Google releases new Android Wear ad right before Apple Watch event

Less than an hour before Apple’s Spring Forward event in San Francisco, where the company is expected to reveal further details about the Apple Watch, Google has released a new Android Wear ad. Coincidence? We think not.

Posted on Google+ and Twitter, the message is straightforward: “Round or square: wear what you want with Android Wear. Be together. Not the same.”

Here’s the 15-second clip, which plays to the tune of Shamir’s On The Regular:

In other words, the Apple Watch may be customizable, but it’s nothing compared to Android Wear. For starters, devices using Google’s platform can be circular or rectangular. You can choose the watch you want from the manufacturer you want — you’re not just limited to what one company produces. In other words, Android is the Windows of the mobile world.

The ad is part of the company’s recent “Be Together. Not the Same” campaign, which debuted along with Android 5.0 Lollipop in October 2014. The campaign was also pushed at CES 2015, not just by Google but by its hardware partners as well. While the ads have been largely focused on smartphones, the message does trickle down to tablets and wearables as well.

The ad released today isn’t really anything special. It’s not the cutest Android ad we’ve ever seen, nor is it particularly ingenious. All the ad shows is a bunch of dancing people wearing watches — there’s even a bit of a similarity to the early Microsoft Surface ads, and that’s not a good thing.

It is timely, though.