It is now official – the Android Wear Watch Face API is now available if you so happen to be a developer. After all, variety is the spice of life, and with the ability to be able to enjoy various watch faces on your smartwatch, you will have a greater degree of flexibility to express yourself – not to mention being able to have a different “watch” for various occasions – all without having to fork out insane amounts of money for different timepieces. After all, watch faces have been one of the most requested feature from both users and developers.
Of course, before one can actually get started, one would first need to read up on Designing Watch Faces before checking in with the Creating Watch Faces training class. There is a WatchFace Sample that is available online, while the Android Studio samples manager would also deliver a range of examples in order to assist budding developers to get started right from the get go.
Since watch faces happen to be services that run on a wearable app, developers can opt to offer one or multiple watch faces via a single app install – it is that easy. One can also choose to have configuration activities run on the phone or watch, allowing a user to pick between 12 and 24-hour time, or perhaps to make an alteration to the watch face’s background. OpenGL can be used to deliver smooth graphics, while a background service would open the proverbial doors to pull in useful information such as weather and calendar events. [Press Release]
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