Tag Archives: Android Wear

Android Wear: The Magic Minute Project

What’s possible in a minute? You can fall in love. Launch a rocket ship. Set a rap world record.

Today, Android Wear is teaming up with with makers, doers, and dreamers to launch The Magic Minute Project. It’s a collection of one-minute films celebrating what time means to all of us—told one #MagicMinute at a time.

Andrew Huang: 300 Word Rap

A music and video producer, Andrew Huang has a penchant for working within absurd, self-imposed limitations. Using his Android Wear watch to time his performance, Andrew attempts to rap 300 words in one #MagicMinute.


Bruna Kajiya: Top of Your Sport

Bruna Kajiya is a Brazilian kiteboarder and World Champion and the first woman to land a double handle pass in kiteboarding. The final minute of a competition is always the most intense: The riders perform their "all or nothing" tricks and everything is on the line.

Kie Willis: Time Trial

Time trials have become popular in Parkour. Setting a route across an urban landscape, leaping between rooftops—it's seen as the highest test of practice. Kie Willis, one of the most well known freerunners in the world, attempts a one-minute Parkour while keeping his heart rate low.

Zanita Whittington: Mix Up, Look Sharp

Putting together the perfect look takes time, but a versatile accessory can help. Zanita Whittington—model, photographer, and creative director—completes her look by personalizing her Android Wear watch face.

Mike Relm: OK Scratch

Mike Relm is a world renowned turntablist and director, known for sampling music in surprisingly innovative ways to create new sounds. He has sampled and scratched many sounds in his life, but this is the first time using his wife’s voice!

Just as traditional watches help tell the time, Android Wear watches help make the most of our time. Whatever makes a minute magical to you, why not share it with the world too? It can be anything you imagine: paint, play, code, cook, rap or render.

Submit your own #MagicMinute for a chance to be featured in The Magic Minute Project film. Follow @AndroidWear on Twitter or visit g.co/magicminute to explore the best #MagicMinute videos.

Source: Android


A Google Santa Tracker update from Santa’s Elves

Sam Thorogood, Developer Programs Engineer

Today, we're announcing that the open source version of Google's Santa Tracker has been updated with the Android and web experiences that ran in December 2015. We extended, enhanced and upgraded our code, and you can see how we used our developer products - including Firebase and Polymer - to build a fun, educational and engaging experience.

To get started, you can check out the code on GitHub at google/santa-tracker-weband google/santa-tracker-android. Both repositories include instructions so you can build your own version.

Santa Tracker isn’t just about watching Santa’s progress as he delivers presents on December 24. Visitors can also have fun with the winter-inspired experiences, games and educational content by exploring Santa's Village while Santa prepares for his big journey throughout the holidays.

Below is a summary of what we’ve released as open source.

Android app

  • The Santa Tracker Android app is a single APK, supporting all devices, such as phones, tablets and TVs, running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and up. The source code for the app can be found here.
  • Santa Tracker leverages Firebase features, including Remote Config API, App Invites to invite your friends to play along, and Firebase Analytics to help our elves better understand users of the app.
  • Santa’s Village is a launcher for videos, games and the tracker that responds well to multiple devices such as phones and tablets. There's even an alternative launcher based on the Leanback user interface for Android TVs.

  • Games on Santa Tracker Android are built using many technologies such as JBox2D (gumball game), Android view hierarchy (memory match game) and OpenGL with special rendering engine (jetpack game). We've also included a holiday-themed variation of Pie Noon, a fun game that works on Android TV, your phone, and inside Google Cardboard's VR.

Android Wear

  • The custom watch faces on Android Wear provide a personalized touch. Having Santa or one of his friendly elves tell the time brings a smile to all. Building custom watch faces is a lot of fun but providing a performant, battery friendly watch face requires certain considerations. The watch face source code can be found here.
  • Santa Tracker uses notifications to let users know when Santa has started his journey. The notifications are further enhanced to provide a great experience on wearables using custom backgrounds and actions that deep link into the app.

On the web

  • Santa Tracker is mobile-first: this year's experience was built for the mobile web, including an amazing brand new, interactive - yet fully responsive, village: with three breakpoints, touch gesture support and support for the Web App Manifest.
  • To help us develop Santa at scale, we've upgraded to Polymer 1.0+. Santa Tracker's use of Polymer demonstrates how easy it is to package code into reusable components. Every housein Santa's Village is a custom element, only loaded when needed, minimizing the startup cost of Santa Tracker.

  • Many of the amazing new games (like Present Bounce) were built with the latest JavaScript standards (ES6) and are compiled to support older browsers via the Google Closure Compiler.
  • Santa Tracker's interactive and fun experience is enhanced using the Web Animations API, a standardized JavaScript APIfor unifying animated content.
  • We simplified the Chromecast support this year, focusing on a great screensaver that would countdown to the big event on December 24th - and occasionally autoplay some of the great video content from around Santa's Village.

