Apple Watch Concept Envisions Android Support, Third-Party Faces

watchOS 7 is expected to be announced later this year, obviously with a handful of new features, but guessing the improvements at this point is pretty much impossible given Apple’s FBI-like secrecy.

A concept published online this week, however, proposes several significant improvements, including not only fitness enhancements, which kind of make sense given Apple Watch is evolving as an activity tracker, but also Android support and third-party faces.

The ideas shared by Matt Birchler include sleep tracking, a highly-anticipated feature, as well as customizable rings that users can set from a new Activity app.

Then, watchOS needs a web UI and data export support, which would open the door to several new features, including the option to import data in a separate app.

“If I want to download my data as a CSV and run my own analytics on it, I should be allowed! If I want to start using RunKeeper and transfer my run history over there, I should be able to do that too,” the concept creator explains.

Syncing Apple Watch with Android

Options to disable activity tracking for one day, communication optimizations, and battery life refinements are also proposed to make the Apple Watch a smarter smartwatch.

But one of most interesting ideas concerns support for Android, something that I also requested a long time ago.

“Samsung’s devices show how deep into Android you can hook into, and while this will never be as good an experience as it would be when paired with an iPhone, it would instantly be the best option for Android users the world over. If Apple is interested in giving Apple Watch sales a shot in the arm, then this is how they could do it,” the designer explains.

“Oh, and making the Apple Watch work with Android sure feels a lot like Apple making the iPod work with Windows. It’s a “halo device” that gets people in the door with an Apple Watch purchase this year, and maybe an iPhone the next.”

A preview of watchOS 7 is expected to be provided at WWDC in the summer, with the release likely to happen in the fall.