Tag Archives: Android Wear

What’s happening in Wear OS by Google

Posted by Karen Ng, Director of Product and Robert Simpson, Product Manager

This blog post is part of a weekly series for #11WeeksOfAndroid. For each week, we’re diving into a key area and this week we’re focusing on Android Beyond Phones. Today, we’ll share what’s happening with Wear OS by Google.

Wearable technologies help people lead healthier lives and connect with important, timely information. Today, we're sharing our areas of investment focusing on the fundamentals, bringing even more helpful experiences to more watches, and giving users more choice in a device ecosystem.

Focusing on fundamentals

Wearables are designed to instantly connect people with what's important throughout the day. That's why we're focused on fundamentals like performance and power.

In the next OTA update coming in the fall, we’re improving performance by making it faster to access your info and start your apps. We’re simplifying the pairing process to make onboarding easier. You’ll see improvements to our SysUI for more intuitive controls for managing different watch modes and workouts. And with CPU core improvements, you’ll also see up to a 20% speed improvement in startup time for your apps.

Finally, we continue to support advancements in technology to bring new functionality, such as LTE, and expand levels of performance with the new Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 4100 and 4100+ platforms. We are excited by the kinds of wearable experiences that can be enabled in the future.

More helpful experiences

Wearables showcase important information at a glance. Some of the most used features of Wear OS by Google are hands-free timers and tracking fitness metrics. In response to COVID-19, we built a handwashing timer that helps ensure users practice good hygiene.

And later this year, you’ll see a beautiful new weather experience for Wear OS by Google. It aims to be easier to read while on the go, with an hourly breakdown of today’s weather to help you plan ahead and provide information about important weather alerts in your area.

We’re always imagining new ways wearables can help people stay healthy, present and connected. Stay tuned for more in 2021!

More choice than ever

We’re excited to welcome new watch OEMs to the Wear OS by Google family -- Oppo, Suunto, and Xiaomi. This means new watches that fit your style and needs -- such as the Suunto 7 with rich sports capabilities, or the new LTE watches from Oppo that will keep you connected on the go.

Bringing the best of Android to wearables

We’re also working to bring the best of Android 11 to wearables. Many of the things you’ve seen in modern Android development -- from Android Studio, a great language with Kotlin, and Jetpack libraries to make common tasks easier will be part of what you can expect as a developer building wearable apps. We’ve just released a release candidate for androidx.wear 1.1.0, and would love feedback on things you’d like to see as you get started building a wearable app.

We can’t wait to see what helpful experiences you’ll build!

Source: Android Developers Blog

Privacy protections for physical activity in Android 10

Since Google Fit was released in 2015, apps with an abundance of features for health and fitness tracking have integrated with the Google Fit APIs. Over the years, the number of users using Google Fit as a central repository for their fitness and wellness data has grown significantly.

With Android 10, we're making further updates to give users even more control over this personal data. One key change concerns how Android apps can monitor a user’s physical activity and retrieve data from Android sensor APIs and the Google Fit platform.

In Android 10: Activity recognition permission

Android 10 introduces a new runtime permission for activity recognition for apps that make use of the user's step and calorie count or classify the user's physical activity, such as walking, biking, or moving in a vehicle through one of the following APIs:

If your app relies only on raw data from other built-in sensors on the device, such as the accelerometer and gyroscope, you don't need to declare this new permission in your app.

Activity Recognition Permission Enforcement

Starting December 2019, data will be restricted from apps not including the Google Play Services legacy activity recognition permission in the manifest. If your app doesn’t currently request this permission, you should add it today to ensure no loss of service for your users.
When a user upgrades to Android 10, the system auto-grants this permission to your app if it previously requested the legacy permission.
As you begin targeting Android 10, you should register the ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION permission and adopt the new permission model to adhere to the new policy.

Google Fit physical activity APIs

This new permission affects a subset of data types available in the Google Fit APIs on Android. If your app accesses these types from Google Fit today, then you need to update your app inline with the new permissions.

