Newsletter
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is going on right now, and we’re seeing a lot of great tech being introduced. For example, the long-awaited OnePlus Watch 2 (Review) was launched during the event. At MWC, Google announced a new feature that will make notifications more battery-efficient on Wear OS devices.
MWC is still going on, so you’ll want to keep up to date with the exciting new announcements that are being made. For instance, Lenovo showed off its transparent laptop, and TCL showed off its new NXTPAPER tablets. This is only a small example of the tech being introduced, so be sure to check out our official MWC page for more information.
A new Wear OS feature will make notifications more battery-efficient
Any action on your device can lead to more power drain no matter how small. Google unveiled a new change to the way that Wear OS handles notifications that could actually save battery power in the long run. It takes more than one processor to run Wear OS. Since 2018, these devices have been using an Application Processor (AP) in tandem with a microcontroller unit (MCU). The latter is a much lower-powered chip and thus much more efficient. The MCU is mostly for handling tasks that run in the background like step counting.
Currently, notifications are handled by the AP. However, Google is going to change that and have the notifications be handled by the MCU. Smartwatches are a central hub for your notifications, and many people receive hundreds over the course of a few hours. So, moving the notifications down to a mower-powered processor can have a palpable effect on your battery life.
Right now, the only smartwatch that capitalizes on his feature is the OnePlus Watch 2. This could possibly be one of the reasons why this smartwatch has such an incredible battery life. While this feature is only on that device currently, it will eventually make it to other Wear OS smartwatches as time goes on.