Final Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview: iOS support. Time to upload your apps to the Play Store!

Posted by Hoi Lam, Developer
Advocate 

Cross platform support by Telegram Messenger

Today, we are releasing the fifth and final developer preview for Android Wear
2.0. In this release, we have added iOS support and included a number of bug
fixes and enhancements. Apps compiled with this preview are now ready for final
submission to the Google Play Store, so it's time to publish
your apps. As Android Wear 2.0 approaches its final release in early
February, we would like to thank you for your continued feedback during the
developer preview program. Your input has helped us uncover bugs as well as
drive critical product decisions. Thank you!

iOS Support

Since 2015,
you've been able to pair Android Wear watches with iPhones, and now you can
distribute your apps to iPhone-paired watches as well. To do so, just set the standalone=true
flag in your watch app manifest. This lets the Play Store know that your watch
app doesn't require an Android phone app, and therefore can appear in the Play
Store on watches paired to iPhones. To pair your watch to an iPhone and
test, just follow these
steps.

<application �>
   <meta-data android:name="com.google.android.wearable.standalone" android:value="true"/>
    �
</application>

The available network bandwidth for standalone apps can be lower than expected,
as the platform balances battery savings vs network bandwidth. Make sure to
check out these guidelines
for accessing the network, including accessing Wi-Fi and cellular networks on
watches paired with iPhones.




Also with this developer preview release, Android Wear apps running on watches
paired with iOS devices will be able to perform phone hand-off flows such as OAuth
and RemoteIntent
for launching a web page on a paired iOS device.

Uploading Your App to the Google Play Store

The final developer preview includes an update to the Wearable Support Library.
Apps compiled with API level 25 and this support library are considered ready
for deployment in the Google Play Store. Please note that there are no updates
to the preview watch image or emulator in this developer preview release.

Other Enhancement and Bug Fixes

• Navigation Drawer: Flip
  a flag to toggle to the single-page, icon-only navigation drawer, which provides
  faster, more streamlined navigation to different views in your app.
  


• NFC HCE support: NFC
  Host Card Emulation FEATURE_NFC_HOST_CARD_EMULATION is now
  supported.
  


• ProGuard and Complication API: New ProGuard configuration
  means complication data container classes will no longer be obfuscated. This
  fixes a ClassNotFoundException when watch faces are trying to access data supplied
  by a complication data provider.

Countdown to Launch

Thank you for the fantastic level of feedback we have gotten from you as
developers. Check out g.co/wearpreview for
the latest builds and documentation, and be sure to publish
your apps before the Android Wear 2.0 consumer launch in early February. As
we work towards the consumer launch and beyond, please continue filing bugs or posting comments in our Android Wear
Developers community. We can't wait to see your Android Wear 2.0 apps!