Smartphone users can customize their wallpapers, so it only makes sense that smartwatch wearers can also customize their watch faces. Until Wednesday, however, most people were limited to a small number of watch faces preloaded by the smartwatch's makers. Google, however, changes that with an updated Android Wear.
Beginning Wednesday, users can choose from dozens of watch faces on the new section dedicated exclusively to watch faces on Google Play Store. Google has made its official Watch Face API available for all developers but has previously released the API for a select number of brands, artists and designers who have come up with watch faces for all sorts of Android Wear smartwatch users.
"Starting today you can download watch faces from Google Play, just like you do with apps," says David Singleton, director of engineering for Android Wear. "We've got dozens of examples to get you started - from the unpredictable Minions in 'Despicable Me' to the X-Ray artistry of Hugh Turvey. And because the new Watch Face API is available to all developers, you can expect even more choices in the weeks and months ahead."
Previously, developers could only develop custom watch faces by hacking into Android Wear using undocumented API. Some developers have even gotten into copyright troubles after putting together digital watch faces that are exact copies of luxury watch faces by brands such as Cartier, Armani and Swatch.
The official Watch API, however, provides developers more control over their watch faces, allowing them to create more than just pretty faces but embed additional functionalities as well. For instance, the sporty black watch face by cycling company Specialized provides the wearer the sunrise and sunset times as well as his current speed, which is likely extracted from the Specialized app. Surfing company Surfline also has its own watch face that provides information about local tides and forecasts about wind, wave and weather conditions.
Other watch faces simply look too good to pass up, such as the elegant bronze watch face from fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff and the cool new Pac-Man watch face from Bandai-Namco. The Pac-Man watch face doesn't tell anything besides the time, but fans of the classic arcade game would probably go crazy over the second hand Pac-Man, which goes around the clock eating dots and fruits as the seconds tick by.
Some watch faces, such as Surfline and the artistic Xogram watch face by Hugh Turvey, will be offered for free, while others, including the Pac-Man and Despicable Me watch faces, cost $0.99.
The new watch faces also come with a host of new Android Wear features, including the ability to undo cards that were accidentally removed and two new modes: sunlight mode, which temporarily increases screen brightness when the user is out in the sun, and theater mode, which makes the screen go dark and silences all notifications.
Google also updated the pull-down menu that comes down when users swipe from the top, which now includes a number of quick settings, including the most recent apps opened as well as the sunlight and theater modes. For users who have hardware buttons on their smartwatches, they can toggle between sunlight mode using three clicks and theater mode with two clicks.
Several other improvements include the ability to view the most frequently used apps at a single tap, block notifications from certain apps and view apps' storage and battery levels.
