Latest Build Of Android Wear Introduces Unread Notification Indicator

One of the perks of owning a smartwatch is that when it comes to getting notified of incoming messages and emails and whatnot, all you have to do is glance down at your wrist. This is versus having to fish out your phone from your bag or pockets which can be a bit troublesome, plus it’s also more discreet.

For those who are rocking Android Wear devices, Google has announced that in the latest Android Wear SDK (version 2.2.0), they will be introducing unread notification indicators. This means that users can see at a glance how many notifications they have yet to attend to. While this doesn’t dive into specifics as it just covers notifications in general, it should be enough for some users to get an idea.

According to Google, “Notification is a vital part of the Wear experience. As a result, starting from the next consumer release of Wear (version 2.9.0), a dot-shaped indicator will be displayed by default at the bottom of the watch face if there are new, unread notifications. Watch face developers can preview the indicator with their watch faces by using the latest version of the emulator.”

There will be several different styles that developers can choose to use, such as the default one pictured on the far left, and also custom versions that can show the notification count. Exactly when these will be implemented by developers remains to be seen, but if you are an Android Wear user you can look forward to it soon.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Android Wear, Google, Smartwatch, Wearable Tech