The Verge has reported that Google is working on getting its Android Wear smartwatch platform to work with the iPhone, and it is close to finishing the final technical details, according to a source close to the development team.
If Google released it and if Apple allowed it on its platform, it would put Android Wear smartwatches directly in competition with the soon-to-be-released Apple Watch for the first time.
In its current state of development, Android Wear works along with a companion app on the iPhone and supports basic functions like notifications — as you can see in the photo below.
As it does on Android, on the iPhone Android Wear also supports Google Now’s ambient information cards, voice search, and other voice actions. It should also support some more advanced features with Google’s own iOS apps, like replying to Gmail messages.
Android Wear Smartwatch
But beyond that, there are plenty of unanswered questions. Pebble, who makes a smartwatch that works with both Android and iOS, has managed to get features like music control and watch apps working on its smartwatch with the iPhone. So it’s possible that Google could do the same.
Some third party developers have already hacked together a solution that makes Android Wear work on iOS, but it requires jailbreaking.
Another developer has discovered “iOS related code” in Android 4.4 that he believes implies that Google has been working on iOS compatibility for Android Wear. Read more here
