Wear OS 5.1 is based on Android 15, indicating a shift in Google's strategy. App developers can now test Wear OS 5.1 in Android Studio. Wear OS 5.1 may not bring significant user-facing changes.

The latest release of Android Studio, dubbed Dolphin, improves Jetpack Compose screen previews, extends Wear OS support, and introduces Gradle Managed Virtual Devices to simplify test automation.

Wear OS 3 is still coming (despite what you can get from Samsung with its Galaxy Watches), so Android Studio is still catching up to devs' needs here.

Starting next month, Google is increasing the minimum OS version for Wallet on Android phones and Wear OS with security cited as the reason.