Android's director of engineering, David Singleton, recently gave an interview to CNET during which he discussed how upcoming updates to Google's Android Wear wearable OS would add greater functionality to the platform. Some of the new additions that can be expected in the upcoming months include GPS support, Bluetooth headset support and allowance for third-party watch face designs.

Singleton stated that the new GPS functionality would only work with devices that have GPS hardware built-in, but that it would also unlock "a whole set of new use cases...If you're someone who likes to go for a run, it might be convenient to be able to leave your phone at home," Singleton said. "So you can start recording your track with GPS on the watch. You can throw on some music and have a really enjoyable run. And when you come back home, everything will be synced up with the apps running on your phone." 

And while certain developers have found ways to distribute their third-party watch faces, Singleton says that Google is preparing to fully support such apps in an upcoming update. "It's actually kind of interesting because we haven't yet launched the API for that, but we've already seen tremendous innovation from some third parties who have been able to figure out how to do some of this on their own," said Singleton. "And we've already seen excitement for building watch faces that allow you to express a bit of your own personal style, or really help you work in specific things you might be doing." 

Singleton didn't give any dates for when people can expect to see these updates, though he did say that more than one update could be expected "before the end of the year," reports 9to5Google. Apparently one such update that Singleton promised will allow for a better "navigation experience and some of the voice action experience," is due out this week. So get your watches ready, and if you haven't purchased an Android Wear device yet, get your wallets ready. This month is expected to see a whole slew of smartwatches announced and released.