The activity recognition runtime permission is required for accessing the following APIs / data types:

RecordingAPI - recording the following data types:
- com.google.step_count.delta
- com.google.step_count.cadence
- com.google.activity.segment
- com.google.calories.expended
HistoryAPI - reading the following data types:
- com.google.step_count.delta
- com.google.step_count.cadence
- com.google.activity.segment
- com.google.activity.exercise
- com.google.activity.summary

With Android 10 now launched and SDK 29 becoming your primary development target, now is the time to make sure your apps are compatible with the new runtime permission.

Source: Android Developers Blog

Wear OS by Google: AoG support and new enhanced battery saver mode

Posted by Hoi Lam, Lead Developer Advocate, Wear OS by Google

At Google I/O, we launched the Wear OS by Google developer preview 2. This update added support for Actions on Google (AoG) and more power-related enhancements including a new battery saver mode.

This developer preview includes updated Android Emulator images and a downloadable system image for the Huawei Watch 2 Bluetooth or Huawei Watch 2 Classic Bluetooth. This preview release is intended for developers only and not for daily or consumer use. Therefore, the preview release is only available via manual download and flash. Please refer to the release notes for known issues before downloading and flashing your device.

Support for Actions on Google

We have revamped the Google Assistant on Wear OS to support features such as visual cards, follow-on suggestion chips, and text-to-speech. For developers, we added support for Actions on Google to Wear OS and existing Actions will work on Wear OS out of the box. Be sure to observe best practices for Actions on Google to get the best results such as short concise dialog and adopting to both visual and vocal feedback. This feature does not depend on Android P and is being rolled out to all Wear 2.0 users.

Enhanced battery saver mode

In this Android P developer preview, we are launching an enhanced battery saver mode. While the watch is in this mode, the watch shows a power-efficient watch face and turns off a set of services including radios, the touch screen, and tilt to wake. Users can get the time by pressing the side button. A long press allows the user to switch back to a fully-operational mode and perform tasks such as paying with NFC or replying to a message. Developers should assume that their apps, watch faces, and complication data providers are not available in enhanced battery saver mode.

Update on power saving features

We received much feedback on the power saving features in the last developer preview. As a result, we have updates on two features:

Roll back of Wi-Fi off when BT is disconnected: To improve power consumption, the last developer preview would not connect to Wi-Fi when disconnected from Bluetooth. After listening carefully to user and developer feedback, we decided to roll back this change.
Limited background activity and foreground service: A number of health and fitness developers have said their apps require background monitoring of the user's motion and other vitals throughout the day. The developers said their apps cannot perform background monitoring if background services are unable to set alarms and jobs. For these types of exceptional use cases, we recommend that the apps use foreground services to anchor alarms and jobs. For other use-cases, developer should look at both foreground service as well as limiting jobs and alarms to while the watch is on charger. We are still fine tuning this feature, your feedback and use-cases will be most helpful in helping us get this right.

Smart Reply for bridged notifications

Smart Reply has been enabled for bridged notifications from the user's smartphone for some time. With the latest developer preview, we are introducing simplified Chinese support for our users in China. This feature is powered by an on-device model using TensorFlow Lite and the model is optimized for low-memory, low-power devices.

To use this feature, developers should set setAllowGeneratedReplies of the reply action to true. Here's a sample code snippet with the important part highlighted in bold:

NotificationCompat.Action action =
    new NotificationCompat.Action.Builder(R.drawable.ic_reply_white_24dp,
        replyLabel, replyPendingIntent)
        .addRemoteInput(remoteInput)
        .setAllowGeneratedReplies(true) // <--- true to enable smart replies
        // Wear OS requires a hint to display the reply action inline.
        .extend(new NotificationCompat.Action.WearableExtender()
            .setHintDisplayActionInline(true))
        .build();

In addition, for messaging apps, we recommend that developers use MessagingStyle notifications. This can give the algorithm a more structured data set on which to base its recommendations.

Please give us your feedback

We expect to provide more updates to this preview before the final production release. Please submit any bugs you find via the Wear OS by Google issue tracker. The earlier you submit them, the higher the likelihood that we can include the fixes in the final release.

Source: Android Developers Blog

Android Wear Beta

Posted by Hoi Lam, Lead Developer Advocate, Android Wear

LG Watch Sport

Today, we are launching the beta of the next Android Wear update. As we mentioned at Google I/O, this will mainly be a technical upgrade to API 26 with enhancements to background limits and notification channels. LG Watch Sport users can go to this webpage to sign up and the factory image will automatically be downloaded to the watch you enroll. As this is a beta, please be sure to review the known issues before enrolling. If you don't have a watch to test on, you can use the Android emulator. For developers working with Android Wear for China, an updated emulator image is also available.

