The smartwatch on your wrist, assuming it's powered by Wear OS, could soon help you access your hotel, show a campus ID, or become a corporate badge. This is according to the changelog of the December Google Play Services update coming to the Android platform.
Google maintains a Google System Release Notes page that we follow closely, as it shares updates to items that might come to your phone or watch or tablet, but without system updates. It does that. As many of you know, Google Play Services is a way for Google to make sometimes significant changes to the Android platform without requiring device manufacturers to release full updates. And that's all we have for the month of December.
In Google Play Services v24.47 that launched yesterday (12/2), Google expects Wear OS to act as a device with the power of an access card. Specifically, it says “you can use hotel keys, campus IDs, and corporate badges from your wrist”.
Purse
- (Phone, Wear) With the Access Card on Wearable feature, you can use your hotel keys, campus IDs, and corporate badges on Android wearable devices.
- (Phone, Wear) Now you can use Google Wallet in more countries.
How will it all work? Ha, that's the point here. Google does a great job of updating this Google System Release Notes page, but rarely tells us when these things are coming. They bring new ideas and features that catch our eye, only they offer little in the way of details on when or what devices can see them. That's the case here again, although with it being December, it's likely that these new Wear OS items will arrive in the December feature drop.
We'll be sure to let you know if we get more details. And be sure to let us know if you can randomly access your hotel room with your Wear OS watch.
