With the launch of Android Wear 2.0 yesterday, Google has turned their attention to developers today releasing the Android Wear 2.0 SDK.
There’s a few new changes in the new SDK for Android wear, notably the inclusion of API support for physical button locations and rotary input on the companion hardware released for the Android Wear 2.0 launch – the LG Watch Sport and Watch Style.
Other highlights from the launch include:
Material Design for Android Wear – A new system user interface and design guidelines, featuring a darker colour palette, vertical layout and visual components such as the WearableRecyclerView and WearableNavigationDrawer. We have also enhanced notifications on the watch with the new MessagingStyle rich notification style and inline actions.
Watch Face Complications – Complications are areas of the watch face that display information other than time. Apps can supply data to supported watch faces by creating a ComplicationProviderService, and watch faces can render this data in a style that suits the watch face design.
Standalone Android Wear apps and iOS support – Apps can now be downloaded directly to Wear devices via an on-watch Google Play Store. In addition, these apps can access the internet directly without relying on phone apps. This means that apps can now run on Android Wear devices that are paired to iOS devices.
There’s also been updates to the app approval process, with apps simply updated with enhanced Wear notifications no longer sufficient. Developers will also have to upload a watch APK that is compatible with Android Wear 2.0 as well.
If you’re a developer you’ll also have to get one of the new LG Android Wear watches to test apps, but Google is working on getting emulator support working.
