The developer preview, that came out earlier, is a different story. As always, Google made sure the developers have things to work on….primarily the iOS support.

YES! A massive feature of the operating system is full iOS support. For the mobile application development sector, this is a pretty big deal.

What it means

Basically, it means that android developers can create iPhone apps that will be supported by wearables running Android Wear 2.0.

Previous Android smartwatches connected to iOS were able to access apps through the Android Wear iOS app, and only use the ones distributed by Google. Now, with the iOS support, Android and iOS developers can team up to enhance user experience even further opening the doors to integrating more innovative tech to the much beloved platform.

iOS support is just one feature. Other noteworthy additions include:

• Navigation drawer app
• NFC Host Card Emulation support
• Bug fixes

The NFC Host Card Emulation support could make it possible to pay for purchases through Android Pay.

It should also be noted that the iOS support doesn’t work both ways i.e. iOS users can use Android powered wearables running the 2.0 Android Wear. They will be able to run iOS apps in the device. But the same cannot be said for Android users. They still won’t be able to connect Apple Watch to their Android smartphones.

Developers will be able to submit applications developed with the Android Wear 2.0 version to the Google Play Store for publication. Once authorized, the apps can be made available to users owning Android Wear 2.0 devices.

That said, the Android Wear 2.0 update still hasn’t rolled out except for a select few devices. Even those with the developer preview haven’t received the update. The delay may not be Google’s fault but rest assured when it does come out for the wearables, it will not be disappointing the users.

The post Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview & What it Offers Developers appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

The Developer preview 2 of Android wear 2.0 was recently released much to the delight of android developers who wish to get their apps ready for launch.

The preview is packed with features, of which the most important ones are:

• Android Platform API 24 (matching Android Nougat)
• Wrist Gesture commands for third-party applications
• Wearable Drawers enhancements

API 24

An upgrade to the present platform, the API 24 now matches Android’s upcoming Nougat 7.0. Developers can now update the compileSdkVersion of their Android Wear 2.0 preview project to API 24. In addition to this, Google also recommends updating targetSdkVersion to API 24.

API 24 brings in a lot of fun features from live background options to music album art options.

Wrist Gesture

Earlier, only the users were able to use wrist gestures feature, mostly to scroll through the notification stream. The developer preview 2 has now extended this functionality to the developers so they can use it within their applications. The purpose is to improve single hand usage experience, effectively making the smartwatch much handier when it comes to multi-tasking.

Wearable Drawers enhancement

Wearable drawers first came along with the Preview 1 of Android Wear 2.0. UX guidelines were also provided to help users integrate the action drawer and navigation drawer in Android Wear.

Developer preview 2 comes with more support for wearable drawer peeking. With this, users can now access the drawers as they scroll. Some other great UI improvements include:

• Navigation drawer closure
• Automatic peek view

The first action will be now shown in WearableActionDrawer’s peek view.

Google also added a few attributes for developers that let them build custom wearable drawers. The WearableDrawerView now have ‘peek_view’ and ‘drawer_content’ attributes. To update navigation drawer contents, all they need to do is call ‘notifyDataSetChanged’.

Android Wear 2.0 will be out in a few months as an OTA update. However, only a few older model smartwatches will be eligible for the upgrade. The full list of devices that’ll be getting the update will be released soon.

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