Google's answer to Digital Touch won't make it past Android Wear 2.0

Android Wear
There's now one fewer Android Wear watch face in the world.

Launched last year, the Together watch face from Google was designed to mimic the Digital Touch feature on the Apple Watch, letting you swap stickers, photos and other stuff with one contact in particular.

Now the watch face is being pulled - it won't be available past the end of September. Google says a lot of the features in the watch face will be integrated into Android Wear 2.0, though of course the new watch OS won't roll out to all Android Wear devices.

"You'll also be able to customise a number of different watch faces with useful data from your favourite apps," adds Google in an in-app message. Apparently feedback from Together will be used to tweak Android Wear 2.0 before its final release.

Wear's my update?

The shuttering of Together at the end of the summer suggests Android Wear 2.0 is going to be with us sooner rather than later, but considering the software is still at an early release stage it seems unlikely that it will be out by 30 September.

It may well appear at the same time as the new Nexus phones and Android 7.0 Nougat, which would make more sense if Google does indeed have a Nexus smartwatch in the pipeline and ready to launch.

The smartwatch software update will bring with it more customisation options, better fitness-tracking features, a variety of new input methods (including a tiny keyboard) and direct access to the cloud. Here's everything you need to know.

Apple Watch vs Android Wear:

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.