Here's what you'll be talking about over the next 12 months
What will be the big wearable tech trends and launches in 2022? We are already looking ahead to what is set to be another big year for all things wearables.
The question is, who and what will get us talking and mark new ground for the tech that lives on our wrists, in our ears and other parts of our bodies.
We’ve looked back to 2021 and along with our knowledge of what’s brewing in the space, we’ve served up what we think is going to happen over the coming 12 months.
If you’re wondering whether flexible fitness trackers and AR glasses are going to be the talk of the tech town year, here’s our take with 22 wearable tech predictions for 2022.
1. Google Pixel Watch finally(!) happens
We’ve been reporting it for years, but it seems a flagship Google smartwatch will finally happen in 2022. And there’s mounting evidence it’s going to become a reality.
The completion of the acquisition of Fitbit, the decision to work with Samsung to revamp Wear, the leaks of alleged renders and software via Google’s Android developer studio. It does feel like we are starting to get a real picture of what we can expect from a Pixel Watch.
It seems highly likely that it will run on Wear OS 3 and showcase a lot of what we’ve seen on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 as well as much stronger integration of Fitbit’s health and fitness monitoring features.
There’s speculation it could be powered by a Samsung-built chipset too, so maybe Samsung will be helping on the hardware as well as the software front to make sure the Pixel Watch hits the ground running.
Read our full guide to the Pixel Watch rumors.
2. Wear 3.0 fully rolls out
This is less of a prediction and more of one that we know is happening. We just don’t know when. Our money is that will be sooner rather than later in 2022.
While Samsung has enjoyed a bit of an exclusive on showcasing new Wear in 2021 on the Galaxy Watch 4, we know a host of other Wear OS hardware partners are waiting in the wings to add new Wear to existing smartwatches too.
The TicWatch Pro 3, TicWatch E3 and Fossil’s Gen 6 are among the smartwatches that are pegged to get Wear OS 3.0 in 2022 and we’ve started to get a sense how Wear without Samsung’s UI on top could look when it does land on other watches.
Those watches can look forward to UI improvements, rebuilt apps and whatever Google has cooked up with Fitbit in terms of improving the health and fitness tracking experience for those compatible Wear watches.
Check our guide to Wear OS 3.0 smartwatches.
