Google Introduces Custom Android Wear Watch Faces to Play Store
(Google)
Google wants you to be able to Wear what you want.
The company on Wednesday announced that its Android Wear smartwatch software is getting an update that will bring new visual customization and improved functionality to all six of its Android watches. You’ll be able to put your watch in new sunlight and theater modes, varying the screen’s brightness; navigate the watch more easily; and download custom watch faces to your device right from the Google Play store.
Google teamed with several brands and designers to introduce dozens of choices for watch faces, including offerings from Porsche, Surfline, Rebecca Minkoff, and Hugh Turvey. Independent designers will also be able to take advantage of a new package of developer tools so they can create and upload beautiful watch faces as well.
(Google, modified by Yahoo Tech)
Manufacturers like LG and Samsung currently preinstall custom watch faces onto the Android Wear devices they make. And installing “indie” faces via Android apps like Face for Wear has been possible for some time. But with Wednesday’s announcement, the Wear team is hoping developers will use its new creative guidelines and improved tools to build beautiful, smart designs for Wear that bring things like live fitness data and calendar or weather information right to the faces of watches.
The new watch faces can be downloaded only to devices that have installed Wear’s new update, which begins rolling out immediately.
“Our overall goal with Android wear is to enable choice,” Wear’s senior product manager told Yahoo Tech at the time of the update announcement.
“You already see a lot of shapes and sizes [in Android Wear devices] today. On the software side, we really want every type of person to have the software that they want to.”
With its newest version, Android Wear is also adding the ability to bring back an accidentally swiped-away notification card, a normal Google Now Android feature that early Google smartwatch owners had been waiting patiently for.
Head over to Google’s blog for more details on Wear’s feature updates and examples of custom watch faces that hit the Play store Wednesday.
Email me at danbean@yahoo-inc.com. Follow me on Twitter at @danielwbean.
