If you're curious to see how Google's new Android Wear OS works, you can now install its launcher on Android devices running Android 4.4 or higher.
Google recently announced its plans to bring Android to wearable devices like smartwatches with its new Android Wear OS. The OS has been designed with small watch face screens in mind and presents users with information at a glance using Google Now's popular card user interface. The company announced that it has partnered with LG on the LG G Watch, a device it designed with developers in mind.
If you're curious to see how Android Wear will work, you can get an idea by installing Android Wear's launcher on devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and above. Android Police was able to extract the Android Wear launcher from its emulator and package it as an installable file, which it has posted for anyone that wants to give Android Wear a very early run-through. The site notes that there are some limitations with this early build and anyone who has installed the helper app that Google included with the developer preview will need to uninstall it before attempting to install this file. You'll also need to enable installation of third-party apps by going to Settings on your smartphone or tablet, tap Security and then Unknown Sources.
Once you've successfully installed the launcher, you'll be able to play with a very early version of Android Wear's launcher and get an idea of what it may feel like to use the new OS. Swiping up and down on the screen will allow you to scroll through any current notifications and a swipe to the left brings up options to handle the message, like open, reply, and archive. To dismiss a notification entirely, you'll simply swipe to the right of the message.
Since this is a very early build of Android Wear, not everything is completely working yet. You won't be able to use voice actions and if you're playing music on your smartphone or tablet, music playback controls don't show up in the launcher.
If all of those caveats don't discourage you from wanting to try Android Wear and you're running Android 4.4 KitKat, you can be first on your block to take Android Wear for a spin.
