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.
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)) }
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.
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.
A key part of Android Wear 2.0 is letting watch apps work as standalone apps, so users can respond to messages, track their fitness, and use their favorite apps, even when their phone isn't around. Developer Preview 4 includes a number of new APIs that will help you build more powerful standalone apps.
To make authentication a seamless experience for both Android phone and iPhone users, we have created new APIs for OAuth and added support for one-click Google Sign-in. With the OAuth API for Android Wear, users can tap a button on the watch that opens an authentication screen on the phone. Your watch app can then authenticate with your server side APIs directly. With Google Sign-In, it's even easier. All the user needs to do is select which account they want to authenticate with and they are done.
In addition to paid apps, we have added in-app billing support, to give you another way to monetize your Android Wear app or watch face. Users can authorize purchases quickly and easily on the watch through a 4-digit Google Account PIN. Whether it's new levels in a game or new styles on a watch face, if you can build it, users can buy it.
What if your watch app doesn't work standalone? Or what if it offers a better user experience when both the watch and phone apps are installed? We've been listening carefully to your feedback, and we've added two new APIs (PlayStoreAvailability and RemoteIntent) to help you navigate users to the Play Store on a paired device so they can more easily install your app. Developers can also open custom URLs on the phone from the watch via the new RemoteIntent API; no phone app or data layer is required.
PlayStoreAvailability
RemoteIntent
// Check Play Store is available int playStoreAvailabilityOnPhone = PlayStoreAvailability.getPlayStoreAvailabilityOnPhone(getApplicationContext()); if (playStoreAvailabilityOnPhone == PlayStoreAvailability.PLAY_STORE_ON_PHONE_AVAILABLE) { // To launch a web URL, setData to Uri.parse("https://g.co/wearpreview") Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW) .addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_BROWSABLE) .setData(Uri.parse("market://details?id=com.google.android.wearable.app")); // mResultReceiver is optional; it can be null. RemoteIntent.startRemoteActivity(this, intent, mResultReceiver); }
Many of you have given us the feedback that the swipe-to-dismiss gesture from Android Wear 1.0 is an intuitive time-saver. We agree, and have reverted back to the previous behavior with this developer preview release. To support swipe-to-dismiss in this release, we've made the following platform and API changes:
SwipeDismissFrameLayout
Additional details are available under the behavior changes section of the Android Wear Preview site.
Android Wear apps packaged using the legacy embedded app mechanism can now be delivered to Android Wear 2.0 watches. When a user installs a phone app that also contains an embedded Android Wear app, the user will be prompted to install the embedded app via a notification. If they choose not to install the embedded app at that moment, they can find it in the Play Store on Android Wear under a special section called "Apps you've used".
Despite support for the existing mechanism, there are significant benefits for apps that transition to the multi-APK delivery mechanism. Multi-APK allows the app to be searchable in the Play Store on Android Wear, to be eligible for merchandising on the homepage, and to be remotely installed from the web to the watch. As a result, we strongly recommend that developers move to multi-APK.
setShouldPeekOnScrollDown
Thanks for all your terrific feedback on Android Wear 2.0. Check out g.co/wearpreview for the latest builds and documentation, keep the feedback coming by filing bugs or posting in our Android Wear Developers community, and stay tuned for Android Wear Developer Preview 5!
Posted by Lily Sheringham, Google Play team
Based in Lisbon, Portugal, Hole19 is a golfing app which assists golfers before, during, and after their golfing journey with GPS and a digital scorecard. The app connects the golfing community with shared statistics for performance and golf courses, and now has close to 1 million users across all platforms.
Watch Anthony Douglas, Founder & CEO, and Fábio Carballo, Head Android Developer, explain how Hole19 doubled its number of Android Wear users in 6 months, and improved user engagement and retention on the platform. Also, hear how they are using APIs and the latest Wear 2.0 features to connect users to their golfing data and improve the user experience.
Learn more how to get started with Android Wear and get the Playbook for Developers app to stay up-to-date with more features and best practices that will help you grow a successful business on Google Play.
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