extension of your android phones. That means its Wear OS must be compatible with your smartphone. This is to ensure smooth operation and synching. The best android smartwatch offers smooth connection for all its applications.
Some of the best android smartwatches in 2022 are the Fitbits (Versa 2 and 3), Samsung Galaxy watch 4, Armani, Michael Korea, Garmin, and Fossil. All these brands offers Wear OS smartwatch for android. Among these brands, the Samsung Galaxy 4 has the new Google Wear OS. It is run by Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100.
The New Wear OS Platform
Performance
Samsung and Google have worked together in creating the new wear os platform this year – Wear OS 3.0. This innovation brings a 30 percent increased performance for animation and UI. There will be shorter launching times for all kinds of apps. Despite its aggressive performance, it is energy efficient. It can still live up to its claim of two day battery life.
Some of improved health features are 24 hour usage of heart rate sensor and sleep tracking. This is amazing for all users in maintaining their health.
App switching
Wear OS 3.0 also lets you switch apps instantaneously. You can let one app run in the background and then use another. After, you can bring the previous app again, and let the other one run in the background. This upgrade is amazing, especially if you like to use different apps at the same time. Like listening to music while monitoring your running activity.
Tile Widgets from Third Party Apps
Using this new Wear OS, Google’s API for its Tile Widgets is more open to third party apps. That means you can easily customize tiles on your wearable. An improved way to manage apps and installing new ones from Google Play Store. Some of these apps are Adidas Running and Calm.
Watch Faces Powered by Samsung
A fun exciting feature it holds is also your ability to make watch faces like your smartwatch avatars. It looks the same way as the Bitmoji offered by Fitbit in their smartwatches. You’ll have a fun time creating your own face and character inside your smartwatch.
Re-built Apps for Wear OS 3.0
Google also said they will rebuild apps suitable for OS 3.0. You can find many blogs about it in the best tech tutorials online. Some of these rebuilt apps for the new wear os platform are YouTube, Spotify, Strava, Calm, Google Map, Sleep Cycle, and LifeSum. These apps are different from android phones since they are smaller in data size and efficient for wearables.
Third Party Apps Compatible with Smartwatch for Android
Just like your Android smartphone, installing third party apps on your Wear OS smartwatch is essential. It makes the device more functional to users. These third party app support usually comes from Google Play Store. But some are not supported and even have warnings on privacy, which you need to look into.
These third party apps can be health apps or an online payment app like Samsung pay. This offers cashless and cardless type of payment for users. This works similarly with Google Pay. To use this payment method you have to link your debit or credit card to your Google account. Your device uses near field communication (NFC) in doing transactions for different payment terminals. It’s completely safe and secure to use.
Some apps do activity tracking to monitor your steps and calories burnt. Here are some of the famous apps used for Wear OS watches.
Citymapper
Are you using Google maps on your smartphone? Then using Citymapper on your smartwatch fits you. This offers better function since it delivers real time updates about the traffic in your place. It helps you find alternative routes that are less traffic. And it also points direction to a nearby shop or store you want to visit.
Calm
This app is the counterpart of those relaxation apps in Apple watch series. It helps you create a meditation exercise to help relax your mind and body. You can see your stats for free in Calm. But to use its meditation program, you need to subscribe to a plan.
Shazam
For music lovers, having an app that lets you play your favorite song on your Wear OS is great. Shazam is one of Google’s apps you can install on your smartwatch for android. Just tap on the LCD display and wait for your song to be played. You can now sing along on site with your friends and family. Swirl Launcher gives you smooth music controls all the time.
Swirl Launcher
Google has its launcher for a smartwatch but if you’re not a fan of it, you can have Swirl Launcher. It puts your icons around the LCD display. You can just tap the icon you want to run or stop. That’s how easy to use it. If you want to activate your health tracking features, then just tap the icon.
There are plenty more Wear OS apps you can find online. Just make sure to install those third party app support that is reliable. Read the reviews of the customers to know what are the pros and cons of those apps.
Health Features of Smartwatch for Android
Fitness tracking apps is one of the best selling features of the best android smartwatch in 2022. People are becoming more health conscious than ever due to the pandemic and rising cases of heart attacks. When it comes to health and fitness features, both Wear OS and Apple watch are great.
