Finally Wear OS6 is ground breaking for DEVs and Partners

The whole watch face development world will change with these announcements especially if your a partner.

Watch Face Push just sounds like something I was dreaming about , I cant wait for these new features and support. Developers who want to create their own watch face marketplaces.

For me the whole play store integration has been so challenging I just gave up , but just around the corner hopefully this will all change.

Thoughts ?

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hmmm thoughts? I better assemble a whole team of developers. Now accepting resumes, lol…

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I will be happy if Facer comes back to life… And it looks like it will!

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…but only in a form that can make WFF faces (I think).

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Hope it will work somehow.
I must say I miss Facer community and I miss publishing watchfaces.
It’s kinda nice when you create something other people can download and enjoy.

Watch Face Studio is much better than Facer, I’ve created much better watchfaces but it’s only me who can see them… bummer.

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These are all good and exciting new features. It’s nice to finally see some work being done on improving the watch face experience.
Hopefully these changes will get implemented in the next WFS version well before Google’s deadline (Jan 2026), so that all of us without coding expertise can make use of them too.

“Text autosizing” sounds especially useful and needed ASAP as it would greatly help with overall user experience.

“Transitions” for AOD would also be cool, like having several options to choose from by default within WFS.

Maybe @Shamima can provide more info on when we could expect the next WFS version with some of these new features being introduced?

You don’t use the Play Store to publish? I’d be interested to know why.

I’ve used it, but hardly anyone downloads my poor efforts.

I really don’t know how to publish them on Play Store. I have to admit I didn’t even try.

If I understand it correctly every watchface has to be tested by 20(?) testers. Then there are like million Google rules what will be accepted and what will not.
I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong.
Is there some kind of manual how to publish watchfaces on Google Play?

With Facer it’s super easy, anyone can publish a watchface.
I have 96 published watchfaces with 153.000 downloads and I’ve stoped publishing them a year ago because Facer doesn’t work on watch 7 / ultra.
On the + side I was forced to learn how to use Watch Face Studio. :partying_face:

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lol no manual unless you can speak “Googlenese”. It’s learn by attrition here and pray to god you don’t make a really big blunder that just gets your account terminated. Unlike Facer, everyone is pretty much “mum” on anything and everything Google related. Once you figure it out and start getting stuff published, you don’t want to give up anything because it was so damn hard to do so the cycle continues. It’s compounded even further for those poor souls who didn’t get in early enough and have to deal with the seemingly impossible 20 testers for 2 weeks thing. Seems like every platform has its drawbacks and the biggest one with Facer is its a club that doesn’t let anyone in anymore and you just gotta be happy with giving your stuff away for free on the slimmest of chances you’ll ever make partner. I have been hearing some things about Facer perhaps opening up and giving some opportunities but be the pessimist I am, I can imagine it would be for Play Store performers only. Please stick around as I enjoy your contributions and tutorials.

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Google makes publishing things really difficult. The only official guide I know of is this. But there are a lot of gotchas that it doesn’t mention. I have been curating a little list of them with the intention of maybe putting together a shared doc or something about the process. I haven’t gone ahead with it because I haven’t managed to get many user installations even though my watchfaces are all free, so I’m a bit disappointed. But such a doc would make a good community project.

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I believe it would be a good thing to do and you should do it. For those selling/trying to sell faces knowing how to upload a watch face wouldn’t give anyone an easier way to “Google Play Success” because the biggest hurdle is not making a watch face, not Google Play, but cracking the promotional/social media code.

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Yeah, I’ve given up trying to crack the promotional/social code. The last time I checked, my most recent clockface had exactly zero installations. And it’s free! That put an end to my motivation.

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It’s a grind. You gotta stand out on the corners of Facebook and Reddit groups, put your make-up and high heels on rain or shine and shake your money maker! :rofl:

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Do you Publishers not get promote on the Google store if you spend money on advertising ? Is that not the Magic Pass . Despite getting to where you are . It certainly filters out Zero Effort Batch Publication Jokers .

That’s a great question. I’ve never tried it. The skeptic in me suspects that the money paid to the advertising company would not be recouped. It really seems like the market is very small. I made useful $ from Fitbit, but Wear OS is a really hard slog.

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The problem is the whole game has exploded exponentialy . There are many platforms now with thousands of Faces to download for free . I suspect ther are many Millons of faces that could be downloaded right now . The people who want a Nice Chronograph / Stopwatch or Beautiful Moon Phase are still going to spend thousands and buy a Mechanical Watch . I guess if all Smart Watch Faces were Paid it would be very Different . Most of them are free so there we have it . For me I am just so Delighted to be allowed to play and make the Face I want on my Watch . For me the Camaraderie of the Communitys is a great draw as well .

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I played around with the Google Ads console right up until it got to the place with a drop down menu of what type of app I want to promote and Wear OS wasn’t even an option? There are those who have clearly figured out how to use Google Ads and I believe have benefitted greatly but as usual, its figure it out for yourself. I even asked around here but no response. I think there is just too much to have to understand and when you’re a one-man show, it’s very daunting.

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The true Creatives are the lifes blood of this whole business . People will soon get fed Up with the Sheeple Faces and beg for Some Isometric Ones . Shame Google are not Head Hunting . I see a gold mine of Creativity .

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Does this mean… that Facer will make an epic comeback?? I am also sick and tired of the Google Console shenanigans and hurdles.

I want to create, not spend time on the sharing part and publishing part.

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It’ll be back. If you’re a Creator partner it’s especially good news. If you’re not, I guess be happy making free content forever. :grinning_face:

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