Google is now offering support for custom watch faces as the tech giant has collaborated with various brands to develop new designs for the Android Wear platform.
While Google previously cautioned against the development of new watch faces as it may have an adverse impact on the platform's context streams, the company announced its efforts in improving the Android Wear programming interface, including the availability of new watch faces.
Wayne Piekarski, Google senior developer advocate for Android, Wear and Glass, stated last July that the company has been focusing on "tweaks" for the development of customized watch faces before rolling out a new update.
"[Custom watch faces] have some special considerations due to interactions with the stream and always-on ambient mode," Piekarski explained. He also mentioned the need to use a shorter peek card, adjusting the mute and battery status indicators and turning the faces into ambient mode.
With developers now obtaining more ideas about the said platform, various teams and companies have launched their software to generate the latest watch faces for Android Wear and allow users to choose their preferred designs.
An official update has already been released by Google regarding the enhanced support for customized watch faces, which has no negative impact on the software's performance.
Android Wear engineering director David Singleton released a statement with regards to the availability of new watch faces.
"Some [watches] are traditional, others are sporty. And that's exactly the point," Singleton said. "With different shapes and styles, it's really easy to make your watch your own. So by all means-wear what you want."
Meanwhile, the recent update for the Wear API provides a comprehensive range of developer tools along with a collection of face designs.
Google reportedly developed new face designs alongside companies like Porsche, Hugh Turvey and Surfline. The new watch faces are expected to become more flexible in terms of lighting modes to adjust to sunlight and low light.
Users can get their hands on the latest watch faces through Google Play Store. A new update for the Android Wear app has also been rolled out to enable easier and more efficient navigation and downloading.
