Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • JUSTIN: Hi, my name is Justin Koh

  • and I'm an engineer on the Android Wear team.

  • I'm here today to tell you about how

  • you can make your app ready for the wrist with Android Wear.

  • Let's take a look at how developing for Android Wear

  • is different than developing traditional Android apps.

  • One key benefit of Android Wear is giving people

  • the information they need right when they need it.

  • We realize that your Android device already

  • does a lot of this through notifications,

  • so we decided to start by bringing

  • those same notifications to your wrist.

  • I'll show you what I mean.

  • Here I have my Nexus 5.

  • I've installed the Android Wear preview app on it,

  • and I've paired it to my emulated device.

  • I have a small app which creates notifications

  • with different styles.

  • Notice how the notification appears on Android

  • Wear automatically.

  • I can update the notification, and the changes

  • are immediately bridged over.

  • Even better, I can dismiss the notification from my Android

  • Wear device and it'll disappear from my phone.

  • This is a really powerful concept.

  • This means that if your app posts notifications today it's

  • already on your wrist.

  • It's worth noting that all of this

  • is possible thanks to the Notification Listener API

  • that was added in Android 4.3.

  • So let's talk about how to get started

  • developing for Android Wear.

  • First go to developer.android.com

  • where you can sign up for the developer preview

  • and browse the documentation.

  • You should also download the system image

  • from the SDK manager to create an Android virtual device

  • with Android Wear.

  • Finally, install the Android Wear preview app

  • and run it on your Android phone that

  • is connected to your emulator.

  • At this point you'll have your development environment

  • set up and ready to go.

  • Let's look at some code for an app that invites people

  • to events.

  • It probably looks really familiar right?

  • There isn't anything specific to Android Wear here.

  • I'm just using the NotificationCompat class

  • from the Android support library to show a notification.

  • I've also added an action to my notification

  • so I can tell my app that I'll be attending the event.

  • This action becomes available on my wrist

  • so I don't even have to take my phone out

  • of my pocket to respond.

  • Instead I just swipe over to the right and tap the action.

  • That starts a service on the phone

  • that can add the event to my calendar

  • and then remove the notification.

  • Note that I could have used the notification styles introduced

  • in Android 4.1 such as Big Picture style

  • to show a photo alongside the notification text.

  • So that's really cool, but with great power

  • comes great responsibility.

  • Automatically bridging notifications to your wrist

  • means it's extremely important that you

  • be considerate of when and how you notify the user.

  • First, note that Android Wear devices will not

  • vibrate for every notification.

  • That would get annoying really quickly.

  • Only notifications which would vibrate or make

  • a sound on the phone will buzz your wrist.

  • Next, it's important that notifications

  • be as contextually relevant as possible.

  • For example, you can use the API's in Google Play services

  • to set up a geofence and only post a notification when

  • the user is at home.

  • Or you could use the Activity Detection API to only send

  • notifications when the user is biking.

  • If you have an app that generates

  • a lot of notifications, like a chat or email client,

  • you should give your user control

  • over when your notifications will make a sound or vibrate.

  • Finally, you should take advantage of the notification

  • priority field.

  • There are several buckets, max, high, default, low, and min.

  • Setting the proper priority helps

  • the system show the most relevant information

  • at the right time.

  • For more on what makes a good notification

  • see the design guidelines on developer.android.com.

  • So that's one way you can begin getting

  • your app ready for the wrist with Android Wear.

  • By optimizing your app's notifications

  • you'll be taking the first step to making

  • your app more wrist friendly.

  • There are more API's in the developer preview that

  • will help you customize notifications

  • when they appear on Android Wear devices.

  • So check out the documentation in other DevBytes episodes

  • for more on that.

  • And make sure to look at the sample code in the developer

  • preview and the UX guidelines on developer.android.com.

  • Thanks and happy coding.

JUSTIN: Hi, my name is Justin Koh

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it