Build View-based UIs on Wear OS

Try the Compose way

Jetpack Compose on Wear OS is the recommended UI toolkit for Wear OS.

Try Compose on Wear OS →

Android Jetpack includes the Wear OS UI Library. The Wear OS UI library includes the following classes:

• CurvedTextView: a component for easily writing text that follows the curvature of the largest circle that can be inscribed in the view.
• DismissibleFrameLayout: a layout that lets the user dismiss any view by pressing the back button or swiping on the screen from left to right. Wear OS users expect left-to-right swiping for the back action.
• WearableRecyclerView: a view that provides basic offsetting logic for updating child layouts using a WearableLinearLayoutManager.
• AmbientModeSupport: a class used with the AmbientModeSupport.AmbientCallbackProvider interface to provide support for ambient mode.

For a full list, read the release notes.

Add a dependency on the Wear OS UI Library

To start creating apps, create a Wear-OS-specific project. Then add the following dependencies to your app's build.gradle file:

dependencies {
    ...
  // Standard Wear OS libraries
  implementation "androidx.wear:wear:1.2.0"
  // includes support for wearable specific inputs
  implementation "androidx.wear:wear-input:1.1.0"
}

Import classes from the Wear OS UI Library package

To use a class from the Wear OS UI Library, import it from the androidx.wear.widget package.

Use the right element names in layout files

In layout files, use fully qualified names that correspond to the Wear OS UI Library.

For example, to use the DismissibleFrameLayout class from the Wear OS UI Library, you could specify the following in a layout file:

<androidx.wear.widget.DismissibleFrameLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/swipe_dismiss_root" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/test_content"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="Swipe the screen to dismiss me." />
</androidx.wear.widget.DismissibleFrameLayout>