Posted by Hoi Lam, Android Wear Developer Advocate

At Google I/O 2016, we launched the Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview, which gives developers early access to the next major release of Android Wear. Since I/O, feedback from the developer community has helped us identify bugs and shape our product direction. Thank you!

Today, we are releasing the second developer preview with new functionalities and bug fixes. Prior to the consumer release, we plan to release additional updates, so please send us your feedback early and often. Please keep in mind that this preview is a work in progress, and is not yet intended for daily use.

What’s new?

• Platform API 24 - We have incremented the Android Platform API version number to 24 to match Nougat. You can now update your Android Wear 2.0 Preview project’s compileSdkVersion to API 24, and we recommend that you also update targetSdkVersion to API 24.
• Wearable Drawers Enhancements - We launched the wearable drawers as part of the Android Wear 2.0 Preview 1, along with UX guidelines on how to best integrate the navigation drawer and action drawer in your Android Wear app. In Preview 2, we have added additional support for wearable drawer peeking, to make it easier for users to access these drawers as they scroll. Other UI improvements include automatic peek view and navigation drawer closure and showing the first action in WearableActionDrawer’s peek view. For developers that want to make custom wearable drawers, we’ve added peek_view and drawer_content attributes to WearableDrawerView. And finally, navigation drawer contents can now be updated by calling notifyDataSetChanged.
• Wrist Gestures: Since last year, users have been able to scroll through the notification stream via wrist gestures. We have now opened this system to developers to use within their applications. This helps improve single hand usage, for when your users need their other hand to hold onto their shopping or their kids. See the code sample below to get started with gestures in your app:

 public class MainActivity extends Activity {  
   ...    
   @Override /* KeyEvent.Callback */  
   public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {  
     switch (keyCode) {  
       case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_NAVIGATE_NEXT:  
         Log.d(TAG, "Next");  
         break;  
       case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_NAVIGATE_PREVIOUS:  
         Log.d(TAG, "Previous");  
         break;  
     }  
     // If you did not handle, then let it be handled by the next possible element as deemed by  
     // Activity.  
     return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);  
   }  
 }  

Get started and give us feedback!

The Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools and system images for testing on the official Android emulator, the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, and the Huawei Watch.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Take a video tour of the Android Wear 2.0 developer preview
2. Update to Android Studio v2.1.1 or later
3. Visit the Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview site for downloads and documentation
4. Get the emulator system images through the SDK Manager or download the device system images from the developer preview downloads page
5. Test your app with your supported device or emulator
6. Give us feedback

We will update this developer preview over the next few months based on your feedback. The sooner we hear from you, the more we can include in the final release, so don't be shy!