We hope that this update inspires you to make your own magical experiences based on all the interesting and exciting components that came together to make Santa Tracker!

Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 2

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!

Introducing MODE: Snap-and-swap watch bands designed for Android Wear

With Android Wear, you can wear what you want with watches from 12 different brands and thousands of interchangeable watch faces. And while you can change your watch face with just a tap, it has not been as quick and easy to change your watch band. Starting today, updating your style is as easy as “snap-and-swap,” with new MODE watch bands in partnership with b&nd by Hadley Roma.

Change your look with one click

MODE snap-and-swap watch bands feature a simple slide button so you can attach and detach your band in one click.
MODE How it works
MODE bands are versatile—they come in four widths, fit most Android Wear watches, and work on mechanical watches too. This first collection comes in a rainbow of colors, and is available in leather and silicone, so you can easily go from the office to the gym to a night out.

Join the bandwagon 

 This is just the beginning. We want Android Wear to give you as much choice as possible, so we’ll be sharing the MODE mechanism design and source with other brands to use to create their own snap-and-swap watch bands. To help brands get started, we’ve created a vendor playbook with instructions, requirements and brand guidelines. To find out more, email us at [email protected].

MODE bands are now available online at the Google Store (US), Amazon, and Best Buy. We’re excited to see all the ways you wear what you want.

Learn more about MODE at g.co/WearMODE.

Source: Android


API 23 SDK now available for Android Wear

Posted by Wayne Piekarski, Developer Advocate

The new LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE is the first watch to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow (API 23) for Android Wear. Currently, all other Android Wear watches implement API 22, and in the coming months, these will receive an OTA update for API 23 as well.

So what does this mean for you as an Android Wear developer? You will need to ensure that your apps are compatible with both API 23 and API 22 watches. While you can start implementing the new features in this post, you still need to maintain backwards compatibility until all watches are upgraded.

New permissions model and samples

API 23 introduces a new runtime permissions model for both phones and watches. The new permissions model allows users to pick and choose which permissions to grant apps at the time of use. In addition, new permissions settings allow users to turn on and off app permissions at any time.

To use the new permissions model on Wear, read Permissions on Android Wear. This training guide provides an in-depth discussion of Wear-specific scenarios, such as when your Wear app relies on a phone-side permission. In addition, all of the Android Wear samples have been updated to use the new permissions model, and a new RuntimePermissionsWear sample shows how to handle permission requests across devices.

When you are ready, you can update your application on both the phone and watch side to use compileSdkVersion 23 and targetSdkVersion 23. Make sure that you check and request the permissions needed by your app at runtime, on both the phone and the watch. It is important that you do not change targetSdkVersion to 23 until you have implemented the permission checks properly, since it changes how the system installs and runs the app. For example, an API call that might have previously returned a result could now fail, causing the app to behave in unexpected ways.

-round and -notround resource qualifiers

API 23 makes it easier to build apps for both round and square Android Wear watches. We listened to your feedback and added new resource qualifiers for -round and -notround, so you can use the resource system to load the appropriate images, layouts, and strings based on the type of watch you are working with. You can also combine this with existing resource qualifiers -hdpi, -tvdpi, -280dpi, and -360dpi for the various Android Wear watches that are currently available. All of the existing classes in the wearable UI library, such as WatchViewStub, BoxInsetLayout, and WearableFrameLayout will continue to work as well, so you do not need to change your code. The -round and -notround resource qualifiers will not work on API 22 devices, so you cannot assume they will be available until all devices are on API 23.

Watches with speakers

The LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE is the first watch to include speaker support, so you can now add sounds to your Wear app. You can play audio files using the same APIs that are available on Android phones, such as AudioTrack, MediaPlayer, and ExoPlayer. Check out the sample and documentation to learn how to detect when the speaker is available on a Wear device and play sounds through it.

Intel x86 support

The new TAG Heuer Connected, along with other upcoming Android Wear watches, is based on Intel x86 processors. If you are working only with Java code, your apps will automatically work on any architecture. However, if you’re using the NDK, you’ll need to provide both armeabi-v7a and x86 shared libraries in your wearable APK. Since only one wearable app can be bundled in a phone app, it is not possible to deliver different APKs to different watches based on architecture. If your wearable APK is missing an x86 library, it will fail to install on x86 watches with INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS and code -113.

