Raising the quality bar with updated guidelines for Wear OS 3.0

Posted by Marcus Leal, Senior Product Supervisor for Google Play Retailer

Our Trendy Android Developer instruments and APIs are designed that can assist you construct
top quality apps your customers love, and this extends to type components akin to
wearables. Earlier this yr we introduced udates to our developer instruments APIs
to assist you in constructing seamless, top quality apps to your customers. At present
we’re asserting new tips to assist assist you in constructing these
experiences.

Up to date high quality tips for Wear OS apps

We’ve began by
updating our tips
to provide you a greater understanding of what we anticipate of high quality apps on Google
Play, and what your customers might be anticipating for Wear OS 3.0. Among the main
adjustments are summarized beneath:

• There are up to date high quality necessities for notifications, format, and Wear
  performance.
  Beginning October thirteenth, Wear OS apps might want to meet these necessities
  to be revealed on Google Play.
  
• Beginning October thirteenth, Watch Faces
  might want to adjust to our
  up to date tips.
  All watch faces nonetheless have to adjust to
  Google Play insurance policies
  to be able to publish on Google Play.
  

Many builders are already assembly these necessities and received’t have to make
many of those adjustments when migrating to Wear OS 3.0. Nevertheless, we suggest
familiarizing your self with the total up to date tips
right here.

Up to date screenshot necessities for Wear OS apps

With these high quality guideline updates, we’re additionally rolling out adjustments to the
Play Retailer to enhance the discoverability of Wear OS apps. In July we launched
the power for folks to
filter for Wear OS and Watch Faces
when trying to find apps throughout the Play Retailer.

We’re now releasing new
screenshot necessities
for Wear OS apps to assist customers higher perceive your Wear OS app’s
performance when discovering new apps.
Beginning October thirteenth, Wear OS apps might want to meet these screenshot
necessities to be revealed on Google Play:

• Add screenshots with a minimal dimension of 384 x 384 pixels, and with a 1:1
  side ratio.
• Present screenshots exhibiting solely your app interface — screenshots should
  exhibit the precise in-app or in-game expertise, specializing in the core
  options and content material so customers can anticipate what the app or sport expertise
  might be like.
• Don’t body your screenshots in a Wear OS watch.
• Don’t embrace extra textual content, graphics, or backgrounds in your Wear OS
  screenshots that aren’t a part of the interface of your app.
• Don’t embrace clear backgrounds or masking.

Much like cell, your retailer itemizing and the standard of your Wear OS app will
affect your search rating and alternatives for merchandising. In an effort to
put your greatest foot ahead on Google Play, we suggest serious about the
following issues:

• Check your app on Wear OS 3.0 gadgets, and ensure it’s working as
  anticipated.
• Ensure your retailer itemizing reveals that your app is on the market for Wear OS.
  A method to do that is to
  add a screenshot
  of your Wear OS app or Watch face in Google Play Console.
• Most significantly, guarantee your Wear OS app meets the
  new high quality necessities.

We hope this transparency helps your improvement course of, and we glance ahead
to seeing extra seamless Wear OS experiences on Google Play. Completely happy Coding!