Google says in a new blog post that it will now enable third-party development to create custom tiles for Wear OS. It first introduced Tiles in 2019, widgets that users can look at and move around to get weather information, calendar notifications or statistics like heart rate. All the tiles were previously directly from Google or from the device manufacturer.
The Jetpack Tiles library for third-party developers is now in alpha. Google Notes in the blog post:
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.
Wear OS has been in limbo for a while, with minor updates here and there, but without a clear path for its future. In the latest blog post, the company says, the new custom tiles will be available to users later this spring when we launch the corresponding update of Wear OS platform. ‘