If you are using Android Studio, you will need to adjust your build.gradle file to include:

ndk {
  abiFilters = ['armeabi-v7a','x86']
}

If you are using the NDK directly, you will need to modify your Application.mk file to use:

APP_ABI := armeabi-v7a x86

These changes should only be made for the wearable APK, and you can continue to support other ABIs on the phone side. You can test your application by checking if it works on the x86 emulator provided by the SDK Manager.

Updated emulator

New Android Wear emulator images for API 23 and x86 watches are available to download from the SDK Manager in Android Studio. We have also added profiles that represent every available Android Wear watch, so you can easily test on any device you want. It is also important that you understand and test all the combinations of phones (API <= 22, API = 23) and wearables (API 22, API 23), so that your app works for all users.

Updates to existing watches

The new emulator images allow you to get started immediately with testing and deploying updated apps for users with API 23 watches. The schedule for updating existing Android Wear watches via OTA updates has not been announced yet. We will announce the update schedule on the Android Wear Developers Google+ community. We’ll also let you know when the rollout is complete, and API 22 support for Android Wear is no longer needed.

New Courses — Developing Watch Apps for Android Wear

Posted by Wayne Piekarski, Developer Advocate

We recently released a new Udacity course on Ubiquitous Computing with Android Wear, built as a collaboration between Udacity and Google. Android Wear watches allow users to get access to their information quickly, with just a glance, using an always-on display. By taking this course, you will learn everything you need to know to reach your users with notifications, custom watch faces, and even full apps.

Designed by Developer Advocates from Google, the course is a practical approach to getting started with Android Wear. It takes you through code snippets, and deep dives into sample code, showing you how easy it is to extend your existing Android apps to work on Android Wear. It also covers how to design user interfaces and great experiences for this unique wearable platform, which is important because the interface of the watch needs to be glanceable and unobtrusive for all day use.




This class is part of our larger series on Ubiquitous Computing across Google platforms, such as Android Wear, Android Auto, Android TV, and Google Cast. Designed as short, standalone courses, you can take any course on its own, or take them all! The Android Wear platform is a great opportunity to add functionality that will distinguish your app from others; and this Udacity course will get you up to speed quickly and easily.

Get started now and try it out at no cost, your users are waiting!

Interactive watch faces with the latest Android Wear update

Posted by Wayne Piekarski, Developer Advocate

The Android Wear team is rolling out a new update that includes support for interactive watch faces. Now, you can detect taps on the watch face to provide information quickly, without having to open an app. This gives you new opportunities to make your watch face more engaging and interesting. For example, in this animation for the Pujie Black watch face, you can see that just touching the calendar indicator quickly changes the watch face to show the agenda for the day, making the watch face more helpful and engaging.

Interactive watch face API

The first step in building an interactive watch face is to update your build.gradle to use version 1.3.0 of the Wearable Support library. Then, you enable interactive watch faces in your watch face style using setAcceptsTapEvents(true):

setWatchFaceStyle(new WatchFaceStyle.Builder(mService)
    .setAcceptsTapEvents(true)
    // other style customizations
    .build());

To receive taps, you can override the following method:

@Override
public void onTapCommand(int tapType, int x, int y, long eventTime) { }

You will receive events TAP_TYPE_TOUCH when the user initially taps on the screen, TAP_TYPE_TAP when the user releases their finger, and TAP_TYPE_TOUCH_CANCEL if the user moves their finger while touching the screen. The events will contain (x,y) coordinates of where the touch event occurred. You should note that other interactions such as swipes and long presses are reserved for use by the Android Wear system user interface.

And that’s it! Adding interaction to your existing watch faces is really easy with just a few extra lines of code. We have updated the WatchFace sample to show a complete implementation, and design and development documentation describing the API in detail.

Wi-Fi added to LG G Watch R

This release also brings Wi-Fi support to the LG G Watch R. Wi-Fi support is already available in many Android Wear watches and allows the watch to communicate with the companion phone without requiring a direct Bluetooth connection. So, you can leave your phone at home, and as long as you have Wi-Fi, you can use your watch to receive notifications, send messages, make notes, or ask Google a question. As a developer, you should ensure that you use the Data API to abstract away your communications, so that your application will work on any kind of Android Wear watch, even those without Wi-Fi.

Updates to existing watches

This update to Android Wear will roll out via an over-the-air (OTA) update to all Android Wear watches over the coming weeks. The wearable support library version 1.3 provides the implementation for touch interactions, and is designed to continue working on devices which have not been updated. However, the touch support will only work on updated devices, so you should wait to update your apps on Google Play until the OTA rollout is complete, which we’ll announce on the Android Wear Developers Google+ community. If you want to release immediately but check if touch interactions are available, you can use this code snippet:

PackageInfo packageInfo = PackageManager.getPackageInfo("com.google.android.wearable.app", 0);
if (packageInfo.versionCode > 720000000) {
  // Supports taps - cache this result to avoid calling PackageManager again
} else {
  // Device does not support taps yet
}

Android Wear developers have created thousands of amazing apps for the platform and we can’t wait to see the interactive watch faces you build. If you’re looking for a little inspiration, or just a cool new watch face, check out the Interactive Watch Faces collection on Google Play.

