Video chat app Glide is one of the first to make use of a major feature in the latest version of Android Wear. It has added video messaging and dictation to your smartwatch, meaning you can have (albeit one-sided) real-time video conversations from your wrist, without having to bother with your phone. It looks great, but annoyingly, it’s really hard to get right now.
Glide is already a well-known messaging app on its own, enabling you to record and send short video messages to friends, instead of tapping out an SMS or making a call. It’s easy to respond with your own video, or by using emoji. There’s never been any typing involved with Glide’s app, and that’s what makes it perfect for smartwatches.
Well, almost perfect. While you can watch received video messages from friends on your watch, you can’t send them back unless you grab your phone, because of course, Android Wear watches don’t have cameras. Instead, it’s an emoji or a voice-only message in response, if you’re intent on only using your smartwatch.
It still looks great though, and there’s something very sci-fi cool about seeing video playing on a watch. Unfortunately, there’s another restriction on who will get to fully use Glide’s new app too. So you can actually hear what’s said in the video, your smartwatch needs to have a built-in speaker, and that’s a bit of a rarity. If the watch on your wrist isn’t the Huawei Watch or the Asus ZenWatch 2, then you’re out of luck.
However, this will change in the future as more watches are released with tiny speakers. On any other Android Wear watches, the app still works, but audio will come from your phone’s speaker. The final hurdle in getting Glide’s video messaging feature is that you also need the latest version of Android Wear on your watch, but at least that’s on its way very soon. Once it’s onboard, fire up the updated Glide app and give the feature a try.
