Latest WatchFace Studio 1.1.9 WearOS Status and Supported devices in the catalog Problem!

It makes you wonder how much testing they actually do we are talking about two of the biggest tech companies in the world.

So I need to pay and make a brand new DEV account so I can publish watch face ?

Work like this is insane. :exploding_head:

25 USD. You will have to set everything from the start, dev profile, payments profile, etc. Also
 it’s possible that you’ll get the same error a few days later :smiley:

I had one idea. Use that new dev account to create & publish watch face, then ask google to transfer it to my main account. But it would cost a lot of time and processing emails with Google


Currently I have 4 new watch faces approved but not visible in play store. Only because the two parts of the play console system throw each other out. One part considers the application approved and the other part is stuck in approval because it relies on the info from the first part.

Before their system was working so fine, Now it shows active right before u publish it. When I asked they say you have to wait for 7 days for a watch face to be live and ready for users to download on their watches, even tho their system says active :confused:

It’s an automated reply. Support does not even know the condition of your dial, if you come across someone more experienced, they will advise you to read all the conditions of publishing the application on wear OS :smiley:

Your 37 devices from device catalog will be never showing as “supported” & stay forever “pending review” because system thinks these devices are already supported (wear os “ACTIVE”)

It’s play console bug which affects some developer accounts.

I had live chat with them, and you are right it does shows Pending Review but still they are live if you access them via your watch’s PlayStore and search manually with watch face name they do arrive there for download even system says Pending Review.

Yes, watch face can be downloaded, but only through web version of Play Store & as far as I know only on Galaxy Watch 4 devices. If you use another watch, it will not be supported even in the web version (Ticwatch)

For me, this is the third week that I haven’t fully released any apps (released but not downloadable), and it seems to me that approval of updates takes a little longer too.

Everyday a new problem with Playstore, i hope Google release its own watch so that we can get some better support.



Paranormal activity
:joy:

There are two possible scenarios

  1. watch face is reviewed by real testers but the system is bugged so even when they mark it as “good to go” it’s showing “review pending”

  2. no one is reviewing our watch faces because system thinks they are already reviewed (active)

Previously, they ruined it during the check a couple of times, I wrote about this above. Today there was a letter from them that the testing time had increased to 7 days. I already clearly threw off screenshots of the problem to them, and gave this topic for study. Everything is useless


So what we have to wait for now? What can WE do to force Google to address these issues. Writing endless service emails to get 0815 answers is like writing a letter and throwing it straight into the trash can -.- ? I really hate not having a CLEAR communication channel to the Play Store developers. We need a second RON for the Play Store.

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Maybe @r.liechty_SDR can help us & contact someone from Google to solve this. It will be a month since I am unable to completely release a new watch face.

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I was thinking 

It would be possible to create a new seller account on the Play Console 

Release the watch face from there and then transfer it to the “bugged” account?

It might work?

Update: I hadn’t read that it had already been proposed before 


There isn’t much Samsung can do but I do believe the WFS team has a contact in the Play Store review team and I’ll see if they can find anything out.

Ron

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Hi Ron that would be great. Any help is welcomed :slight_smile:

Yes, but the process is not so simple, everything works on the basis of support requests (you have to request app transfer), it is also necessary to fill a bunch of nonsensical things around.

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We need more information because it goes from me up the hill, to the Google and then back down the hill.

As I understand it. Watch Faces are active and can be seen from Web but not the Play Store App. In the Play Store Console they say Under Review but only for GW4 devices.

A couple questions.
Do the devices that are not available have the recent AoD bug in them or are they still running an older firmware version?

Has anyone tried building a watch face with WFS 1.0.3 and does that have the same issue

Are you making companion apps and is the item pending the Watch Face or the Companion App or both. In other words can you download the companion app from the store but not watch face or vice versa or both are available via web. If you only do the watch face and no companion app does that solve the issue.

Ron

First of all. This isn’t WFS problem or device specific problem. This is Play Console bug.
Why ? Because same watch face (with different app id) is being reviewed just fine under other dev account (created new developer profile just to test this - used projects from WFS 1.0.3 / 1.0.12 / 1.1.9)

WFS version doesn’t play a role. Also, no companion app is used. Just single .aab from WFS is uploaded.

Problem of affected accounts.

  1. create watch face (pick WFS version)
  2. upload to play console, add description etc. (as usual)
  3. create production release, upload aab, send for review (or send after step 4.)

4. Advanced settings - enable release type - Wear OS 
 instantly becomes “ACTIVE” - it should say "In review"
as a result of this unwanted behavior, all devices from device catalogue will stay in “pending review” status forever. Means, app is not visible in Play Store app after succesfull review (watch filter selected). One interesting thing is that some Samsung watches can download this app through web version of Play Store (they are however still showing as being reviewed in device catalogue).

Now, how it should behave (how it behaved about before February 26)

  1. after enabling Wear OS release type, it was showing “In review”. In 1-2 days watch face was reviewed. Wear OS release type was then showing “ACTIVE”, all devices from device catalogue (37 devices) were showing as “Supported”. Watch face was searchable in Play Store app.

I’m 100% sure that this is a play console error. The problem for some developers occurs when they try enabling wear os release. Before this error began to appear (around February 25), after enabling wear os release, the application (watch face) got the status “in review”, now it’s getting instant “ACTIVE” status which causes that watch face isn’t supported on any of 37 devices. (I have one watch face which was approved 20 days ago but still isn’t available on any device because of this). Me, and other affected devs aren’t actually able to fully release our watch faces for ± 20 days.

I can shoot a video with the same application and its release on two different developer accounts to show exactly when the error occurs and what is the difference between a working and a non-functional play console account.

If someone from Google have access to applications, I attach two Id’s out of five in which this problem is present, as proof that something really doesn’t work with play console account. (Every new release is affected so I stopped creating new content)
com.watchfacestudio.awfhive
com.watchfacestudio.awffitoled

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Thanks,

I’ve forwarded this on. It is very useful and clarifies it for us that never used Play Console.

Ron
Samsung Developer Relations

Thanks Ron :slightly_smiling_face: Really appreciate your willingness to help !