Notification Channels

In this update, users can choose the types of notifications they receive via an app through notification channels. This gives users finer-grained control than muting all notifications from the app. For notifications generated locally by Android Wear apps, users will be able to customise the notifications channel they want to see, right on their watch. Please refer to the Wear notification sample for more details. For notifications bridged from the phone, the phone notifications channel settings will dictate what is shown on the watch.

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
    mNotificationManager.createNotificationChannel(
        NotificationChannel("1001", "New Follower",
            NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_DEFAULT))

    mNotificationManager.createNotificationChannel(
        NotificationChannel("1002", "Likes",
            NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_LOW))
}

Background Limits

There are increased restrictions on background services. Developers should assume services can no longer run in the background without a visible notification. In addition, the background location update frequency will be reduced. Battery-saving best practices such as using JobScheduler should be adopted to ensure your app is battery-efficient and able to perform background tasks when possible.

Please give us your feedback

We expect this to be the only beta release before the final production release. Thank you for your feedback so far. Please submit any bugs you find via the Android Wear issue tracker. The earlier you submit them, the higher the likelihood that we can include the fixes in the final release.

Source: Android Developers Blog

Android Wear: 20+ watches for fall

Android Wear was created to take smartwatches beyond “one size fits all.” That's why we're thrilled there are even more ways to express your style this fall—all while keeping you informed with messages at a glance, activity tracking, and help from your Google Assistant.

Fit for the runway

With Android Wear, you never have to sacrifice fashion for function. We've partnered with designer brands like: Diesel, Emporio Armani, Fossil, Guess, Gc, Hugo Boss, Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. With a range of designs and endless watch face options, you'll always be able to find a look that matches your outfit or mood. The Michael Kors Access My Social app lets you dress up your watch face with your favorite Instagram or Facebook photos. Fossil Q Explorist and Q Venture’s unique social sharing feature lets you share your personalized watch face with friends.

Crafted for multi-tasking

If you want a watch that keeps up with your busy life, Android Wear has options. The Montblanc Summit lets you stay ahead and in style, while keeping an eye on your heart rate. The TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45 is the ultimate in customizable luxury, combining the latest technology with Swiss watchmaking—including both Android Pay and built-in GPS. Movado Connect maintains its iconic design while providing 100 watch face variations and on-watch payments with Android Pay. Want to leave your phone behind? The ZTE Quartz is smart, affordable and cellular enabled.

Stamina for active lives

With heart rate monitoring, activity tracking, GPS, music on the go and sporty designs, Android Wear has a range of watches built for your workout. The Huawei Watch 2 provides motivation with a professional running coach feature and comes fully-loaded with a heart-rate monitor, GPS and Android Pay. The Polar M600 is designed to keep you connected while you train, including smart coaching features that turn your activity and training data into actionable insights. Ticwatch S&E is great for your everyday workout, with a lightweight, breathable design, heart rate monitor and GPS antenna integrated right into the band.

Made for the journey

For the jet setter, Android Wear apps provide on-watch boarding options, travel tips, translations, world timers and maps to help guide your trip. Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon connects you to exclusive travel apps like “LV Guide” and “My Flight,” which organizes your flight times, gates and terminals to guide your journey.

Built for adventure

From climbing to kayaking, the Casio Pro-Trek Smart is your outdoor companion. Built to military standards, the Pro-Trek is crazy tough, with unique outdoor capabilities like advanced GPS functionality and built-in sensors that measure altitudes and atmospheric pressure. With location memory and a full-color offline map, you can even track your hike and record voice-notes along the way.

Whether you’re a jetsetter or trendsetter, Android Wear has got you covered. With so many new watches to choose from, it’s never been easier to wear what you want.

Source: Android

Android Wear: 20+ watches for fall

Fit for the runway

Crafted for multi-tasking

Stamina for active lives

Made for the journey

Built for adventure

Whether you’re a jetsetter or trendsetter, Android Wear has got you covered. With so many new watches to choose from, it’s never been easier to wear what you want.

