{"id":865713,"date":"2026-04-01T21:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/865713\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:51:19","slug":"google-releases-wear-os-6-1-based-on-android-16-qpr2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/865713\/","title":{"rendered":"Google releases Wear OS 6.1 based on Android 16 QPR2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<img width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/xiaomi-watch-wear-os-logo-1.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Google today quietly <a href=\"https:\/\/developer.android.com\/training\/wearables\/versions\/6-1?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released<\/a> Wear OS 6.1, but it\u2019s not available on any watches just yet.<\/p>\n<p>Officially, \u201cWear OS 6.1 is based on a Quarterly Platform Release (QPR) of Android 16 (API level 36.1).\u201d Specifically, that\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5google.com\/2025\/12\/02\/android-16-qpr2-pixel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Android 16 QPR2<\/a> released in December as the first minor SDK Release.<\/p>\n<p>The platform\u2019s last .1 release was <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5google.com\/2024\/11\/25\/wear-os-5-1-preview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wear OS 5.1<\/a> in November 2024 that brought a big Android 15 (from 14) upgrade.<\/p>\n<p>Google says \u201cthis version of Wear OS doesn\u2019t introduce any behavior changes\u201d for application developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\tAdvertisement &#8211; scroll for more content<\/p>\n<p>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 &gt; Date &amp; Time &gt; Use location.<\/p>\n<p>There are also \u201cRefined kids\u2019 experiences\u201d on Wear OS 6.1 for \u201csupervised accounts and kids\u2019 standalone watches.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Kids graduation<\/strong>: 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.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improved reauthentication support<\/strong>: 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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<p>More on Wear OS:<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/9to5google.com\" aria-label=\"Add 9to5Google as a preferred source on Google\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-dark\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Google as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-light\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Google as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\">FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/about\/#affiliate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">More.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/41cJfqh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-708702\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774889060_899_03-18-Galaxy-S26-Series-Grip-Banner.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"140\"\/><\/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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3160],"tags":[1685,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-865713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-gadgets","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116331668603176391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}