If you swing from left on Wear OS clock faces from 2019, you’ll see ‘Tees’ for weather, news headlines and more. Only first-party Google apps have ever been able to present these striking pieces of information. This is finally changing because Google can now create third-party custom OS Wear tiles.
Google announced today that the Jetpack Tiles library is in alpha. Developers can now start creating custom tiles with today’s announcement explaining how end users will have access this spring to a “corresponding Wear OS platform update”, which should be in the vein of H MR2 version).
Tiles can be designed for many use cases, such as tracking the user’s daily activity progress, starting a workout quickly, starting a recently played song, or sending a message to a favorite contact. Although programs can be immersive, the tiles load quickly and focus on the immediate needs of the user. If the user wants more information, Tiles can be tapped to open a related app on the watch or phone for a deeper experience.
Developer documentation on how to create it in Android Studio is now available, while Google offers best practices, including:
- Tiles are intended for information that users can read within seconds. Displays only the most important content with clear information hierarchy.
- To protect the user’s battery, you must avoid items that need to be rendered regularly.
- Store highly interactive experiences for your activities. However, you can link to the activities from your Tile.
- Avoid text like ‘x minutes ago’ or ‘within minutes’ for past or future events, as it requires regular updates. Rather display the actual start or end time or use a statement such as ‘in the past’.
- Avoid prolonged asynchronous work when providing a tile layout and / or resources. Your tile code needs to be executed quickly.
- Consider allowing the user to tap on Tiles to learn more and take action in an overlay, where there is support for rich interactivity and the user can browse for more information.
- If you have a large app that supports the user with multiple tasks, consider creating a tile for each task. For example, a fitness patio may include a goal tile and an exercise activity style.
The latest first-party Tiles introduced revamped ones and quickly got users to start a breathing session.
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