Wear OS update list | 2021 Android Developer Summit

Author/Developer Relations Engineer Jeremy Walker

This year's Android Developer Summit brought many exciting news for Android developers, including some major updates to the Wear OS platform. At the Google I/O conference, we announced the launch of new Wear OS . Since then, we have launched Wear OS with technical support from Samsung on the Galaxy Watch4 series. Strava, Spotify and Calm and other developers have created many practical experiences for the latest version of Wear OS, and we are also looking forward to seeing developers bring new experiences to watches. If you want to learn more about creating quality apps for watches, you can read more about APIs, design tools, and Play Store updates.

Compose for Wear OS

Jetpack Compose library simplifies and accelerates UI development . We are working to provide Compose support for Wear OS. UI components are now available for watches, and you can use familiar components to design applications. Material You is one of them, you can use less code to build beautiful applications.

Compose for Wear OS is now available in developer preview. You are welcome to learn more and get started:

• Wear OS version Compose presentation
• Read the Wear OS version Compose overview for more details.
• Use the Quick Start Guide to build your first application.
• GitHub sample (from easy to difficult).

Immediate experience and Share your feedback it, you can also join Jetbrains Slack's Compose-Wear # share it with us! Please submit your feedback before we complete the Beta version of the API!

Watch Face Studio

Dial theme is one of the most eye-catching ways for users to express themselves on smart watches. To show your brand to users on Wear OS, creating a watch face theme is a great way. We have worked with Samsung to provide better tools to help you design watch face themes for the Wear OS ecosystem more easily.

Watch Face Studio design tool is launched by Samsung, you can make and publish your own watch face theme without writing any code. The tool contains intuitive and easy-to-use graphical tools to help you easily design watch faces. You can create a watch face theme for private use only, or upload it to the Google Play Management Center to share with your users on Wear OS devices that support API level 28 and above.

development library update

We recently released many Android Jetpack Wear OS development libraries , which will help you refer to best practices, reduce boilerplate code, and provide your users with a high-performance, clear experience.

Currently, most devices on the market have tiles (Tiles) enabled to provide predictable and clear information access and quick operation. The API is now in beta, please visit official documents , for more information.

Some developers want (outside of Watch Face Studio) to fine- the watch face theme. For this reason, we launched the new 161a30cdc21f12 Jetpack Watch Face API Beta version built by Kotlin.

Some of the new features of the new API are as follows:

• The theme style of the watch face that can be permanently saved on the watch and mobile phone (no need to use your own database).
• Support the WYSIWYG WYSIWYG dial theme configuration UI on the mobile phone.
• Smaller independent library (includes only the libraries you need).
• Encourage the use of preset good battery usage patterns to improve battery life; for example, reduce the interactive frame rate when the battery is low.
• Launched a new Screenshot API, where users can see their watch face changes in real time.
• There are more new features will be introduced to you...

Now is the best time to migrate from the old version of the watch face theme support library to this new version.

Play Store Update

We are working hard to make it easier for users to discover your Wear OS apps in the Google Play store. Earlier this year, we enabled the watch face theme search function to help users find your app in the Wear category more easily. We also released a feature that allows users to download apps directly from the mobile Play Store to their watches. You can check the official to learn more about these changes.

We also publish can help you to meet user expectations the new Wear OS Quality Guidelines and help users better understand your application styles new screen shots guide . In order to help users better understand how your application runs on their local device, we will launch device type and specific location score in 2022.

To learn more about Wear OS development information, you can check the developer website . You are also welcome to continue to follow the "Android Developer" WeChat official account to learn more about the latest content.

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