According to an email Google sent to Wear OS developers, sideloading apps not available in the Play Store will become much more complicated on March 10th. You will no longer be able to download apps from your phone via the Play Store -> Apps on your phone section on watches, which makes it almost impossible to add unapproved apps to your watch without turning to tools intended for developers, such as the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).
Developer Malcolm Bryant reached out to us with the email he received. Google explains that the change is part of a move away from the outdated built-in app model that allows developers to add Wear OS code to Android apps. If you disable this distribution method, phone apps will be smaller for everyone, as people will no longer have to download Wear OS code to their phones, even if they do not have Wear OS devices.
However, the ability to rely on the legacy app model is especially important for apps that are not available in the Play Store at all, affecting many of Bryant’s own projects. The change will make sideloading applications like this much more difficult for ordinary people, as it will have to activate development tools on smartwatches. They now need to enable developer options on their watches’ settings and move programs via ADB.
Movements like these should not be too surprising, as Google is tightening control over its apps and devices. It only recently introduced new security measures that prevent some Google apps from being set aside on Android 11, and getting Android apps on Chrome OS without using the Play Store has always been a major issue. However, the change is quite understandable in the Wear OS case. The company wants to disconnect Wear OS apps from Android apps, and the new sideloading restriction appears to be a victim caught in the crossfire. Many developers who publish their apps in the Play Store have already switched to the new app distribution model anyway, and this mostly affects apps that are distributed elsewhere.
