With a big OTA expected to hit Android Wear devices starting around October 15th, Google has just published what might be a preparatory update for the Android Wear companion app. Taking the app up to version 1.0.2, the update adds about 3MB to the APK's file size. Google hasn't published a change log quite yet, but we can already tell from a cursory teardown that the new version brings with it an update to Google Play Services for Wearables (a package sent to the watch from the app) - version 6.1.11 (up from 5.0.91).

This update could well affect Android Wear devices' battery life, and prepare the platform for future capabilities, some of which will come in the OTA mentioned above.

We haven't gone very deep into the APK yet, so we aren't sure what else might be hiding in its depths (though we've already spotted mentions of personal unlocking, something we saw in a teardown of the full GMS app), but if we find more goodies, we'll have an APK Teardown post on the way.

In the meantime, you can grab the app for yourself below either by waiting for the Play Store update to roll out, or by grabbing it directly from us.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File Name: com.google.android.wearable.app-1.0.2.1476973-201476973-minAPI18.apk

Version: 1.0.2.1476973 (201476973)

MD5: 6636ab57aa12f215d70b6171b93507a4

Thanks, Eric!