Sunday Runday
In his weekly column, our Senior Editor of Wearables and Fitness Michael Hicks discusses the world of smartwatches, apps, and health tech associated to working and well being, in his quest to get sooner and more healthy (and show you how to do the identical).
As 2023 comes to a detailed and everybody pretends January is the right time to begin getting match, I’m already pondering forward to what subsequent 12 months has in retailer for us, from upcoming 2024 smartwatches to the software program and sensors our favourite manufacturers will stick inside them.
All issues thought-about, 2023 was a really sturdy 12 months for wearables. The Pixel Watch 2 got here into its personal as a Wear OS/ Fitbit hybrid, whereas Samsung performed it secure with efficiency upgrades and Apple bought folks excited with gesture controls.
On the health aspect, Garmin put out a few of its strongest-ever watches just like the Forerunner 965 and Venu 3, whereas opponents like COROS and Polar held their very own. Despite Fitbit’s struggles to regain its momentum and redesign its app, it did at the very least launch the stable Fitbit Charge 6, which I reviewed extremely.
Still, we are able to definitely hope for newer and higher issues this 12 months. The AI craze will nearly definitely come for this 12 months’s watches, sensible rings will soar into the general public eye — with or with out Samsung — and we have now to assume some new well being sensor methods will make their method to mainstream manufacturers.
Here’s all the things I count on to see, or want to see, out of smartwatches and different wearables in 2024!
AI in your wrist
I spoke to two wearable analysts about what to count on in 2024, and each independently introduced up the identical function: on-device AIs.
“I assume wearables will most probably begin to make the most of AI,” mentioned Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. As the AI chipsets get smaller, Sag “foresees a future the place AI helps to improve the wearable expertise in ways in which we have solely wished may very well be doable.”
Jitesh Ubrani, analysis supervisor for IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, agreed that “the inclusion of AI in wearables” will drive gross sales to new heights in 2024.
He talked about Apple’s gesture controls as an early instance of its potential; subsequent, AI will assist provide “custom-made exercises or customized vitamin plans” or let you know “the most effective time to have a cup of espresso is at 2 pm so you’ll be able to have an optimum exercise at 4 pm.”
One of the primary upsides of a Garmin watch is its potential to let you know how drained or sore you’re and regulate your day by day exercises accordingly. If larger watch manufacturers can actually flip to AI to provide this reliably, and with out the hallucinations AI is susceptible to, that may be a serious upside — one I’ve been hoping to see for a while!
Google can use Gemini for the Pixel Watch and lend it to Samsung, whereas some manufacturers might want to associate with OpenAI or different manufacturers. With Samsung turning the Galaxy S24 into an “AI cellphone,” possibly the Galaxy Watch 7 would be the firm’s first “AI watch.”
The 12 months of the sensible ring?
I’ve examined dozens of smartwatches however have but to put on my first sensible ring. My colleagues who personal the Oura Ring (Gen 3) swear by it, although, and different manufacturers like Ultrahuman, RingConn, Circular, BoAt, and Noise have jumped into the fray this 12 months.
All of those manufacturers will strive to strengthen their place earlier than the Samsung Galaxy Ring launches; it is at present rumored to arrive both in the summer season of 2024 or early 2025, relying on how lengthy it takes to get medical approval.
“Samsung’s entrance [to the smart ring market] can be big as a result of it is a multinational model with a really broad distribution community and loads of advertising and marketing,” Ubrani defined, whereas most of its present opponents are “localized to a number of international locations around the globe.”
He shared his group’s prediction for upcoming sensible ring gross sales, which did not take Samsung under consideration, predicting worldwide gross sales will prime a million items for the primary time (a 16% enhance) regardless of the shortage of a “main” worldwide model. With Samsung in the combination, that quantity may shoot up.
Sag urged that whereas sensible rings “remedy a giant downside with smartwatches” in phrases of comfy sleep monitoring, he additionally thinks that “there’s nonetheless room for enchancment in the shape issue” and that they want to “get thinner and extra smooth” earlier than they begin exploding in phrases of gross sales.
A unified Wear OS ecosystem
Moving on from what I count on to what I want to see, Google wants to ensure that Mobvoi, Fossil, and its different Wear OS companions aren’t left in the mud.
When Wear OS 3 launched in mid-2021, it got here instantly to the Galaxy Watch 4 that summer season. Then Fossil bought Wear OS 3 in October 2022 and had to wait till mid-2023 to provide Google Assistant once more. Mobvoi, in the meantime, has solely simply begun to roll out Wear OS 3 to its previous watches as of December 2023, a 12 months after the unique promised date.
