This talk will cover

• History of Wearables
• Current Wearable
• Introduction to Wear
• Making Wear Apps

Obligitory Introduction

• Sr Software Engineer @ Red Hat
• www.aerogear.org
• Bit of a Google fan boy
• Lots more of a FOSS fanboy
• AJUG web chair
• M.S. in Human Computer Interaction 
• Cyclist

History

• We've been trying this for a while

History

• My first "smart" watch

History

• My first smart watch

History

• My first smart watch I didn't hate using

History

• Up until recently, wearables have seen the most success in the fitness area.

History

• There have been several attempts at making a good smart watch.

History

• I/O 2014 Google Announced Android Wear and three watches.

Introduction to (hard)Wear

• Devices made by partners not Google
  • Samsung
  • LG
  • Motorola
  • Asus
  • And more coming
• Devices use Bluetooth LE (Android 4.3+)

Introduction to (hard)Wear

• Bright Color Screens
• Touch Based Controls
• Round or Square Screens

Introduction to (hard)Wear

• Microphone
• Various Sensors
  • Heartrate
  • Pedometer
  • Accelerometer
  • GPS

Introduction to (hard)Wear

• Various styles
  • Moto 360 took design very seriously
  • LG Watch R looks very digital watch
• Most watches use standard bands
• Contact or wireless charging
• All watches kind of large

Introduction to (soft)Wear

• Actual Android
  • 4.4 launch
  • 5.0 rolling out literally right now
• Google Play Services support libs
  • Wear can get features outside of Android update cycle
  • Wear apps are less FOSS friendly

Introduction to (soft)Wear

• Several libraries to help out

  • com.google.android.support:wearable:+

  • https://github.com/Mariuxtheone/Teleport
• Apps Available in the Play Store
• Applications are bundled as companions through Android Phone apps
   

Wear can I use it?

• Traveling

Wear can I use it?

• Exercising

Wear can I use it?

• Slacking

Wear can I use it?

• All about your day

Developing apps

• UI paradigms, rules, guides, etc
• Actually making apps

Developing apps

• https://developer.android.com/design/wear/index.html

Developing apps

• Notifications
  • Can be sent from phone with 0 Wear code
  • Can have simple response actions
    • Yes
    • No
    • Cancel
    • Voice
  • Have to be careful not to annoy users.

Developing apps

• Don't annoy your users
  • Information should be glanceable and RELEVANT
  • Notifications shouldn't have deep hierarchies
  • Notifications shouldn't have a lot of options
  • Group notifications if you send extras
  • Use whitespace effectively

Developing apps

• Custom Views
  • BoxInsetLayout
    • Great for displaying content correctly despite screen shape
  • WatchViewStub
    • View class with helper methods for handling round vs rectangular screens
  • WearableListView
    • ListView which does a few extra UI tricks to make them more suited for wearables

Developing apps

• Custom Views
  • GridViewPager
  • GridPagerAdapter
  • FragmentGridPagerAdapter
    • Lets you layout app in a grid
    • Basically the default way Wear apps "work"

Developing apps

• Tools
  • Android Studio
  • Gradle
  • Physical Android device
    • The Internet claims an emulator can be made to work.  Google does not.
  • Wear device OR Wear emulator

Developing apps

• Notification app

• Wearable app