Google gave Android Wear, its smartwatch platform, a boost Wednesday, with new watch faces, a new Watch Face developer tool and a new Android Wear companion app.
Dozens of new watch faces are available in a new Google Play section, offering a selection that includes functional, attractive and fun styles, including a Minion from “Despicable Me.” The new options were designed to show what developers can do with the Watch Face API, which lets them make and distribute their own designs. (See our API explainer.)
The tools include things like OpenGL, which gives them smoother graphics, and background services to put weather, appointments and other features on the face.
See also: Making Android Apps Just Got Easier: Android Studio Officially Debuts
Users can download watch faces from Google Play, as they would any watch app, or they can use Google’s newly built Android Wear companion app. The latter, Google says, was developed for easier app discovery, downloads and swapping of watch faces. Some of these changes are available now, while others will roll out over the coming week, says the company.
For more information, Android Wear developers can check out Google resources like Designing Watch Faces, watch Creating Watch Faces training video, or see a WatchFace Sample online (also available in the samples manager for Android Studio).
If you’re an app maker who has already built watch faces for Android Wear by using workarounds, Google still urges you to build using the official API. The company wants a consistent experience for end users, and it emphasizes that it’s the gateway for a featured spot in the Google Play’s Watch Faces catalog.
