I'm building a phone app with direct connection to a wear app running on several wear devices. The wear app will run on several wear devices at the same time and will share data to a single phone app.
I'm following the Android guidelines for co-packaging the wear and phone apps in a single package.
My question: can the wear app be auto-installed on multiple wear devices? If so, can you recommend how? Thanks.
Yes, it's the same as on a single device, basically. The Android Wear app on the user's phone will push your wearable app to all connected devices.
I have my primary phone linked to two or three Wear devices as a matter of course, and apps get pushed to all of them. It's really no different.
Related
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 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?
I am planning a new application that I would like to put on the smartwatch. I would like to have it usable also when there is no phone nearby. The app needs no Internet connection to work, could synchronize data to the phone later and I do not need anything from the phone while the app is running. However I could use the phone no problem to install the app.
I have googled, there are some foggy talks on a web that this is not possible, Android watch must always be connected to the phone for apps to run. How much is it true?
With Android Wear 2.0 it is possible to now develop standalone applications and thus eliminates the need for a mobile 'companion' completely.
Please follow this link for more information: https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/index.html
As I am aware, the current Android Wear version always requires a companion app for installation purposes etc. But with 2.0 this is no longer necessary. It would probably make sense for you to start developing with 2.0 now. That being said, it is still in a development preview and can officially run on only two smart watches (Huawei Watch and LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition)
Wearable apps are run directly on wearables and don't require presence of a phone except for installation or phone-provided features (voice recognition, SMS, internet connection etc.)
Note that some features are wearable-provided or phone-provided depending on the hardware configuration of the watch/wearable (eg. GPS).
Yes, it is most definitely possible. As long as the wearable app doesn't require any functionality from the phone then it can operate as a standalone device. It will require a companion app on the phone to install the app on the wear device.
There are several wear apps that work without the need to be tethered to the phone, including Google Play music. There is the possibility of designing wear apps for hardware on only a few wear devices - I know that Ghostracer has standalone functionality using GPS, but it requires the wear device to have a GPS chip (it is designed for the Sony SmartWatch 3).
I am new to Android programming. I am developing a wearable application. So far, I have a mobile and wear module. All I want to test is that a button on the handheld app triggers a notification to appear on the wearable device.
To test it, I have both physical devices (Watch and Mobile). I have the LG Watch R and an Android mobile device. I have ADB debugging enabled on both devices. I downloaded the Android Wear app on my handheld and it syncs fine with the watch. I have both devices connected to my laptop through USB.
How do I test the whole project?
Do I have to run the mobile module first and then the wear module? I tried researching Google's examples but they only explain a handheld connected to a wear emulator.
Any help would be hugely appreciated.
It doesn't matter which is loaded on first unless you are debugging. If you're just monitoring Logcat then you can switch between the two devices fairly easily in Android Studio.
You don't need to rebuild each of the separate modules each time either. For example, if you make changes to the handheld module and not the wear module then you only have to build the handheld.
Started working on Android Wear, I could able to pair my Phone with Emulator. I am thinking to buy a device, So my question is ,
Is it possible that a Single Wear can Pair with multiple android devices and Vice versa ? I mean 2 to 3 wear devices with single android device.
Nope, you can't pair a single wear with multiple android devices at a time.
Even if a wear is already connected with a phone/tablet and if you would want to switch device then you will have to reset the wear.
Read more on Different ways to pair your watch.