What functions should a real smartwatch have

First, the current factors restricting the development of smartwatches/wearable devices are rough as follows:

Technical problem
The main factor restricting the development of wearable devices is the technical factor, and the first one is the battery factor. Even if the Apple Watch needs to be charged once a day or two after use, the user’s use cost is very high.

As long as the GPS function of a normal smartwatch is turned on, the battery life will be greatly reduced, not to mention the use of other functions at the same time. In the later stage, the GPS function will be a necessary function of smartwatches.

How to improve battery life on a very limited product is of vital importance to the development of wearable devices.

Use value
The second restriction lies in the use of value provided to users. The current use functions are simple and need to be further explored.

According to relevant market surveys, wearable devices such as bracelets and watches are currently mainly used for two heavy purposes: checking time and counting steps. For the two functional requirements of time and step counting, there are indeed conflicts and overlaps with mobile phones, because mobile phones can also check the time and step counting.

Wearable devices such as smartwatches, if they are simply used to count steps and watch the time, must have great limitations in their use-value. The functions are too simple and unnecessary to use, which does not completely solve the user’s pain points.

User time and distribution

Nowadays, people in big cities cannot do without mobile phones. Mobile phones already occupy more than 80% of people’s time and attention. From this point of view, there is a conflict with the mobile phone, because outside of 80% of the time, it takes time and attention to eliminate the normal life, and there is not much left for the bracelet, so this also means that it restricts the development of wear One of the main factors. But judging from the data collected now, the sales volume of wearable devices of companies such as Garmin, Huawei Honor, Apple Xiaomi, etc. is growing rapidly, which also shows that the market share of wearable devices is increasing. And wearable devices actually have things that mobile phones cannot do, such as continuous heart rate measurement, exercise monitoring, and body data collection.

The functions that can be possessed after breaking through the above constraints

Take advantage of the second screen

Smartwatches will be the second screen carried by users in addition to mobile phones, but this screen is not yet fully used.

Compared with a mobile phone, the screen of a smartwatch is closer to people, and it can obtain and receive various information more conveniently.

The smartwatch has to do what it is supposed to do when it is worn and play the value of the second screen it carries. Watching time and step counting are too basic, and mobile phones also have such functions. For example, push notifications, view short messages, quickly browse and record exercise data on this screen.

How to place more and appropriate functions on the screen of a smartwatch can greatly increase the importance and frequency of use of the smartwatch.

AI interaction

A real smartwatch must not rely on a mobile phone, but it can directly interact with the mobile phone.

It will also be a trend to deepen the integration of voice and voice on smartwatches, and to deepen voice interaction. Through a good interactive experience, it will also be a trend to develop watches into the nature of personal voice assistants.

Take a chestnut: From the perspective of the most popular smart speakers, there are some specific problems in-home use: how to quickly wake up the speakers? How to use it remotely? It will be very convenient if you use a smartwatch worn on your wrist to solve the problem of fast and long-distance voice interaction.

At the same time, through voice interaction, the watch can give full play to the assistant function. For example, voice dialogue setting an alarm clock, event plan reminder, weather query. It is more likely that the voice interaction function will be used to the extreme and become an intelligent voice control terminal, which can directly control other smart devices through the voice interaction of the watch on the wrist.

Give full play to the attributes of contact with the human body and collect various data of the human body
The biggest difference between smartwatches and mobile phones is that smartwatches are close to human skin.

Sleep monitoring, calories burned, human heart rate, continuous monitoring of ambulatory blood pressure, ECG, blood oxygen, and skin electrical properties are all data that can be done with wearable devices but not mobile phones.

After the watch collects these continuous data, it can generate a series of data analysis reports on the APP and give relevant guidance and suggestions.

In the future of wearable devices, from the perspective of a big concept, it is more able to digitize and cloudy the information about the human body collected through intimate contact.

Call, video
The smartwatch should have an independent camera, which can take pictures and make video calls.

Incoming call reminders, rejecting calls, and answering calls will all be necessary functions.

Connection method

WIFI connection, Bluetooth connection, 5G/4G/3G network connection.

A variety of connection methods are required and can be switched freely according to the use scenario. Wi-Fi connection is available when there is a network, and Bluetooth can be used when there is no network. Since phone cards will be added later, it will also be able to connect via 5G/4G/3G networks.

With a variety of NFC interfaces, it not only supports swiping subway, bus cards, access cards, currency payments, fingerprint recognition, etc., but also interactively displays information with mobile phones, computers, Pads and other terminal devices, and check and send simple operation commands.

Powerful and accurate GPS and endurance
At present, many functions of smartwatches have not been developed, but they are affected by the battery capacity, and the subsequent voyages will decline rapidly when GPS is turned on.

Smartwatches are very demanding for GPS functions. Accurate GPS positioning plus voice interaction can actually be used as navigation. Battery life should also be increased to charge once a week, half a month, or a month, and the experience will be greatly improved.

Waterproof performance
The waterproof ability must be greatly improved, swimming, surfing, and deep water are all things.

Other basic functions
Step counting, sleep monitoring, heart rate, exercise data, exercise trackā€¦

Under bold predictions, smartwatches will gradually replace the low-end watches and bracelets on the market, leaving only some top-level high-end watches, gradually showing the characteristics of true intelligence and wearability.

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