Posted by Marcus Leal, Senior Product Manager for Google Play Store
Our Modern Android Developer tools and APIs are designed to help you build
high quality apps your users love, and this extends to form factors such as
wearables. Earlier this year we announced udates to our developer tools APIs
to support you in building seamless, high quality apps for your users. Today
we’re announcing new guidelines to help support you in building these
experiences.
Updated quality guidelines for Wear OS apps
We’ve started by
updating our guidelines
to give you a better understanding of what we expect of quality apps on Google
Play, and what your users will be expecting for Wear OS 3.0. Some of the major
changes are summarized below:
-
There are updated quality requirements for notifications, layout, and Wear
functionality.
Starting October 13th, Wear OS apps will need to meet these requirements
to be published on Google Play.
-
Starting October 13th, Watch Faces
will need to comply with our
updated guidelines.
All watch faces still need to comply with
Google Play policies
in order to publish on Google Play.
Many developers are already meeting these requirements and won’t need to make
many of these changes when migrating to Wear OS 3.0. However, we recommend
familiarizing yourself with the full updated guidelines
here.
Updated screenshot requirements for Wear OS apps
With these quality guideline updates, we’re also rolling out changes to the
Play Store to improve the discoverability of Wear OS apps. In July we launched
the ability for people to
filter for Wear OS and Watch Faces
when searching for apps within the Play Store.
We’re now releasing new
screenshot requirements
for Wear OS apps to help users better understand your Wear OS app’s
functionality when discovering new apps.
Starting October 13th, Wear OS apps will need to meet these screenshot
requirements to be published on Google Play:
-
Upload screenshots with a minimum size of 384 x 384 pixels, and with a 1:1
aspect ratio. -
Provide screenshots showing only your app interface — screenshots must
demonstrate the actual in-app or in-game experience, focusing on the core
features and content so users can anticipate what the app or game experience
will be like. - Don’t frame your screenshots in a Wear OS watch.
-
Don’t include additional text, graphics, or backgrounds in your Wear OS
screenshots that are not part of the interface of your app. - Don’t include transparent backgrounds or masking.
Similar to mobile, your store listing and the quality of your Wear OS app will
influence your search ranking and opportunities for merchandising. In order to
put your best foot forward on Google Play, we recommend thinking about the
following considerations:
-
Test your app on Wear OS 3.0 devices, and make sure it is working as
expected. -
Make sure your store listing shows that your app is available for Wear OS.
One way to do this is to
upload a screenshot
of your Wear OS app or Watch face in Google Play Console. -
Most importantly, ensure your Wear OS app meets the
new quality requirements.
We hope this transparency helps your development process, and we look forward
to seeing more seamless Wear OS experiences on Google Play. Happy Coding!
