Google is working on Wear OS 5.1 based on Android 15....or is it Wear OS 6?

With the introduction of the Pixel Watch 3 only a few days away, a Google insider told Android Authority that a new version of Wear OS is being developed. Wear OS 5.1 will be based on Android 15 compared to Wear OS 5 which is based on Android 14. The source cited by Android Authority says that internally Google is testing the new software on the Pixel Watch 2 (that will come back to be important in a bit). 

That the new Wear OS 5.1 version is based on what will be the latest Android build is quite an achievement for Google. Traditionally, the newest iteration of Wear OS was based on a version of Android that was released as much as two years before the launch of the new Wear OS software. For example, Wear OS 3 based on Android 11 was released eight months after Android 11 was released. Based on Android 13, Wear OS 4 dropped two years after Android 13. And Wear OS 5, based on Android 14, came out this year while Android 14 was released in 2023. The first watch to use Wear OS 5 is the recently launched Galaxy Watch 7.

What isn't clear is whether the software being tested will actually be Wear OS 5.1 or if it will turn out to be Wear OS 6. Mishaal Rahman, writing for Android Authority, notes that Google seems to be on an annual release schedule for Wear OS which would indicate that Wear OS 6 is being tested. He also says that Google's last point update for Wear OS was version 3.5 in 2022. There were no such updates for Wear OS 4 which went straight to Wear OS 5. However, with Google testing Wear OS 5.1 on the Pixel Watch 2, it seems more likely that we are going to see the return to point updates.

Still, as Rahman notes, Google could decide to replace the Wear OS 5.1 name with Wear OS 6.0 before the software is launched. He says that the truth will be determined by whether Google will be including any new APIs or app-facing system behaviors with the new build it is testing. If so, that would be the clue that the build of Wear OS Google is working on internally will eventually be released as Wear OS 6 and might not be released until next year. At that time, Android 15 will be nearly a year old and Google will have apparently returned to its old schedule.

We could see the Pixel Watch 3 introduced on August 13th during the upcoming Made by Google event that includes the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Pixel Watch 3, and perhaps the Pixel Tablet 2. The Pixel Watch 3 is expected to be pre-installed with Wear OS 5.