I published a watch face to the play store . The face is available on the store . I can find it via web browser but not by searching it on the play store app . If I click on the link to the face I get a message my device is not supported . I noticed it is a known issue from Google side based on this post :
The face doesn’t available under my dev profile via play store app either .
I instructed my users to download using the browser but we all know it is less convenient and will probably make us loss potential users .
I also read creating a simple companion app should help so I might do that .
It is the same issue that has appeared on the Play Store since the end of February. All Watch Faces are not “tagged” as watch faces on the Play Store App and therefore cannot be downloaded or classified in the Watch Faces category. They are practically non-existent apps / watch faces on the Play Store. Countless support tickets have been opened to Google without getting solutions. I can’t give you an answer. I can only say that the hard work that the Samsung Watch Face Studio team has done is practically useless for selling Watch Faces on the Play Store. Developers get negative feedback on apps and Galaxy Watch 4, and no one seems willing to fix these issues.
After 3 months of unsuccessful attempts, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to concentrate your forces on other platforms. There was not the slightest respect for the developers. The only thing I regret is that the Watch Face Studio team did a really great job maybe for little or nothing.
That is really a shame . While Tizen is still available we all know Samsung ditched it for Wear OS .Tizen devices are still selling but who knows when the System will be shut down …
It is not the first time Google ignores critical bugs .
Thx Matteo
I think ditching Tizen is a big mistake . This system is so much better than Wear OS . Google didn’t even fix bugs with Google assistant reported a year ago . I still have Tizen watch but I probably won’t create watches for that platform anymore .
I have noticed you use companion app . Is it a good workaround ?
My Active 2 watch is way more fluid and responsive compared to my Galaxy watch 4 where it lags and freezes for a few milliseconds, usually when i get a notification or swap fast from screen to screen.
Hoping Galaxy watch 5 will not be again a Wear OS watch.
Hi! Im Catherina as PM.
I fully agree with you and feel sorry for all the situations you are going through.
I’ve already reported bugs to Google several times and they know these bugs and are trying to improve them. It’s good to share and report to us through the forum, It is also a good way to report to Google so that many people can properly recognize the seriousness and importance of the issue.
Today I reported the issue back to Google again. I hope it will be improved soon.
Thank you
The companion app only helped half. It definitely helps users download Watch Faces but until Google fixes these bugs, Watch Faces won’t be classified as watch faces. As a result, they will not be able to be found on the Play Store in the watch faces category and not get rankings.
So, in the meantime I have opened other support tickets for the same (serious) issues on the Play Store.
I also tried to contact them via DM from Twitter and via chat.
So many promises from them and no solution yet … It’s been almost 4 months.
Someone tell me it’s a joke …
Yes, guys, of course, the Galaxy Store also had its own troubles, especially with the approval of non-standard functionality.
But what’s happening in Google Play with the watch faces now is mess.
By the way, the web version of Google Play seems to have a different search algorithm, because the same query in the browser and in the application produces different results.
The worst part is that all the new watch faces released are not “tagged” as watch faces on the Play Store (web and app).
This way they will never get rankings and be displayed on watch faces categories.
Basically it is useless work.
It’s clearly infuriating and alas typical of all the Wear OS situation for years.
However, I wouldn’t praise too much Samsung for its dev support. I remember 2 years ago trying to apply as a dev and getting rejected multiple times … With no real explanation other than my work wasn’t good enough.
And then, as some other people were in the same situation, it was disclosed that Samsung was closing new devs applications monthes before that and didn’t tell it publicly.
I suppose they were preparing already the switch to Wear OS and couldn’t tell the world yet about it. But keeping applications open without chance of being validated was extremely disrespectfull. So much work for nothing.
From my experience, Samsung handled all of this in the worst possible way and Google’s lack of commitment on Wear OS is no worse.
Personally I can’t complain about Samsung. I miss the Galaxy Store when it allowed us to live peacefully with watch faces.
WFS team did a really great job and offered us a tool to create watch faces in a very short time.
Unfortunately Play Store is a mess. Technical support is something outrageous. And it doesn’t allow you to do the most basic thing for months: let users download watch faces.
I have no more words, it’s really disrespectful towards the developers and Samsung who put a lot of energy into WFS.
You were one of the lucky ones who jumped in the Galaxy store before developpers validation became a nightmare. And fortunately, because you did an amazing work which inspired me a lot, thanks Matteo
At least, it’s true, it worked fine (besides its completely subjective and opaque validation process).
WFS is an amazing tool. I love it. It lets people focus on creativity and aesthetic rather on technique. I believe there is no watchface editor as good as WFS, and I tried quite a bunch ! Samsung achieved an amazing work here !
Play Store is a mess (at least for watches) like Wear OS is a mess. They clearly didn’t invest enough work to make it work in a reliable way.
Now I have my first watchface live on the Play Store, thanks to Samsung and nobody will find it of course, thanks to Google
Yes, Play Store on WATCH has been running for some time.
In any case, the big issue is that all the watch faces released for about 4 months are NOT “tagged” as watch faces but only as simple Apps. Consequently, the message “your device is not compatible” will be displayed on Play Store App, will never be able to get positions in the watch faces ranking, cannot be included in the watch faces categories and cannot be discovered on the Play Store App under “watch” section. In other words, you will have few or zero downloads.
This is a serious issue.
It practically makes it useless to release new watch faces because it is as if a store does not exist.
Having asked to Google support here is the answer I got :
“The app is showing a device compatibility warning because your app is only compatible with Wear OS devices. This is the reason why you can only install the app within the web or directly the Wear OS devices. Basically your phone device is treating the app as a phone app when you access your app link via playstore on your phone. Thus, your phone device triggers the warning. This is expected since your app is for Wear OS devices.”
Sometimes they respond like this, other times they put the support ticket into “processing” and say they are working on it.
Bugs:
All the new watch faces released for about 4 months now, are NOT “tagged” as watch faces and will never be able to get rankings and be categorized.
Before this bug, the user could choose the target device from a drop-down menu and the watch face could be inserted in the “watch faces” ranking.
All the new watch faces are now “invisible” to the watch faces categories / rankings and cannot be installed from the app on the phone via the drop-down menu, only via web browser or companion app.
I think that the most serious issue is the lack of visibility of the watch faces on categories / rankings.
It is practically useless to release / develop new watch faces for the Play Store.
It remains to be hoped that some bright head in Google will still pay attention to this and correct a couple of lines of code in the Google Play store …
By the way, it’s been about a month since Ron submitted a list of watch faces to Google.
Is there any news about this?
