Strange on Google Play, share a secret!

Now Google playstore also developed a page for wear os, which displays only watchfaces and all watchfaces are visible and i think this companion app may not be required.

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really. can you show us a screenshot atleast?

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Supported. Or, Samsung Galaxy store develop a companion App for Wear OS on Google Play. We publish via Samsung, just like Galaxy Store. I know its easier said that done, an idea nevertheless.

I have tried, and suspect it clashed with Samsung Wearable App. I had to uninstall it from my device and hard-reset my Watch4.

Samsung can work with the review team regarding WearOS Powered by Samsung if there are issues there but it can not do anything with the Google Play Store operations or promotions.

Ron
Samsung Developer Relations

I find this extremely annoying all my users wont is the ability to view other watch faces / apps you have developed, I must get asked this 10 times a day. Why do some Developers have this and not others is a mystery if you check some have like just a few watchfaces with very few downloads.

The charts are the biggest mystery to me I have many more downloads then a lot in the charts something is going on behind the scenes. It Cleary shows you how many downloads you have how can top 10 watches only have 100 downloads very weird.

Hi Ron!
You did not understand the essence of the question. Watch face app is not showing on google play.

If the developer doesnā€™t have a blank mobile app for each watch face, then
watch faces do not appear in the Google Play mobile app. The only way to see the watch faces is to open the corresponding page in a web browser.

SmartSelect_20211203-004425_Google Play Store

Hi Ron. Thanks for your reply. Sorry to tag you on this however a lot of us having problem with watch faces not searchable in Play Store app, giving a direct link to plays store would result to device isnā€™t compatible and giving dev page link shows just the header and no apps listed. Imagine some users are carrying phone and watch and had to access Play Store on laptop just to catch their favorite designer, instead of just phone and watch. Some managed to bypass it by uploading another helper file created in Android Studio. Maybe the Watch Face Studio dev team have a possible solution on this so that our watch faces are searchable not only in web browsers but also on Play Store app. In my opinion, both GW4 marketing and our watch faces would benefit on this if itā€™s fixed. Pleas advise. Thanks!

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Open Play Store, click on apps select Categories and Watch Apps and Watch Face are the top of the list for me. But maybe because I searched those the last time. If they are not top scroll down.

If yours is not listed in a category doing a search should show them. I had no problem

I did notice that for one watch face that it said that you needed to search for it from the Watch Store app but that was an old watch face.

What is your watch face name I can see how hard it is for me to find it. Maybe Iā€™ll understand better then.

Ron
Samsung Developer Relations

Hi Ron,

OK let me give this a go , so you provide users a link to your watchface via social media let me take an example.

Example Face - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.watchfacestudio.MWStylishSportsWatch

Dev Page - https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6344319024398727942

Phone Method Using My Samsung Galaxy Fold (Testing this for Samsung actually)

Step 1) Open Play Store - Search term MW - Select Watch - Watch Faces.

This does list my watch faces thatā€™s about the only good thing about this experience.

Step 2) Select one and try to install and you get below error message

Your device isnā€™t compatible with this version. (Now most user will just move on from here right!)

However if you press OK then select the pull down and turn off the phone as by default it will try to install to the phone hence why all these developers are going crazy.

Once you unselect this you should be able to install to the watch.

Another issue from phone you find is if the user clicks the provided link it will open the phone app version if this is done on a mobile the work around to this is to use any browser other then chrome I found trying telling that to joe blogs.

The other big issue is some developers you can see there watch face when you click there dev page , this is only possible for me when users are using the browser version of the play store it does not work on the phone.

Oh and looks at the screenshots You might also like is showing some random apps whatā€™s that all about.

I would love to go over this in more detail and have decided to contact my Samsung reps that Iā€™m testing other devices with just to show them the experience on the watch when trying to download a watchface.

All the watch faces listed in the Play Store has comes along with dummy or simple phone app.

How to upload multiple AAB files in Play Console. I have created dummy .AAB file for phones with different version name. Anyone please let me know how to upload them along with Wear OS watch face.

Thanks

I donā€™t know. Check mine, no extra aab file uploaded.

Iā€™m using Samsung Galaxy Note. My watch face shows This phone isnā€™t compatible with this app

what am doing wrong?

Link is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.watchfacestudio.lihtnes038

You are not doing anything wrong. The Google Play app is a bad joke. Everything works with the PC, with the app you only have problems. The reviews donā€™t always appear either. Yesterday I received a screenshot from a customer with his rating, but it does not appear in the Play Store or in the Play Console. Itā€™s just ridiculous and no longer fun.
It really canā€™t be that you have to create some fake app in order to be found on Google.

Friends, it is important to understand that you need not a FAKE application, but a COMPANION application.

Helper applications that developers are now using to fully display their watch faces in Google Play are a super minimal version of a comapion application.

I think you will find if the buyer signs into Play Store from the watch one time it will say not available on this device and below that other devices and list the price. At least that is what Iā€™m seeing.

However I do understand what you are saying now.

FYI when I search for your ā€œbrand pageā€ nothing comes up and in the link you listed it only shows one watch face and doesnā€™t link to the install page.

Ron
Samsung Developer Relations

Thanks for giving some time to test Ron.

I would like to sumarise here, its very frustrating when you spend many hours creating watch faces then you have to test publish and promote and the end user cant even install using their mobile phone.

Itā€™s been several months now I understand its a new relationship and things have got better but surely loosing many sales is not a good thing for any parties.

Mobile play store app issues.

  1. press INSTALL presented with Your device isnā€™t compatible with this version or This phone isnā€™t compatible with this app

Comments: why canā€™t they detect this is a watch app not a phone app. Workarounds use a browser on a pc/mac , create a phone app on android studio both not good solutions.

  1. brand page does not show any other apps , surely this should be available to all developers any play store app has the ability to list there other apps.

Comments: works from pc/mac as this topic states some devs have this without creating phone apps please explain how this is enabled.

Thanks

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The strangest thing about it is that the link you get from Google for the developer page works on facebook, but not on the Google Play app.


I guess we need to enable Google Play Instant for enable phone version. Any suggestions :thinking:

I enable this Release type and it was approved , I donā€™t see any difference still not working what is this suppose to do ?