Last week, the Google Android Developers team published updated guidelines for Wear OS app designers that will be in effect as of August 31, 2023. Given that Google wants to significantly tighten up the platform’s appearance, developers should have plenty of time to make sure their applications don’t violate any regulations.
The new design guidelines are not particularly bizarre. For instance, Google mandates that all developers only ever use black as the backdrop color in their apps. This particular demand makes excellent sense given that we anticipate Google to deliver Material You’s Dynamic Colors functionality for Wear OS. Even within apps, a black background will make it possible for a palette’s colors to stand out as the aesthetic focal point of the watch.
Also, there are little adjustments that one would not even notice, but Google aims to clean things up. as evidenced by the example below. The user will only be on a pop-up dialog page for a split second, so there is no need for the time to be displayed there. Google wants the time to always be shown at the 12 o’clock position, regardless of the app a user may be using. Having the watch function as a watch makes sense to me.
If you’re a Wear OS developer, firstly, thank you for your work. You are appreciated. Second, I recommend reading the whole blog that Google posted and ensure your app meets all the requirements.
