Wear OS 5.1 might be based on Android 15

The newest version of Wear OS to come out is Wear OS 5, and it is on the new Samsung Galaxy Watches. While this version of the wearable operating system isn’t widely available, Google is already working on the next version of Wear OS, but there might be a major difference between it and the current version. According to a new report, it looks like Wear OS 5.1 will be based on Android 15.

Speaking of Android 15, it’s clear that Android 15 won’t come on the new Pixel 9 series phones. We’re not sure what the hold-up is, but Google plans on releasing the next version of Android soon after these phones launch. Watch the next Pixel event that’s going down on August 13th to learn more.

Wear OS 5.1 might be based on Android 15

While Android and Wear OS exist in their own universes, they’re both based on the same open-source codebase. Versions of Wear OS are usually based on versions of Android released the year before. For example, Wear OS 4 is based on Android 13, and Wear OS 5 is based on Android 14.

However, according to the report, Google might be making a bit of a shift in how it handles its updates. The company is working on Wear OS 5.1, which is the first decimal-point update since Wear OS 3.5. We wouldn’t expect such a minute update to bring any major changes, but it appears that Wear OS 5.1 will be based on Android 15.

This means that Wear OS may no longer be based on older versions of Android. It could also signify that Google has finally detached Android and Wear OS from one another. This should give the company more freedom when distributing updates to either operating system.

Build numbers

Digging into the numbers, it appears that Wear OS 5.1 has a different naming scheme for its build number. Wear OS 5.0 has test build numbers that begin with AW2A. Wear OS 5.1, on the other hand, has a build number starting with AP4A. More recent test builds of Android also have this naming scheme.

It seems odd that Wear OS 5.1 is based on a version of Android that won’t be coming for quite some time. In any case, we’d be interested in seeing what sort of changes it will bring to enrich the Wear OS experience.