Smartwatches with Wear OS have a very important advantage over other watches that rely solely on RTOS: functions and applications. Wear OS is a complete operating system integrated into the Google ecosystem, which means that users can access both their own and third-party applications through the Google Play Store, thus expanding their range of options. One of these applications is Google Maps, one of the most useful applications we can install on a smartwatch and which has become even more useful with the arrival of offline maps.

Offline browsing. It has been possible to download maps on Google Maps for iOS and Android for a long time. In fact, it is an extremely useful function if we plan to travel to a country without roaming, to an area with no coverage or, more simply, if we have a more modest mobile data plan and want to invest it in other applications. However, this was not possible in Wear OS.

What was going on with Wear OS? Although it is possible to get step-by-step instructions directly from the watch, it is necessary that the device is connected to the mobile phone in order for its data to be used. This or having a smartwatch with LTE connectivity and a corresponding data plan, it must be said, means more expenses and higher battery consumption.

Okay, it’s over.. As Google announced during the launch of the Google Pixel Watch 3, Google Maps for Wear OS has been updated with offline maps. In short, this function allows you to download maps directly to the memory of the watch, so that we can access them even when we do not have any internet connection. The application, as explained by 9to5Google, synchronizes the downloads on our mobile phone by downloading the area near us, allowing us to delete those we do not want directly from the smart watch.

So why is this interesting? Because it greatly reduces dependence on mobile phones. For example, let’s say we are following a route from a place with no coverage or going to a country where we have no connection. Open and/or public Wi-Fi networks may not always be available and may bring some risks. A downloaded map takes up very little space and can save us from some headaches.

This feature is expected to gradually reach Wear OS 5 watches in the coming weeks or months, but it appears to already be available in the public beta of Google Maps, specifically in build 11.140.0701.W for Wear OS.

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