 Android Wear is finally here. We've seen a lot of demos and we've seen a lot of hardware, but until now we haven't seen how the software works on actual shipping units. This is how Google does a smartwatch. At its core, Android Wear is surprisingly simple. From the home screen, you can swipe up to scroll through your notifications. On any single notification, you can swipe to the right to perform actions on it, like navigate, reply to a text message, or see more detail about the weather. You can also swipe to the left to dismiss the notifications, and they'll also dismiss on your Android phone, which is pretty convenient. You can also swipe down from the very top of the home screen to mute notifications and see your battery life. The last thing, and maybe the best thing that you can do from the home screen, is say, okay Google, and it will bring up a Google search that will let you perform all sorts of actions. You can search the web, you can send a text message, you can set it to leave yourself a note. It's basically the entire power of Google Now right there on your wrist. The last core feature of Android Wear is the ability to change watch faces. To do that, you just hold your finger down on the home screen, and then you can swipe left and right through a whole bunch of different things. Different manufacturers will have different watch faces, and on the LG G Watch at least, there's something like 15 or 20 of them. Some are pretty neat, but unfortunately you won't be able to install watch faces from third party developers, yet. Google says that's coming in a future update. Setting up Android Wear with your Android phone is relatively simple. You need to download the Android Wear app from Google Play, and then pair it to the smart watch. Once you've approved it to access your notifications, everything that shows up on your phone also shows up on your watch. Within the app itself, you can actually go in and set different actions for different voice commands. Right now, everything is just using Google's apps, but in the future, you could theoretically have the timer mapped to the clock, you could have Show Me My Steps mapped to Run Keeper instead of Google Fit, or you could even have Call a Car mapped to Uber or Lyft or whatever you use to get around. The overall design is super clean, super simple, and super readable, which is exactly what you want on a watch. Every notification shows up as a Google Now style card, although I guess from now on we're going to have to call them Material style cards with the upcoming release of Android. The backgrounds are colorful pictures, and they're also contextual, so if somebody sends you a text, you'll see that person's profile photo in the background. Probably the most frustrating thing about Android Wear is that you can't reorder notifications. Basically, this watch, more than anything else, is a Google Now machine. You're going to have to learn to trust Google Now, and trust that it'll give you the notifications that you actually want. We already know what a smartwatch that tries to do everything looks like. It's the Galaxy Gear. Android Wear doesn't try to do everything. It just tries to do the right thing. Just like Google Now, Android Wear is sometimes wrong about that, but when it's right, it's often almost exactly magically right. Overall, Android Wear is really close to what I imagine most people would want on a smartwatch. It's not too complicated, it doesn't get in the way, and the voice commands and voice search are legitimately great. Now it's just up to the hardware manufacturers to live up to it.
 Android Wear is finally here. We've seen a lot of demos and we've seen a lot of hardware,
 but until now we haven't seen how the software works on actual shipping units. This is how
 Google does a smartwatch.
 At its core, Android Wear is surprisingly simple. From the home screen, you can swipe
 up to scroll through your notifications. On any single notification, you can swipe to
 the right to perform actions on it, like navigate, reply to a text message, or see more detail
 about the weather. You can also swipe to the left to dismiss the notifications, and they'll
 also dismiss on your Android phone, which is pretty convenient. You can also swipe down
 from the very top of the home screen to mute notifications and see your battery life.
 The last thing, and maybe the best thing that you can do from the home screen, is say, okay
 Google, and it will bring up a Google search that will let you perform all sorts of actions.
 You can search the web, you can send a text message, you can set it to leave yourself
 a note. It's basically the entire power of Google Now right there on your wrist.
 The last core feature of Android Wear is the ability to change watch faces. To do that,
 you just hold your finger down on the home screen, and then you can swipe left and right
 through a whole bunch of different things. Different manufacturers will have different
 watch faces, and on the LG G Watch at least, there's something like 15 or 20 of them. Some
 are pretty neat, but unfortunately you won't be able to install watch faces from third
 party developers, yet. Google says that's coming in a future update.
 Setting up Android Wear with your Android phone is relatively simple. You need to download
 the Android Wear app from Google Play, and then pair it to the smart watch. Once you've
 approved it to access your notifications, everything that shows up on your phone also
 shows up on your watch. Within the app itself, you can actually go in and set different actions
 for different voice commands. Right now, everything is just using Google's apps, but in the future,
 you could theoretically have the timer mapped to the clock, you could have Show Me My Steps
 mapped to Run Keeper instead of Google Fit, or you could even have Call a Car mapped to
 Uber or Lyft or whatever you use to get around.
 The overall design is super clean, super simple, and super readable, which is exactly what
 you want on a watch. Every notification shows up as a Google Now style card, although I
 guess from now on we're going to have to call them Material style cards with the upcoming
 release of Android. The backgrounds are colorful pictures, and they're also contextual, so
 if somebody sends you a text, you'll see that person's profile photo in the background.
 Probably the most frustrating thing about Android Wear is that you can't reorder notifications.
 Basically, this watch, more than anything else, is a Google Now machine. You're going
 to have to learn to trust Google Now, and trust that it'll give you the notifications
 that you actually want. We already know what a smartwatch that tries to do everything looks
 like. It's the Galaxy Gear. Android Wear doesn't try to do everything. It just tries
 to do the right thing. Just like Google Now, Android Wear is sometimes wrong about that,
 but when it's right, it's often almost exactly magically right. Overall, Android Wear is
 really close to what I imagine most people would want on a smartwatch. It's not too complicated,
 it doesn't get in the way, and the voice commands and voice search are legitimately great. Now
 it's just up to the hardware manufacturers to live up to it.