We have been waiting for a long time for Wear OS smartwatches to catch up to other more popular watches in the market, and it seems that we may soon see this happen with the launch of the upcoming Wear OS update. However, you need the proper hardware to power the new changes, and it seems that Qualcomm and Google can’t quite get their ideas together.

Wear OS 3.0 is expected to arrive later this year, and hopefully, it will work seamlessly with the latest versions of the Snapdragon Wear 4100 chips. However, Qualcomm also believes that the current Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip will also be powerful enough to work with the upcoming software update.

The history of the Snapdragon Wear processors started back in 2016 with the Snapdragon Wear 2100. Unfortunately, this chip wasn’t powerful enough to keep up with newer software, hence the arrival of the Snapdragon Wear 3100, which was basically the same chip with an additional co-processor to keep Wear OS watches up and running.

The latest Snapdragon Wear 4100 and 4100+ chipsets were announced in June last year, and these new processors are expected to arrive with tons of power to run Wear OS 3.0. Unfortunately, their adoption seems relatively slow, as they’re only found in a couple of Mobvoi smartwatches. The exciting part of this story comes from a recent interview, where Qualcomm confirms to XDA Developers that the Snapdragon 4100, 4100+, and the 3100 could run Wear OS 3.0.

“We are working with Google on bringing Wear OS 3.0 to Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and 4100 platforms. Snapdragon Wear 3100, 4100+ and 4100 platforms are capable of supporting Wear OS 3.0, but we are not discussing any specifics at this time.”

This most definitely made several Android users happy, but it did not last long, as Google made a statement to the guys over at 9to5Google saying that it has not confirmed whether or not previous generation hardware will support the new version of Wear OS.

“User experience is a top priority for us. We have not confirmed eligibility or timeline on whether any Wear OS smartwatch will update to the new unified platform. There are many technical requirements in order to run the unified platform that ensures all components of the user experience are optimized.”

Now, we will only have to wait and see how this develops, as there’s lots of time between here and the possible launch of Wear OS 3.0 in the second half of 2021. but don’t worry, we will keep you posted as soon as any new information comes to light.

Source (1) 9to5Google

Source (2) XDA Developers