Google is killing Together watch face, its version of Apple's Digital Touch feature

By Christian de Looper August 5, 2016

Android Wear 2 — Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

Android Wear has had a bit of a rough go — the operating system certainly isn’t bad, but it hasn’t been able to capture the imagination of the user as much as Apple’s watchOS has. One feature that Apple came up with during the creation of the Apple Watch is Digital Touch, and Google soon came up with its own version, called Together, which is a watch face.

It seems, however, that Together didn’t become as popular as Google would have hoped, and the company will be shutting down the feature in an upcoming version of Android Wear. According to the company, some of the features of the Together watch face will be directly integrated into Android Wear 2.0, while others will simply disappear.

Together was originally launched as a watch face around a year ago, and essentially allowed two users to communicate by sharing emojis, photos, and little drawings without having to go into another app.

“With the release of Android Wear 2.0, many of the best features of Together will be integrated directly into the platform so you can connect with more people using your favorite messaging services,” said Google in a notice to users. ” In addition to emoji, you’ll be able to use Smart Reply, keyboard, or handwriting on the watch screen.”

It’s not clear if Together will shut down as part of Android Wear 2.0, or if Android Wear 2.0 will arrive before Together shuts down. Google says the watch face will shut down on September 30, however, some were expecting the new version of Android Wear to be released a little before then.

It’s important to note that for some users, the Together feature will simply disappear without any upgrade to Android Wear 2.0. Many first-generation watches aren’t expected to get an upgrade to the new version of Android Wear.

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Christian de Looper

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Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

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