Android Developer Story: Shifty Jelly drives double-digit growth with material design and expansion to the car and wearables

Posted by Lily Sheringham, Google Play team

Pocket Casts is a leading podcasting app on Google Play built by Australian-based mobile development company Shifty Jelly. The company recently achieved $1 million in sales for the first time, reaching more than 500K users.

According to the co-founder Russell Ivanovic, the adoption of material design played a significant role in driving user engagement for Pocket Casts by streamlining the user experience. Moreover, users are now able to access the app beyond the smartphone -- in the car with Android Auto, on a watch with Android Wear or on the TV with Google Cast. The rapid innovation of Android features helped Pocket Casts increase sales by 30 percent.

We chatted with co-founders and Android developers Russell and Philip Simpson to learn more about how they are growing their business with Android.

Here are some of the features Pocket Casts used:

  • Material Design: Learn more about material design and how it helps you create beautiful, engaging apps.
  • Android Wear: Extend your app to Android Wear devices with enhanced notifications or a standalone wearable app.
  • Android Auto: Extend your app to an interface that’s optimized for driving with Android Auto.
  • Google Cast: let your users cast your app’s content to Google Cast devices like Chromecast, Android TV, and speakers with Google Cast built-in.

And check out the Pocket Casts app on Google Play!

Fitness Apps on Android Wear

Posted by Joshua Gordon, Developer Advocate

Go for a run, improve your game, and explore the great outdoors with Android Wear! Developers are creating a diverse array of fitness apps that provide everything from pace and heart rate while running, to golf tips on your favorite course, to trail maps for hiking. Let’s take a look features of the open and flexible Wear platform they use to create great user experiences.

Always-on stats

If your app supports always-on, you’ll never have to touch or twist your watch to activate the display. Running and want to see your pace? Glance at your wrist and it’s there! Runtastic, Endomondo, and MapMyRun use always-on to keep your stats visible, even in ambient mode. When it’s time for golf, I use Golfshot. Likewise, Golfshot uses always-on to continuously show yardage to the hole, so I never have to drop my club. Check out the doc, DevByte, and code sample to learn more.

Runtastic automatically transitions to ambient mode to conserve battery. There, it reduces the frequency at which stats are updated to about once per 10 seconds.

Maps, routes, and markers

It's encouraging to see how much ground I’ve covered when I go for a run or ride! Using the Maps API, you can show users their route, position, and place markers on the map they can tap to see more info you provide. All of this functionality is available to you using the same Maps API you’ve already worked with on Android. Check out the doc, DevByte, code sample, and blog post to learn more.

Endomondo tracks your route while your run. You can pan and zoom the map.

Google Fit

Google Fit is an open platform designed to make it easier to write fitness apps. It provides APIs to help with many common tasks. For example, you can use the Recording API to estimate how many steps the user has taken and how many calories they've burned. You can make that data to your app via the History API, and even access it over the web via REST, without having to write your own backend. Now, Google Fit can store data from a wide variety of exercises, from running to weightlifting. Check out the DevByte and code samples to learn more.

Bluetooth Low Energy: pair with your watch

With the latest release of Android Wear, developers can now pair BLE devices directly with the Wearable. This is a great opportunity for all fitness apps -- and especially for running -- where carrying both a phone and the Wearable can be problematic. Imagine if your users could pair their heart rate straps or bicycle cadence sensors directly to their Wear device, and leave their phones at home. BLE is now supported by all Wear devices, and is supported by Google Fit. To learn more about it, check out this guide and DevByte.

Pack light with onboard GPS

When I’m running, carrying both a phone and a wearable can be a bit much. If you’re using an Android Wear device that supports onboard GPS, you can leave your phone at home! Since not all Wear devices have an onboard GPS sensor, you can use the FusedLocationProviderApi to seamlessly retrieve GPS coordinates from the phone if not available on the wearable. Check out this handy guide for more about detecting location on Wear.

RunKeeper supports onboard GPS if it’s available on your Wearable.

Sync data transparently

When I’m back home and ready for more details on my activity, I can see them by opening the app on my phone. My favorite fitness apps transparently sync data between my Wearable and phone. To learn more about syncing data between devices, watch this DevByte on the DataLayer API.

Next Steps

Android Wear gives you the tools and training you need to create exceptional fitness apps. To get started on yours, visit developer.android.com/wear and join the discussion at g.co/androidweardev.