Wear OS3: Older watch faces are affecting some users

Multiple smartwatches from various brands run on the Wear OS 3 operating system that is developed by Google. The tech giant’s first-ever smartwatch, the Pixel Watch also runs on Wear OS 3. Now, some users are reportedly facing issues with the always-on display (AOD) feature that is available on these Wear OS devices. Several Wear OS 3 smartwatch owners seemed to have discovered that the older watch faces don’t fully support the AOD feature on their wearables. Users also mentioned that the issue was not prevalent among the new watch faces that Google made for the Pixel Watch. Google may soon release a new update to fix the issue
Wear OS 3 smartwatch AOD issue: How is it affecting users
According to a report by 9to5Google, users have complained that whenever they use an older watch face, the always-on display automatically turns off after around 15 minutes (time may vary across users). Initially, the AOD feature starts working like it should and after a certain period, the issue starts to surface.

As per the report, while testing with two old watch faces on a Pixel Watch and Fossil Gen 6 Wellness (both launched with Wear OS 3 out-of-the-box) the issue seemed to occur for both devices. However, the issue couldn’t be replicated on a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, which hints that all Wear OS 3 smartwatches are not affected by this AOD bug.
Wear OS 3 smartwatch AOD issue: What is causing the problem
One of the developers (who has designed a new Pixel Watch face) has suggested that this bug affects watch faces that aren’t built using the Jetpack Watch Face library. This new library approach is stable since December 2021 and is designed to replace the older Wearable Support Library system. Google has also pointed out how the stock watch faces on Pixel Watch use the Jetpack library system.

The permanent solution to this problem can be achieved if all the developers build their watch faces with the latest library approach and modernise them. However, before that happens, Google is expected to patch the issue with an update much sooner.