It’s clear that the previous Snapdragon Wear {hardware} had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Wear OS 3 period. But for present and future watches just like the Ticwatch Pro 5 and Fossil Gen 7 — and new companions like Xiaomi returning to Wear OS — Google wants to do what it takes to clear the way in which for its companions to have simple updates so prospects aren’t ready years for brand spanking new options.
Thus, 2024 is the time to present that unified entrance! While Google and Samsung soar to Wear OS 5 or 4.5, companions ought to at the very least be getting Wear OS 4, enhancing each software program and total efficiency.
A significantly better Pixel Watch 3
Android Central gave the Pixel Watch 2 our greatest smartwatch award of 2023, however that does not imply it is an ideal gadget. When I polled my coworkers about their needs for upcoming 2024 smartwatches, most introduced up issues they want improved for the Pixel Watch 3.
In explicit, they want higher battery life, ideally matching with the 40-hour Galaxy Watch 6 and even longer with a “Pro” model. And as long as Google is simply providing one measurement, they’d admire smaller show bezels, giving at the very least a 1.3-inch show on par with most rival watches.
What I discover most intriguing comes from a 2023 Google patent displaying a Pixel Watch with no crown. As you’ll be able to see in the patent Figure above, it will have haptic sensors alongside the diameter of the watch. You’d give you the option to squeeze the Pixel Watch 3 from each side to open a notification or pause a music. In one other instance, you’d slide your finger alongside the underside to flip the quantity up or down or faucet a selected spot to activate a widget.
I’m undecided how properly this technique would work in apply — it appears doubtless to have a lot of false touches or misinterpreted gestures. But it is nonetheless an intriguing concept that takes benefit of its soft-edged show and provides the Pixel Watch 3 a standout gimmick no different smartwatch may provide.
New well being information to shake issues up
Earlier this month, I wrote about how Rockley, a health-tracking firm that is partnered with “six out of the highest 10 shopper gadget corporations,” has a brand new sensor that makes use of infrared to get a greater grasp of your present well being than skin-level coronary heart fee sensors can detect.
That know-how will in all probability come to main smartwatch manufacturers in the close to future, if not throughout 2024. But I’ll be sincere: I want one thing somewhat extra thrilling than simply “extra correct well being information,” and I suspect that applies to loads of customers.
Apple will allegedly add blood strain monitoring and sleep apnea detection to the Series 10. Samsung has measured blood strain for years and sleep apnea since late this 12 months however hasn’t managed to get FDA approval for both. Maybe Apple coming into the fray will assist push Samsung to obtain the accuracy it wants.
Otherwise, properly, I’ll return to the AI level above. The first model to provide one thing like “Apple Coach” or “Galaxy Coach” with coaching or restoration time ideas — primarily based in your health degree, latest actions, and sleep information — would actually impress on a regular basis customers with goals of getting fitter or working their first 5K.
A Fitbit renaissance
I’m fearful about what Google has in retailer for Fitbit. We realized not too long ago that Google had stopped promoting Fitbit in dozens of nations, in order to align its gross sales with wherever it sells Pixel Watches. That, mixed with the Pixel Watch 2 stealing the Fitbit Sense 2’s sensors, makes me surprise what the corporate’s plans are.
Based on Fitbit’s common launch calendar, we are able to count on a Fitbit Sense 3 or Fitbit Versa 5 launch in 2024. But what can they provide to drum up pleasure? The Versa 4 and Sense 2 already added Google Maps and Wallet, the identical as this 12 months’s Charge 6, so it will probably’t simply depend on the Google namesake this time.
Will Google give these new watches a Wear OS-lite expertise with extra third-party apps, as older Fitbits had? Or will Google and Fitbit work collectively on a extra superior model of Fitbit Premium, both counting on AI teaching or higher at-home exercise movies like Apple Fitness+? I’m undecided, however I do know that Google and Fitbit have to go all out this 12 months to impress us.
Unpredictable pleasure
I do not know what is going to occur with the Galaxy Watch 7, Pixel Watch 3, Apple Watch Series 10, or different smartwatches which might be certain to arrive in 2024. I’m certain they’re going to be good like their predecessors, however which one comes out on prime in the AI smartwatch wars might be enjoyable to… properly, watch!
I’m additionally curious what Garmin has in retailer for 2024. It made a few of the greatest health watches of the 12 months, besides, I’ve already written about how a few of its health options may use a revamp, as may the maze-like Garmin Connect app.
And I have not even touched on different units in the wearables class, like sensible glasses. Like sensible rings, they’re nonetheless discovering their area of interest however maintain getting extra and extra common 12 months by 12 months.
In different phrases, 2024 ought to be an thrilling time for wearables, with developments we have by no means seen and make-or-break moments for some main manufacturers.