Source: Android

Android Wear: 20+ watches for fall

Fit for the runway

Crafted for multi-tasking

Stamina for active lives

Made for the journey

Built for adventure

Whether you’re a jetsetter or trendsetter, Android Wear has got you covered. With so many new watches to choose from, it’s never been easier to wear what you want.

Source: Android

Updates to Google Play policy promote standalone Android Wear apps

Posted by Hoi Lam, Lead Developer Advocate, Android Wear

Strava - a standalone wear app available to both Android and iOS users

Android Wear 2.0 represents the the latest evolution of the Android Wear platform. It introduced the concept of standalone apps that can connect to the network directly and work independently of a smartphone. This is critical to providing apps not only to our Android users, but also iOS users - which is increasingly important as we continue to expand our diverse ecosystem of watches and users. In addition, Wear 2.0 brought multi-APK support to Wear apps, which reduces the APK size of your phone apps, and makes it possible for iOS users to experience your Wear apps.

Today, we are announcing that multi-APKs will also work for Android Wear 1.0 watches, so you can now reach all of your users without needing to bundle your Wear app within your phone app's APK. Additionally, the Google Play Store policy will change to promote the use of multi-APKs and standalone apps. This covers all types of apps that are designed to run on the watch, including watch faces, complication data providers as well as launchable apps.

Policy change

The policy change will be effective from the 18th of January, 2018. At this time, the following apps will lose the "Enhanced for Android Wear" badge in the Google Play Store and will not be eligible to be listed in the top charts in the Play Store for Android Wear:

Mobile apps that support Wear notification enhancements but do not have a separate Wear app.
Wear apps that are bundled with mobile apps instead of using multi-APK.

Since multi-APK is now supported by devices running Wear 1.0 and 2.0, developers embedding their Wear app APKs in phone APKs should unbundle their Wear APK and upload it to the Play Store as a multi-APK. This will allow them to continue to qualify for the "Enhanced for Android Wear" badge as well as be eligible to appear in the Android Wear top charts. The two APKs can continue to share the same package name.

In addition to providing top app charts, we periodically put together curated featured collections. To be eligible for selection for these collections, developers will need to make their Wear apps function independently from the phone, as a standalone app. These apps will need to work on watches that are paired with both iOS and Android phones.

What are standalone apps?

Standalone apps are Wear apps that do not require a phone app to run. The app either does not require network access or can access the network directly without the phone app - something that is supported by Android Wear 2.0.

To mark your app as standalone, put the following meta-data tag in the AndroidManifest.xml:

<application>
...
  <meta-data
    android:name="com.google.android.wearable.standalone"
    android:value="true" />
...
</application>

In some rare cases, the user experience may be enhanced by the syncing of data between the phone and watch. For example, a cycling app can use the watch to display the current pace, and measure the user's heart rate, while displaying a map on the phone. In this scenario, we recommend that developers ensure that their Wear apps function without a phone and treat the phone experience as optional as far as the Wear apps are concerned. In these cases, a Wear app is still considered standalone and should be marked as such in its AndroidManifest.xml file.

Wear what you want

From the beginning, Android Wear has been about wear what you want -- the styles, watches, and apps you want to wear. This latest policy change lets you highlight your Android Wear apps, giving users even more choice about what apps they want on their watches.

Source: Android Developers Blog

How to improve app design for Wear 2.0

Posted by Steven Tepper, App Quality Consultant, Google Play

Wear 2.0 launched back in February with added support for new hardware features in addition to adopting new Material Design themes, guidelines, and a simpler vertical UI pattern. It also introduces a complications API, making it easier for apps to provide data to watch faces, and watch faces to incorporate external data. The final big update was that, apps targeting Wear 2.0 now have the ability to operate in a standalone mode, without needing a connection to a companion app on the phone.

