Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon Wear 3100/4100 “capable” of running new Wear OS

During Google I/O, it was announced that Wear OS was going to receive a long-awaited and significant update. The question remained whether existing wearables running Wear OS would be upgradable to the new Wear OS version co-developed with Google and Samsung.

Thanks to a statement provided to XDA-Developers, we have confirmation that upgrading existing Wear OS devices to version 3.0 is theoretically possible. The spokesperson confirms that both the Snapdragon Wear 3100 and Snapdragon Wear 4100/4100+ will be “capable” of supporting Wear OS 3.0. Here’s what Qualcomm said.

We are working with Google on bringing Wear OS 3.0 to Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and 4100 platforms. Snapdragon Wear 3100, 4100+, and 4100 are capable of supporting Wear OS 3.0, but we are not discussing any specifics at this time.

With this news, we can expect that at least a handful of existing Wear OS watches could be updated, but it’s not clear which OEMs will be on board with updating older wearables. Qualcomm is responsible for making sure that hardware using its chipsets are able to run the software, which Google is responsible for. It will be up to the OEM to decide whether they want to put the work towards supporting older wearables.

Given the number of Wear OS devices launching in recent months, we hope that OEMs realize consumers deserve for their investments to last for several years and not a predetermined number of months.

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