More evidence shows Samsung to use Google’s wearOS in future smartwatches

In the past we have seen a couple of instances wherein Samsung’s upcoming smartwatches are said to run on Google’s Wear OS platform and not Tizen. Now, there’s another piece of evidence cementing on this speculation. According to tipster Max Weinbach, the APK teardown of the Galaxy App wearable showed a new plugin codename called ‘water’. This, he believes, is the Samsung wearable Wear OS compatibility later.

Weinbach added that the codes also mentioned ‘merlot’ which is speculated as the codename for the chipset for the two rumoured Galaxy smartwatches codenamed ‘wise’ and ‘fresh’. The codenames are for the Watch Active 3 and Galaxy Watch 4. He says that there was also a direct reference ‘newos’ turning speculations into something more concrete.

He tweeted that there could be a larger and smaller size for both wearable devices. The Watch Active 3 may come in 40mm and 41mm while the Galaxy Watch 4 may come in 44mm and 45mm options. And there might also be a cellular and Bluetooth only model for each size.

Earlier this month, the Exynos version Galaxy S20’s latest kernel source code release had a reference to a device called ‘merlot’ in the Wi-Fi driver. Although the name didn’t reveal a lot about the device or if it will run wearOS software or not, what's interesting is that one of the ‘merlot’ references appeared next to ‘wearOS’ reference, indicating that the device might be a smartwatch running Google's wearOS platform.

In February, tipster Ice Universe also claimed that “Samsung's new watch will use Android to replace Tizen.”