Android Wear 2.8 brings improved notifications and new dark theme

Android Wear has been around for a while, but it looks like Google is not paying too much attention to it these days. For example, the update labeled 2.8 was spotted by a smartwatch user who goes by as Yozakgg on Reddit, who posted a few images of his updated wearable, and Google broke out the news a few hours later, so now everything is finally official.

According to the Android Wear Help page concerning the Android Wear 2.8 update, the new piece of code "has improved notification glanceability with a new layout which shows more of your message at a glance." Although Google's community manager Ernest (the one who published the page mentioned above) only said that the darker system-wide theme has been introduced "for better readability," a positive side-effect of a darker theme is also an increase in autonomy. However, there are no numbers to talk about yet.

The theme update does not change the watch face, only having an impact on the background color of some parts of the interface, such as the top drawer or the notifications. At last, it should be noted that this is an update on the Android Wear app on the smartphone, and should not be mistaken as the same as the Android Oreo-based OTA that has been available for some wearables since early December.