{"id":576113,"date":"2026-04-01T23:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576113\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:03:10","slug":"google-releases-wear-os-6-1-based-on-android-16-qpr2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576113\/","title":{"rendered":"Google releases Wear OS 6.1 based on Android 16 QPR2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Google today quietly released<\/a> Wear OS 6.1, but it\u2019s not available on any watches just yet.<\/p>\n

Officially, \u201cWear OS 6.1 is based on a Quarterly Platform Release (QPR) of Android 16 (API level 36.1).\u201d Specifically, that\u2019s Android 16 QPR2<\/a> released in December as the first minor SDK Release.<\/p>\n

The platform\u2019s last .1 release was Wear OS 5.1<\/a> in November 2024 that brought a big Android 15 (from 14) upgrade.<\/p>\n

Google says \u201cthis version of Wear OS doesn\u2019t introduce any behavior changes\u201d for application developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tAdvertisement – scroll for more content<\/p>\n

As for new features, Wear OS 6.1 \u201ccan now automatically set [your] time zone based on [your] physical location.\u201d This location-based time zone adjustment \u201chelps the device\u2019s time stay accurate as users travel between regions, even on devices without a network connection.\u201d There\u2019s a user-facing preference to control this under Settings > Date & Time > Use location.<\/p>\n

There are also \u201cRefined kids\u2019 experiences\u201d on Wear OS 6.1 for \u201csupervised accounts and kids\u2019 standalone watches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids graduation: When a user with a supervised account reaches the age of consent, they can \u201cgraduate\u201d to a non-supervised account. This transitions the device to a standard Wear OS experience, removing parental controls and giving the user full access to device settings.<\/p>\n

Improved reauthentication support: If users\u2019 credentials become invalidated, they can now re-validate their Google Account directly on their watch or through the companion app. This capability eliminates the need for a factory reset if the user changes their password or otherwise changes their account details after completing initial device setup.<\/p>\n

As of today, BP4A.250916.026.E2 is available in Android Studio\u2019s emulator. It\u2019s presumably coming to the Pixel Watch as the next quarterly update.<\/p>\n

More on Wear OS:<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\"Add
\n\t\t\t\"Add
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Google today quietly released Wear OS 6.1, but it\u2019s not available on any watches just yet. Officially, \u201cWear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,48,195,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-576113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}