At I/O 2026, Google confirmed Wear OS Tiles are now called Wear Widgets and offered a first look at new widget layouts, animations, and battery-saving technology. The company also named early app partners like Spotify, WhatsApp, Peloton, and Todoist, and previ
The next time a watch face feels too busy, Google wants you to blame the old interface—and trust the new one instead.
In a developer session at I/O 2026, the company confirmed it’s officially renaming Wear OS Tiles to “Wear Widgets.” It’s the clearest sign yet that Google isn’t just tweaking a feature. It’s building toward a more unified, widget-first experience across Android devices.
Google also showed what that shift looks like in practice. The new Wear Widgets arrive with updated layouts, richer animations, smoother interactions, and a specific promise that matters on a smartwatch: better battery life.
Four early access partners were named as part of the first wave of support. Spotify, WhatsApp, Peloton, and Todoist are among the apps expected to bring Wear Widgets to Wear OS first.
Under the hood. Google pointed to a new system called Remote Compose. a remote UI framework designed for out-of-app experiences such as widgets. The goal is to make widgets feel more alive—handling interactions and animations—without constantly waking apps in the background. Google’s pitch is that this approach should preserve battery life while still delivering the visual polish people notice immediately when they tap through a watch widget.
Google also tried to lower the anxiety for developers who built around the existing Tiles experience. The new Wear Widgets APIs are backwards compatible with Wear OS 4 and above. so developers won’t have to abandon older devices to move forward. And on watches that support horizontal widget carousels—like the Google Pixel Watch—larger widgets can still appear in a similar. full-screen style to today’s Tiles.
There’s another platform detail in the mix that could matter to Samsung owners. Google highlighted that Wear Widgets can now populate Multi-Info Tiles on Samsung Galaxy Watches. which previously were limited to Samsung’s own widgets. If that expands in real-world use, it could give third-party apps more room to customize the Samsung watch experience.
Google’s session didn’t stop at smartwatches. It also showcased widgets coming to Android Auto later this year, along with new widget types and layouts across Android devices.
The broader message from the session was simple: Google isn’t just giving Wear OS a new name for Tiles. It’s laying groundwork for how widgets should behave—visually, interactively, and on battery—across the devices where Android lives.
Google Wear OS Wear Widgets Wear OS Tiles Remote Compose I/O 2026 smartwatch widgets Spotify WhatsApp Peloton Todoist Android Auto widgets Samsung Galaxy Watches Multi-Info Tiles Pixel Watch