As Google announced at its I/O developer conference last week, Android Wear will be more than a notifications pusher on a user's wrist. It will come with its own third-party apps to enhance the wearable experience. Sure enough, Google has published the first few Android Wear apps on Play Store just a few hours ago, but the apps were removed as quickly as they came.
Google says apps submitted to Play Store can either run only Android devices while sending notifications to Android Wear or exclusively on Android Wear, but third-party developers may also use an APK that allows them to create apps for both mobile and wearable platforms.
The apps we're talking about are apps that are compatible only with Android Wear, Google's open-source operating system for wearable devices. These are Wear Compass, a digital compass that uses the directional sensors on a wearable device, and a simple calculator called Wear Calc. Argentinean app developer Marian Zorilla developed both apps.
By themselves, the apps are not revolutionary, but they are the first Wear-only apps that have made it to Play Store. Wear Compass is, well, a compass, a basic utility users might expect to find in an expensive smartwatch. However, considering that Android Wear already has a built-in compass, there really is no reason for users to download another app with similar functions.
Wear Calc, on the other hand, could potentially become one of the most useful apps on any wearable device, as anyone who ever needed to make a few calculations on a short notice knows it's not fun fumbling around for a calculator or a smartphone. Using Wear Calc is simple. Users can download it from the Play Store, that is, if it goes back live and tap Start to launch the app.
However, there still are a few kinks on Wear Calc. For instance, although the app can be voice-activated using the command "Start Wear Calc," Android Wear mistakes this for "Where Calc" and often launches search results for that instead. Also, a lot of users may find that the screen is too small to accommodate their fingers.
"There's no visual problem when you press the buttons," says (video) Jacob Tabak, who posted a video review of Wear Calc on YouTube. "It's hard to tell what you've pressed. So if I press plus, for example, it doesn't... it just doubles the current number, which is not what I wanted."
It's unclear why Google has unpublished the two apps from the Play Store. Hopefully, it is simply a case of the developer taking it down to add improvements based on what the first few users have already said.
