Google welcomes third-party developers' Tiles to Wear OS

Google introduced swipeable Tiles for Wear OS back in 2019 as a way to offer information, such as the weather or a user's fitness info, on a quick-access interface. The Tiles users can add to their smartwatches are pretty limited, though, and all of them are first-party offerings from Google or from their device's manufacturer. That's bound to change in the near future, because the tech giant has announced that the Jetpack Tiles library, which third-party developers can use to create custom Wear OS Tiles, is in alpha.

The fate of Google's Wear OS has been hanging in the balance for a while now. It hasn't gotten a new version in years, and some believe that the tech giant's Fitbit acquisition could spell death for the platform. Regardless, Wear OS is still around, and Google has been rolling out small updates for it. Back in November, for instance, it added three new Tile options for those who want a shortcut to recent workouts, to weather information and to guided breathing sessions. The company says it will also roll out an update this spring that would give users access to any third-party Tiles that gets developed for the OS.