Being an Android user, I like Wear OS smartwatches and their ease of use. They help me navigate through busy streets, and help me with quick actions without the need to pick up my phone. Most important of all, as someone with notifications anxiety, they make my life easier by displaying notifications. However, there’s one thing I absolutely despise about all Wear OS smartwatches: their unresponsive (or excessively responsive) tilt-to-wake function.
Tilt-to-wake may not come as an immensely useful feature. As someone who bought a Wear OS smartwatch thinking the feature would come in super handy when riding a bike and using Google Maps extensively, it never fails to disappoint me, regardless of which device I try.
I own both a Pixel Watch 2 and Galaxy Watch 7, and the tilt-to-wake functionality on them is on the opposite sides of the spectrum. When riding a bike, I tilt (quite evidently) my watch while my hand rests on the handlebar to check the next direction. The Pixel Watch 2 activates with every tiny jerk, which affects the battery life. I’ve noticed this happens way too much when the always-on display is turned on.
On Samsung, tilt-to-wake is too dense, and the wrist flick has to be pretty hard for it to recognize. Hence, I always end up taking my hand off the handle. Or I use my other hand to tap the watch for directions, which could be dangerous on the road.
Always-on display does help when I can clearly read the screen and don’t have to flick my wrist even slightly, but the contents are not always visible, so I have to resort to those slight flicks. Not to mention, AOD takes up a significant amount of battery. That said, this isn’t something that is unfixable.
The easiest way to address this is by letting users set the sensitivity. This way, we will know the intensity of the wrist flick that triggers tilt-to-wake. You won’t have to second guess about the amount or intensity you need to flick your wrist at. I’m not versed with Apple’s side of things. But if this is something even Apple Watch users face, maybe the Cupertino giant could implement the same.
Another solution is to tweak the algorithm to use the accelerometer and gyroscope data for when a person is moving. By adding and training it for more test cases and motion patterns, tilt-to-wake could get better. The first solution is much easier to implement and achievable, like the five other Wear OS features I want to see.
How reliable is Wear OS’ tilt-to-wake feature on your smartwatch? Has that ever been a problem for you? Let us know in the comments below.
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