Google has confirmed that it will finally cater to left-handed customers in future Wear OS devices.
Considering what a well-rounded smartwatch operating system Wear OS is these days, it’s quite surprising to remind yourself that it fundamentally excludes 10% of the world’s population.
We’re talking, of course, of all those left-handed folk out there. Unlike Apple Watch, there’s still no facility to flip an Android Wear device’s orientation 180-degrees to make it comfortable to wear and operate on your right wrist.
That’s finally set to change. Over on Google’s official issue-tracking page, a Google developer has marked this feature request as Fixed, and provided the following explanation:
“Our development team has implemented the feature you have requested and will be available on future new devices.”
The wording is quite interesting here, as it doesn’t refer to a future iteration of the Wear OS software. Rather, it suggests that the feature will be coming to forthcoming hardware.
Does this mean that we’ll have to wait for a fresh smartwatch to see left-handed Android users fully acknowledged? We probably shouldn’t take this phrasing too literally, given that this is essentially a post in a comment thread rather than a carefully worded official statement.
It seems more likely that this feature will simply debut in a brand new Wear OS smartwatch. Who knows, it might even be the legendary Pixel Watch that first gives lefties their due.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
