Google launches Android Wear app for iOS on iPhone 5 and later with support for LG Watch Urbane and all future Android Wear watches
Android Wear smartwatches come to the iPhone — In a nondescript conference room at Google's headquarters a few weeks ago, I paired my iPhone to a smartwatch running Android for the first time.
Context & Ripple Effects
This launch confirms what The Verge reported in April — that Google was close to making Android Wear work with iPhone via a companion app. It arrives months after LG positioned the round-display, metal-bodied Watch Urbane as its flagship wearable, giving Google a hardware partner whose watch can now sell to iOS users.
The move matters because it puts Android Wear in direct contact with the installed base Apple built for its own watch, and it follows Google's earlier gesture toward iOS users with its first Apple Watch app via Google News & Weather for iOS — evidence Google is treating Apple's platform as distribution rather than enemy territory.
First-order effects
- iPhone 5-and-later owners can now buy any current or future Android Wear watch — starting with the LG Watch Urbane — instead of being locked to the Apple Watch, immediately expanding the addressable market for every Android Wear hardware maker.
Second-order effects
- LG and other Android Wear manufacturers gain an iPhone-sized sales channel without building their own iOS software stacks, while Apple faces a cross-platform smartwatch competitor on its home turf for the first time.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, wearables decouple from phone ecosystems the way fitness bands already have, with watch platforms competing on features rather than handset lock-in — and platform owners forced to justify their watches on merit instead of compatibility.
The trend: Smartwatch platforms are going cross-platform, with Google extending Android Wear to iOS to compete with Apple Watch outside the Android base.