{"id":277236,"date":"2025-05-24T13:39:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T13:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/24\/whats-new-in-watch-faces\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:08:18","slug":"whats-new-in-watch-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/24\/whats-new-in-watch-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s new in Watch Faces"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Posted by Garan Jenkin \u2013 Developer Relations Engineer<\/em><\/p>\n

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Wear OS has a thriving watch face ecosystem featuring a variety of designs that also aims to minimize battery impact. Developers have embraced the simplicity of creating watch faces using Watch Face Format<\/a> \u2013 in the last year, the number of published watch faces using Watch Face Format has grown by over 180%*<\/sup><\/b>.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re continuing our investment and announcing version 4 of the Watch Face Format, available as part of Wear OS 6. These updates allow developers to express even greater levels of creativity through the new features we\u2019ve added. And we\u2019re supporting marketplaces, which gives flexibility and control to developers and more choice for users.<\/p>\n

In this blog post we’ll cover key new features, check out the documentation<\/a> for more details of changes introduced in recent versions.<\/p>\n

Supporting marketplaces with Watch Face Push<\/span><\/h2>\n

We\u2019re also announcing a completely new API, the Watch Face Push API<\/a>, aimed at developers who want to create their own watch face marketplaces.<\/p>\n

Watch Face Push, available on devices running Wear OS 6 and above, works exclusively with watch faces that use the Watch Face Format watch faces.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve partnered with well-known watch face developers \u2013 including Facer<\/a><\/b>, TIMEFLIK<\/a><\/b>, WatchMaker<\/a><\/b>, Pujie<\/a><\/b>, and Recreative<\/a><\/b> \u2013 in designing this new API. We\u2019re excited that all of these developers will be bringing their unique watch face experiences to Wear OS 6 using Watch Face Push.<\/p>\n

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From left to right, Facer<\/a><\/b>, Recreative<\/a><\/b> and TIMEFLIK<\/a><\/b> watch faces have been developing marketplace apps to work with watches running Wear OS 6.
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Watch faces managed and deployed using Watch Face Push are all written using Watch Face Format. Developers publish these watch faces in the same way as publishing through Google Play, though there are some additional checks the developer must make which are described in the Watch Face Push guidance.<\/p>\n

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The Watch Face Push API covers only the watch part of this typical marketplace system diagram – as the app developer, you have control and responsibility for the phone app and cloud components, as well as for building the Wear OS app using Watch Face Push. You\u2019re also in control of the phone-watch communications, for which we recommend using the Data Layer APIs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adding Watch Face Push to your project<\/span><\/h2>\n

To start using Watch Face Push on Wear OS 6, include the following dependency in your Wear OS app:<\/p>\n

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\/\/ Ensure latest version is used by checking the repository<\/span>\nimplementation(\"androidx.wear.watchface:watchface-push:1.3.0-alpha07\"<\/span>)\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Declare the necessary permission in your AndroidManifest.xml:<\/span><\/p>\n
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\"com.google.wear.permission.PUSH_WATCH_FACES\" \/>\n<\/uses-permission><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Obtain a Watch Face Push client:<\/p>\n
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val<\/span> manager = WatchFacePushManagerFactory.createWatchFacePushManager(context)\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
You\u2019re now ready to start using the Watch Face Push API, for example to list the watch faces you have already installed, or add a new watch face:<\/p>\n
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\/\/ List existing watch faces, installed by this app<\/span>\nval<\/span> listResponse = manager.listWatchFaces()\n\n\/\/ Add a watch face<\/span>\nmanager.addWatchFace(watchFaceFileDescriptor, validationToken)\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
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Understanding Watch Face Push<\/span><\/h2>\n
While the basics of the Watch Face Push API are easy to understand and access through the WatchFacePushManager<\/span> interface, it\u2019s important to consider several other factors when working with the API in practice to build an effective marketplace app, including:<\/p>\n