Different brands of Wear OS smartwatches offer different health and exercise tracking features. Here are some of the typical health smart features you can find among these wearables:
Blood pressure monitoring
Blood oxygen monitoring
Activity tracking (cycling, swimming, running, or hiking)
Sleep tracking
Exercise tracking
In terms of the best android smartwatch for health and fitness features, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 ranks top one. It’s the best match with Apple Watch Series 7. There are two designs for this Samsung smartwatch. One has the physical rotating bezel which helps you manipulate it using one hand. It gives you a seamless way to interact with your Samsung smartwatch. Compared to digital rotating bezel, the physical rotating bezel is far more efficient.
The Samsung Galaxy watch active is also one of the famous options in the market. It offers a sporty look with amazing health and fitness features. It offers stress level monitoring, breathing, and relaxation tips.
When looking for the best android smartwatch, you need to consider this feature. It must have a fresh look and versatile screen function. You can see this spec in Samsung Galaxy watch active 2. Having precise health tracking is good since it helps you keep good health.
On the other hand, Fitbit Sense is also one great choice in the market. It has an advanced health function that lets you track your sleep and activity. This fitness watch is one of the top choices for 2022. It has a 6-month free subscription to Calm. This is one of the best selling features of this smartwatch.
Smartwatches for Android with Google Assistant
As android users, there are times when you find help from Google Assistant, right? Whether you need to check in the weather or traffic, this feature is useful. You can consider choosing a Wear OS smartwatch that has this feature. Some of the common wearables with this function are Fitbit Sense, Kate Spade, Mobvoi TechWatch, Fossil, and more.
If you want to launch your Google Assistant function, you need to press the crown button and hold it for a few seconds. If you have enabled voice activation, then you can just say “OK Google”. Another way is to swipe left on the LCD display and tap on the microphone symbol.
For most Wear OS smartwatches, to enable voice assistant, you need to go to “Personalization” inside Settings. Afterward, you will have a seamless way to use your Google Assistant.
Built in GPS in Wear OS Smartwatches
If your kids like to go hiking or camping, giving them a smartwatch with built in GPS would be great. This is a nice tool to help track your kids location in his trip. Most smartwatches have connected GPS as a valuable function.
Do you need internet for using its GPS feature? The answer is no. You’ll only need internet to download the map. The onboard GPS spec of smartwatches is there to log your direction and location inside the downloaded map.
The GPS for wearables is different from cars. The latter requires an internet for constantly updating its map and location. Speed will also be recorded for built in GPS.
Take note, there are different GPS trackers available in Wear OS smartwatch. This can be GPS tracking for hiking, running, and multi-sport activity. You need to read the specification of the wearable to make sure you are choosing the right one.
AMOLED Display on Wear OS Smartwatch
If you want to have a two day battery life on your wearable, it’s best to choose those with AMOLED display. This stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes (AMOLED). Its main benefit is producing a brighter display while consuming less power than LCD. It is also thinner since the interactive touchscreen is built inside one layer with AMOLED.
It also offers an amazing display of colors while adapting to external lighting. If the area is dark, the AMOLED display becomes brighter. This is the adaptive feature of this display.
Price of Android Smartwatches
The price range for a smartwatch for android differs per brand. You can expect to see them starting at $100 and higher. Price varies on different factors like the brand and features. For known brands like Samsung Galaxy watch active and Galaxy watch active 2, the price starts at $350 to $500.
Fitbit Sense smartwatch has prices starting at $324 to $450. While Garmin is at $320 to $1,000. All these prices fluctuate depending on those factors and the store where you’re buying them.
Takeaways
We hope you had fun learning experience scanning through our guide for android smartwatches for kids. In choosing your wearable, be sure that it works around your budget and lifestyle. Don’t go for too expensive watches but you’ll just be using a few of its features.
If you have some questions about smartwatches, feel free to contact us today. We’ll be happy to help you with any concerns. We want you to buy the best android smartwatch for your kids. You can also share this article to your friends and family who might find this useful.