Google has also backed away from the original Weather app on Wear OS, taking it off new downloads for many recently released watches but keeping it alive in some quarters. The shutdown isn’t full, in that you can still use the app quite a bit, but for many people, it’s sort of on slow fade.
What’s Changing on Wear OS
Most brands’ new Wear OS devices will not include Google’s aging Weather app which was released with Wear OS 3 as the default selection. If you already have the app, it will still work. If you have an older software build on your watch, you can still locate it in the Play Store. But on the latest releases of Wear OS, especially from non-Google makers, new installs are prevented.
Google says the change is a move toward using each manufacturer’s built-in weather experience. That means the company is giving up the most basic weather slot to OEMs, and keeping a first-party experience for its own hardware.
Who Is Affected
Pixel Watch customers get moved over to the Pixel Weather app with newer Wear OS builds, which bring along Material 3 styling and richer, glanceable cards. That’s the new standard for Google’s own watches.
Wear OS 6 watches from other brands, like Samsung, OnePlus, and Mobvoi won’t be able to freshly download Google’s old Weather app if it wasn’t installed on the watch when they bought it. If you already had the app installed, it should continue to work. But for the time being, devices running Wear OS 5 and older can still track it down in the Play Store.
Practically speaking, that means the Samsung Galaxy Watch will gently nudge users to use Samsung’s Weather, a OnePlus Watch 2 would default to OHealth’s weather and TicWatch models are going to rely on Mobvoi’s own app. Those newer devices will not include the popular Google-branded weather tile and complication many users liked as an optional fresh install.
Here’s Why Google Is Retreating
It is also about not duplicating things. Most Wear OS partners include their own weather apps, too, and many purchasers have changed the OEM complications and tiles which are also deeply integrated with each company’s watch faces and sensors. In stepping back, Google reduces the overlap and burden of supporting multiple experiences that do the same thing.
It’s also about platform focus. Google progressively optimizes its best-looking experiences for Pixel hardware — as with the Pixel Weather — and allows partners to differentiate elsewhere. The Play Store has device/OS-version-targeted availability, so it’s easy to enforce os version and brand restrictions at the distribution level.
There’s a broader trend here. Analyst firms including Counterpoint Research and IDC have observed that Wear OS growth in the past few years has been the result of partners — particularly Samsung, which naturally prioritizes its own apps. Google playing ball with OEM defaults is conforming to where users are.
Alternatives and Workarounds
If it does lose access to Google’s Weather app for new installs, you still have some good alternatives:
– Open up your OEM app: Samsung Weather, OnePlus’s OHealth weather and Mobvoi’s weather apps are configured for their watch faces, tiles or complications.
– Go third-party: Popular options include AccuWeather, MyRadar Weather Radar and Windy. These provide more-robust maps and alert controls, but be sure to look for tile, complication and offline support that matches your requirements.
— Ask your assistant: Google Assistant and Gemini can give you one-handed forecasts. It’s good for a quick check, so long as not everyone loves voice on the wrist in loud or public places.
Tip: If you’re into watch face complications, make sure your preferred weather app exposes the type of data you want (current temp, AQI, chance of rain, severe alerts). Complications are widely supported, but things can vary massively between apps and watch faces.
What This Means for Wear OS Clients
This will be a minor housekeeping change for some; for others, it’s another reminder that Google’s first-party Wear OS apps might not stick around forever.
And the weather is right up there with notifications and fitness in terms of how often customers use a smartwatch, so I felt the changes were significant.
The good news: The base forecasting capability on Wear OS isn’t going away. It’s moving to Pixel Weather on Pixel hardware (where it should be) and to OEM or third-party options elsewhere. The bad news: If you liked the simplicity and aesthetics of Google’s original Wear OS Weather app on a non-Pixel watch, you’re out of luck new install-wise on more-recent gear.
For developers, this is a prompt to take advantage of high quality tiles, complications, and glanceable designs that align with Material guidance while having consideration for any OEM watch face ecosystems. If you’re a user, the way forward is simple: choose the weather app that best suits what your watch’s faces and battery life can accommodate, set up the requisite complication, and move on.
Here’s the Bottom line: Google’s new Wear OS Weather app isn’t quite ditching Google’s earlier one, but it is relegating it. Pixel gets Pixel Weather; everyone else gets OEM default or third-party upgrade.