Google releases Android 15-based Wear OS 5.1 preview with watch speaker playback 

Google’s next wearable release is Wear OS 5.1 based on Android 15, with a developer preview already available.

Wear OS 3 was based on Android 11, Wear OS 4 on Android 13, and Wear OS 5 on Android 14. 

Wear OS 5.1 is based on Android 15 (API level 35), which requires you to test your apps that already target API level 34 for Wear OS 5.

Google highlights two “notable features” that “help enhance your Wear OS app experience.”

• Credential manager support: The Credential Manager API provides a unified authentication solution, supporting sign-in flows using passwords, passkeys, and federated identity (such as Sign In with Google). A user’s credentials are stored in a credential provider, which syncs account information across devices.
• Watch speaker playback: On devices that support media playback through the watch speaker, users can select this speaker as their preferred media output option if your app integrates with the Wear Output Switcher.

Today, the Pixel Watch 3 and YouTube Music do not allow you to use the built-in speakers for media playback. Paired Bluetooth headphones are always required, with speakers arguably pretty power-intensive. That said, the Apple Watch Series 10 introduced this capability a few months ago and it’s been quite handy. I also remember using the onboard speaker on the Galaxy Watch 4 to play music files that I manually transferred from my phone. It’s great in a pinch when you just want audio to accompany what you’re doing.

Google mentioned at I/O 2024 in May how a “Wear OS 5 Quarterly Platform Release” would support passkeys.

Wear OS 5.1 is currently available for app developers to test as an emulator in Android Studio. It was released last Tuesday, November 19 (h/t Mishaal Rahman) with build ID: AP4A.241205.004.F1.

Known issues include: 

• The emulator doesn’t always allow the user to add an account during the setup flow following a device reset.
• When tapping on a notification, the app that sent the notification doesn’t open until the user scrolls the screen.
• Wear Health Services sometimes fails to start an exercise.

It’s unclear when it will hit user devices, but Google is not releasing any Pixel Watch updates until March and the timing could line up.