Showing the time is obviously important for any watch face, but providing information more efficiently can be just as important. Google is addressing that with interactive watch faces, a new feature that is part of an update that is rolling out to all Android Wear watches.
With interactive watch faces, you can now get information quicker by tapping “complications” on watch faces. This will make things a lot easier, since checking something like the weather currently requires a series of swipes or a voice command. Now users can simply tap on a weather symbol and the watch face transforms with the desired information.
Google offered up some really neat examples:
Bits is a completely customizable watch face in that you can choose what complications you want to appear on the face itself. You can choose from the calendar, missed calls, new emails, steps, the weather, and more.
The Under Armour app now offers a watch face that allows you to quickly see your step count, calories burned, and distance, all by simply tapping the watch face.
The Together watch face is unique in that it connects you with another Android Wear user for sharing. Once paired with someone else, you can share doodles, emojis, photos, and more, right from your watch face.
These are just a few examples, and there is more to come since developers are encouraged to spice up their current watch faces with something similar. Developers will need to update their build.gradle to use version 1.3.0 of the Wearable Support and follow the instructions on the Android Developers Blog.
All users will need the latest version of the Android Wear app, which is version 1.3. That started rolling out last week. In addition, a firmware update for the watch itself is required, which will roll out to all Android Wear watches in the coming weeks. Google didn’t provide specific insight as to what version number the software will be though.
In addition to interactive watch faces, LG G Watch R owners will be happy to know that this is update will finally enable Wi-Fi syncing.
