I have a standalone Xamarin Watchface for Tizen and I want to bring it over to Wear OS - is it possible? Without any companion app (e.g. no Android app)? When I try to add an app on Google Play it requires "phone" and "tablet" screenshots before even asking for app type. What kind of screenshots should I provide in such case?
Related
What are the differences between Android Automotive, Android Auto, and Android for mobile phones (from a user perspective and architecturally / technically)?
They are different products.
Android Auto - to simplify things - you can think about it as an app which runs on your phone, an app which is streaming (casting) apps to your car's unit. Android Auto runs on your mobile phone, all apps are casted from your mobile phone.
Android Automotive - it's open source OS (just like standard Android) but it is created for manufacturers. They can build with it the whole infotainment system. It can be heart of your vehicle. Every manufacturer can use it differently. So it's like standard Android but for cars.
But also looking at standard Android (for mobile). Using Android (which is open source) doesn't mean you have with it all Google serivces etc. Open Source version of Android Automotive and Android OS (for mobile) doesn't contain Google Services and apps.
Just like in mobile phones - it depends on manufacturer if it will bring Google Services with it.
There are manufacturers using it already with Google Services (Volvo, Polestar) but there are also many using it without Google apps.
I saw that there is a DHU for Testing Android Auto Apps during development.
At the same time, there is an Emulator with system images from Volvo and Polestar to use Android Automotive in Android Studio.
I found this on Google Android Auto webpage:
You enable Android Auto to connect with your phone app by creating
services that Android Auto uses to display a driver-optimized
interface to the driver. You reuse these services for your Android
Automotive OS app, but users do not install your phone app on their
cars.
I was wondering if I develop some app for Android Auto, how complicated is the process of transforming this app to use it in Android Emulator or as an Android Automotive App?
The whole let's say business logic behind Apps should stay the same and services, according to Google, should work on Automotive as well? So the only difference is in UI?
Thanks!
Take media app as an example
It isn't complex, there is step-by-instructions at https://developer.android.com/cars to port your Android Auto app to Android Automotive OS.
I am new to application development for Android Wear. My company needs to deploy to the customer our Android Wear application without using Play Store.
I have read this
https://developer.android.com/training/wearables/apps/packaging.html
but I don't understand if it is possible to use the embedded method like wear 1.x on wear 2. I tried the embedded method but when I install the phone application and if I check the log of wear I can see this message:
I/PackageChangesService: App is not installed
Before posting this thread I read on Stack Overflow many possible solution for this, like using the same name space, same permission on phone and wear etc. But I can't find a solution that works.
So on an Android Wear 2 smartwatch it is not possible to use the packaging method?
From this article,
A Wear 2.0 user must visit the Play Store on their watch to install apps. There is no auto-install like on Wear 1.X. Wear 2.0 apps
get full network access and can be installed completely separately
from the handheld app so the focus is much more on standalone Wear
apps than the handheld centric 1.X Wear apps.
I have an Android Wear app (a watchface) that was originally created before Wear 2.0, so it is embedded in a phone APK. I am working on porting it to 2.0, and keeping it backwards compatible. It is standalone and requires zero connection to a phone.
I understand that for Wear 2.0, the only thing needing to be published for a standalone app is the Wear APK. I have been reading through Google's documents and recommendations for moving 1.x apps to Multi-APK instead of embedded. They are a bit vague, however, on if a standalone Wear 1.x app even needs a companion app. I'm asking about this because it seems strange that we would need a dummy app on the phone that does literally nothing, if the Wear app is now its own APK.
From my understanding, that is the case, unfortunately. Since there is no Play Store app on Wear 1.0 watches, it's not possible to install the standalone app directly. So a user needs to install the companion app on the phone, and Play Services should install the Wear app if there is a Wear 1.0 watch connected.
I have developed an android wear application and generated a signed mobile apk with a wear apk embedded in it. Currently it's under alpha testing.
Once after installing the app, the phone app is getting installed on the phone and the wear app is getting pushed to the wear device.
Phone app is a dummy app with only hello world text, I have created this dummy phone app with the purpose to push the wear app to android wear.
Now the question is after installing the app, how can I extract only the wear apk to android wear without installing the dummy phone app on phone?
Because it might not be a good experience for an user to see a helloworld text in the phone app.
Three-part answer:
First, with the arrival of Wear 2.0, "companion" apps will no longer be needed for distribution. Full details here: https://developer.android.com/training/wearables/apps/packaging.html
Second, while you're still supporting Wear 1.x, you could do something useful with your companion app's launcher Activity - even if it's only displaying some text like To use this app's functionality, run it on your watch. Because there will always be some less-knowledgeable users who expect to run an app from the launcher, and need some hand-holding.
Third: why do you even have an Activity with the launcher intent at all? Why not simply remove it from your package, or at least your manifest?