Moto 360, Android Wear coming to China without Google Play and Now: Report

Google will now get its foot back into China, a market where Google services were not permitted, with the introduction of Android Wear. In addition, Motorola is all set to launch their smartwatch in the country as well. According to The Verge, unlike Android on phones and tablets, Android watches have relied heavily on Google’s services, that are however, not available in China. Hence, Google has ‘decoupled’ Android Wear from its normal dependence on Google Now and Google Play respectively. Lenovo and Motorola have instead, turned to a Chinese company called Mobvoi, which will provide search and voice recognition. It is because of this move, Chinese users will not have an identical experience like other Google users globally. They will not have to option to use Google Now cards as well. David Singleton, Engineering Director for Android pointed out that Google needed to do “quite a lot of work” to decouple Android Wear from Google’s services. The Chinese version for the Moto 360 will not even respond to something as simple as, ‘OK Google’. However, there is no information provided as to how Google will make a full return to China. As of now, Google has said that Chinese app developers will be able to install apps onto Wear devices, but only via local app stores and not the official Google Play Store.