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Android Wear Faces Are Finally Interactive, Congratulations Google

Took 'em long enough.

Google just gave Android Wear a shot in the arm.

The company said today that, over the next few weeks, a software update will be pushed out that will allow developers to make Android Wear faces interactive. Until now, these faces—the bit of UI that's displayed by default on Android Wear watches—were static information dumps that couldn't be interacted with at all, which necessarily limited their usefulness.

"Now, with just a tap, your watch face can change its design, reveal more information, or even launch a specific app," Google gloated in the announcement blog post, pointing to a range of software, including Under Armor's fitness app and the popular Bits watch face, that stand to benefit from the newfound interactivity, including the ability to quickly flip through exercise stats like calories burned and miles run.

Like the Apple Watch, at least as best as we can tell, Google's Android Wear initiative has still only had minor success since its debut in March 2014: Canalys, a research firm, claimed in February that only 720,000 Android Wear smartwatches had been sold out of a total 4.6 smart wearable bands.