Google snaps up team behind Alexa-powered smartwatch to work on Android Wear

(Image credit: Cronologics)

The next batch of Android Wear may not be out for a while, but Google seems to still be finding fresh talent to support its wearable lineup.

Smartwatch developer Cronologics revealed it is joining the Android Wear team. An intriguing move, given that the company's previous project involved working on a smartwatch OS for Amazon's typically Echo-bound digital assistant, Alexa.

Dubbed the CoWatch, the crowdfunded Alexa wearable shipped out to Indiegogo backers earlier this summer. 

In addition to the typical odds and ends found in a smartwatch, CoWatch could also use Alexa's voice recognition technology so owners could vocally perform tasks like summon an Uber or fill an Amazon cart.

What could Cronologics bring to Android Wear?

While co-created with another company, iMCO, Cronologics likely gained ample experience since its recent 2014 launch shipping a mobile OS from ground-up. 

It's worth noting that the Android Wear platform can already do things like answer texts and look up weather using voice commands, so it's also possible Cronologics may also be tasked with refining that technology. 

The Cronologics teams writes on its website that it hopes to "continue pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond," and though it may be a while before we see what fruit - if any - Google's latest acquisition bears, we look forward to it.

Via Ars Technica

Parker Wilhelm
Parker Wilhelm is a freelance writer for TechRadar. He likes to tinker in Photoshop and talk people's ears off about Persona 4.