The culture of Wearing a utility that helps us to perform certain actions has always been part of a modern civilization. Wrist watches for human beings have become an augmented tool for checking the time and date. Wearing a watch lets you check the time with just a glance. Technology has taken this watch-wearing experience to the next level. The first modern Wearable watch was a combination of a calculator and a watch, introduced to the world in 1970. Over the decades, advancements in microprocessors and wireless technology have led to the introduction of a concept called ubiquitous computing. During this time, most leading electronics industry start-ups started to work on their ideas, which has made Wearable devices very popular.
Tech giant companies, such as Google, Apple, Samsung, and Sony, have joined the force of the Wearable devices era. They have introduced their competitive Wearable products, which are extremely successful in the Wearable device market. More interestingly, Google's Android Wear is powerful, follows the same Android smartphone development practices, and has a very good developer community compared to Apple Watch OS and Samsung's Tizen OS developer community.
Google announced Android Wear in March 2014. Since then, Android Wear as a smartwatch and Wearable software platform has evolved. Google's continuous advancement in designing and user experience have resulted in a new generation of the Android Wear operating system, which has the ability to handle biometric sensors like never before with more features in the platform; Google calls it Android Wear 2.0.
Android Wear 2.0 will cause a lot of excitement in app development with remarkably competitive features to develop. Android Wear 2.0 allows a developer to build and carve his idea specific to Android Wear; there is no need to pair a watch and mobile app. Google calls it a standalone application. Android Wear 2.0 introduces a new way to input within the Android watch: a new application programming interface called Complications, which allows watch faces to display vital information from biometrics and other sensors. New updated notifications support for Android Wear 2.0 will help users and developers to present notifications in a more comprehensive manner.
In this chapter, we will explore the following:
- Android Wear design principles
- Exploring essential UI components specific to Wear apps
- Setting up a development environment for Wear apps development
- Creating your first Android Wear application