There are a few design considerations in relation to navigation, notifications, the complications API, and the standalone functionality to help you better optimize for Wear 2.0 devices:

Navigation

Use the WearableDrawerLayout navigation drawer for simple and infrequent navigation: Simple navigation includes tasks such as accessing app settings, switching users or logging out. You can implement this on Wear 2.0 to switch between different views or sections of the app via a swipe down from the top of the screen, or an action drawer can be set up for context-specific actions when swiping up from the bottom of the screen.
Present a navigation drawer as a single-page drawer to enable users to navigate views quickly: A navigation drawer can be presented as either a multi-page or single-page drawer. The single-page layout is useful for when the user is expected to navigate quickly between 7 or less views of the app. Remember that if the app is using a single-page drawer, the iconography should be clear and understandable as there will not be any sort of text labeling in this layout. If there are more than 7 views to navigate to or the views are not easily represented by icons, you should instead use the multi-page drawer layout.
Use multiple app launchers if your app has two or three discrete functions: For example, if your app supports both activity tracking—with various options, actions, and views—and historical analysis and management of tracked activities, you can use multiple app launchers to handle these tasks. Alternatively, if your app has a simple home screen, these features could be placed in line, at the bottom of the screen.
Use peeking at the top of the action drawer to provide quick access to the primary action: If there is no primary action associated with the view, override the default behavior and force an overflow button to peek instead, exposing all actions at the bottom of a view, when tapped.

Ensure that for devices using Wear 2.0, your app takes advantage of these new UI patterns to provide a consistent user experience. Check out more training resources for Wear Navigation and Actions and the Material Design specifications for Navigation and Action Drawers.

Notifications

Wear 2.0 uses a simpler vertical navigation pattern, removing the horizontal swiping gesture to present actions for a notification. Notification actions are now presented as a single primary action (if applicable) at the bottom of a notification. If there is no primary action, expanding the notification will present options in a single, vertically scrollable view.

Notifications will work without needing many changes on both 1.x and 2.0 devices, but appear quite different:

When creating apps for Wear 2.0 devices, improve the user experience with notifications by applying the following best practices:

Support expandable notifications: Use BigTextStyle so that users can see more content on their watch.
Use the collapsed view of the notification (if applicable): Add the primary action for your notification to the collapsed view of the notification using setContentIntent(), where appropriate.
For messaging apps, use the MessagingStyle: Provide a rich chat app-like experience in the expanded notification using this style.
Update user directions which are specific to Wear 1.0: Remove any text guiding users to act on a card by swiping horizontally (the Wear 1.x pattern).
Enhancing notifications to use inline actions: This allows users to do things without needing tap to see the expanded notification details. Actions for messaging notifications can use several different input methods including Smart Reply presets, voice, and keyboard input. Take advantage of these features to provide added functionality and delight users.

To learn more about adding wearable features to notifications.

Complications

The complications API in Wear 2.0 makes it much easier for watch face developers and third-party data providers to surface important information users want, at a glance. Watch faces that support the API can be configured to use any of the data providers that have been installed on the watch while maintaining complete control over their appearance. Apps supporting the complication API allow the app's data to be accessible on any watch faces that support complications. These complications can be displayed in a variety of forms (short text, icon, ranged value, long text, small image, and large image) depending on what the data provider has configured and how much space has been allocated on the watch face.

To ensure that complications fit the overall design of the watch face and properly handle their data type, when adding complication support we recommend watch face makers should:

Use the TextRenderer class found in the Wear 2.0 SDK: This allows the text within complications to be adjusted to their bounds by shrinking the text, dynamically supporting line breaks or ellipsizing strings when they exceed the bounds of a text-based complication.
Use the ComplicationDrawable class to set the background color, shape, border, and font options for the complications: This gives complete control of how the complication is rendered to the watch face.
Design the watch face to provide a way for users to configure or adjust complications on the watch face through a settings menu: To learn how to construct these settings see the watch face sample on GitHub.
Use the data provider test suite app to feed dummy data to the watch face complications: This will enable you to verify that all of the complications render properly and have fonts formatted for their bounds.
As a complication data provider, expose relevant data by using the ComplicationProviderService: Simply define and configure what types of ComplicationData the app can provide for complications.

