Android developers can now adapt their apps to send information to forthcoming Android smartwatches.

Google on Tuesday introduced Android Wear, an extension of its Android mobile operating system for wearable devices.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Chrome, and Apps said in a blog post that Google has only just begun to explore the chances of mobile technology. “That’s why we’re so all in favour of wearables — they understand the context of the arena around you, and you’ll interact with them simply and efficiently, with only a glance or a spoken word,” he said.

Pichai said Google is starting with the foremost familiar wearable device: the watch. Google isn’t the first major company to go into the smartwatch market — the Samsung Gear debuted last year to mediocre reviews and Sony has released similarly undistinguished models — however it has managed to wade into the market before Apple introduces the smartwatch that it’s widely expected to launch later this year.

[Is Android poised to rule the wearables market? Read Google Shoots For Wearables Dominance With SDK.]

The mobile revolution’s shift toward wearables has long been anticipated. In 2012, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps predicted that wearable devices would intensify the platform wars and that Google might win. “Apple’s iOS ecosystem has already inspired a number of wearable accessories, just like the Lark sleep sensor and now-discontinued Jawbone UP. But Google’s open Android platform will inspire broader experimentation for entire wearable solutions,” she wrote. “Android is already the platform of choice for Foxconn-funded startup WIMM Labs in addition to the Sony SmartWatch.”

Google acquired WIMM Labs last year. Its interest within the wearable market is hardly a secret: Its high-profile Google Glass eyewear represents another sort of wearable, and is a tool with no social precedent.

As with its Android phones, Google is operating with third-party hardware makers and technology partners to provide Android Wear devices. Pichai said to expect devices from Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung later this year. Google is likewise working with chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek, and Qualcomm, and with fashion brands resembling the Fossil Group.

Android developers can now download the Android Wear Developer Preview, which permits developers to evolve their Android apps to format notifications, the first mode of knowledge presentation on small-screen devices, for Android Wear hardware.

The Developer Preview also includes voice input APIs, since talking beats typing as an input mode on smartwatches. a standard use case can be replying verbally to an email. Pichai noted that wearable users should be capable of say “OK, Google” to name up a music playlist on a phone, or to cast a film to a Google Cast-connected TV.

Expect Android Wear to make significant use of Google Now and Google’s speech recognition technology.

Google says it is going to deliver an entire Android Wear SDK, that can include a more complete set of APIs, later this year, possibly on the company’s Google I/O developer conference in June.

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Thomas Claburn was writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications consisting of New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv, having earned a not particularly useful … View Full Bio

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