As @AndyX and @matze_styles4you already mentioned, it’s getting clearer by the minute that Samsung watches are going to use Wear OS. Heavy discounts for the current Tizen watches and new reports point to a release already in Q2 2021.
Consequently, I say we can immediately stop working on our Tizen apps & watch faces and close down here.
As SamMobile reports : An APK teardown […] reveals two codenames: Fresh and Wise. These codenames are connected to Samsung’s next-generation smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch Active 4. […] A new plugin with the codename ‘water’ was also found in the APK file, and it is reportedly Samsung’s compatibility layer for Wear OS. A reference to ‘newos’ was also found in the Galaxy Wearable application file. All of this points towards Samsung preparing to launch the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch Active 4 smartwatches running Google’s Wear OS. The upcoming watches are expected to be launched sometime in Q2 2021.
As a long-time Tizen watch developer I feel devastated… We have no choice but to move on. It was an honor to work with you guys!
Yes, it’s sad how things have turned out.
We have all been working hard to make Tizen what it is:
The second most successful watch system after Apples WatchOS.
If I look on the internet, Wear OS generally gets a lot of criticism in comparison.
Especially for Googles poor maintenance, they update Google apps for the Apple watch more often then for their own system. Google Assistant voice commands have been broken for months. Battery lifetime is very short.
Except that Qualcomm doesn’t offer any SoC suitable for TVs at the moment and Samsung hasn’t made any phones running Tizen for more than 5 years. So the possibility of Samsung moving away from Tizen on smart watches, but releasing a new phone running Tizen seems a bit far fetched.