Standalone functionality on Wear devices

Make sure your app is able to handle itself if there is no companion app installed when using the android.hardware.type.watch hardware feature flag: Using this feature enables your app to become searchable and installable directly on Wear devices without needing to install a companion phone app, so ensure your app can handle itself to avoid a confusing or broken user experience.
Ensure your wearable app doesn't rely on the phone app for sign-in/authentication or primary functionality: When requiring complicated input for authentication (for example, password entry) your wearable app can point to the companion phone, but should rely on web UI for account/password entry rather than an app.
Where a companion app must be present on a phone to support your app in some other way, the app should use the CapabilityApi: This should be used to properly direct users to the Play Store listing on their companion device to install the missing app. Otherwise, the app should function on its own, using the Wear built-in Wi-Fi, GPS, or other connectivity functions.
Include wording about any companion app requirements or briefly mention how your Wear app should function within the Play Store listing description: This will help set expectations and guide users to install the correct apps for the best possible experience.
Incorporate the com.google.android.wearable.standalone flag in the manifest if your Wearable app can function without any phone companion interaction: This flag indicates that the wearable app can be installed and will fully function when not paired to an Android or iOS companion phone.

Though a lot was covered here, there are additional resources you can use to ensure that your apps or games are optimized and use the latest patterns and functionality on Wear. Be sure to review the quality guidelines and check out the developer training documentation to learn more best practices for wearable app development and wearable app design in order to build quality apps for Wear.

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Source: Android Developers Blog

Android Wear: New complications tools and watch friendly UI library

Posted by Hoi Lam, Lead Developer Advocate, Android Wear

Android Wear 2.0 gives users more informative watch faces and provides developers with new ways to build useful apps. These new opportunities have been well received by users and developers alike. To help developers take advantage of these new features, we have released a suite of complication API tools, to make it easier for developers to add complication support to their watch faces, and a new Wear UI library, to help developers build watch friendly user interfaces.

New Complications API tools for Watch Face developers

Complications are bite-sized pieces of information displayed directly on the watch face. They can also be great shortcuts into your favorite apps. We introduced the Complications API last year to enable watch faces to receive data from any app that the user selects, and display the data to the user in a way that is stylistically coherent. Today, we are introducing four new tools to make it easier for watch face developers to integrate with the Complications API:

TextRenderer - Auto-sizes text to fit in bounds defined by watch face makers.
ComplicationDrawable - A full rendering solution for complications, that handles all the styling for you, and adjusts the layout to fit the space you specify
Easy watch face settings sample - Adoptable sample code that makes it easier to build complication settings with a rich and usable experience.
Complication test suite - A sample data provider to help check that your watch face can handle all the combinations of fields that can make up complication data.

It's never been easier to integrate complications into your watch faces.

New Wear UI Library for Wear developers

We have provided Android view components for building watch friendly user interfaces since the launch of Android Wear 1.0. Developers have told us that they would like to see these components open sourced. So, starting at Google I/O, we are open sourcing some components and providing some Android Wear UI components in the Android Support Library. This brings a number of advantages, including more consistent APIs with the rest of the Support Library, more frequent releases, and better responsiveness to developer feedback. We will:

Migrate Wearable Support classes - Migrate and update Android Wear specific view components, such as WearableRecyclerView, from android.support.wearable.view in Wearable Support to android.support.wear.widget in the Android Support Library. This new package is available as open source. In terms of developer impact, we expect the migration process to be simple, with minor API name changes to bring consistency with the existing Android Support Library.
Merge some Android Wear functionality to Android - Some Android Wear components have a lot of overlap with Android, e.g. CircledImageView and DelayedConfirmationView. We will merge the Android Wear specific functionality with the Android counterparts under android.support.v4.widget.
Deprecate outdated user interface patterns - Two user interface patterns are deprecated with Android Wear 2.0: the Card pattern and the Multi-directional layout. As a result, we have deprecated all supporting classes, such as GridViewPager and CardFragment. Please refer to the class reference docs for their replacements.

In the first wave of these changes, we migrated the WearableRecyclerView, BoxInsetLayout and SwipeDismissFrameLayout classes to the new Android Wear UI Library. We expect the migration process to continue during 2017, and developers will have until mid-2018 to migrate to the new UI components. For additional information, see Using the Wear UI Library.

Get started and give us feedback!

To get started with these new tools, simply update the Android Support Library in Android Studio and update your gradle build files to import the new support libraries. In addition to the documentation links above, check out the Google I/O session - Android Wear UI development best practice - where lead engineers for these tools will be on-hand to explain the technical details.

We will continue to update these tools over the next few months, based on your feedback. The sooner we hear from you, the more we can include, so don't be shy! Let us do some of the heavy lifting for your Android Wear apps and watch faces.