Can you maybe make the color selection when it comes to styles to not limit to a few colors but give the user the option when selecting to have something like a color picker and i mean not just on the WFS but the actual user to have the choice to pick whatever color he likes.
something like this
It is just a request if it’s easy maybe you can do it if not then its not that important.
Also this one as well.
Is there a way when setting up complications to specify the borders when it comes to selecting them when customizing the watch face through the watch or the app?
For example if i setup 3-4 ranged complications and also turn the text curved when it is time to customize the watch face through my watch all the complications border will overlap because the curve of the text will count towards the borders making them overlap with each other and look a bit chaotic when it comes to selecting the complication. This has also been a reason for rejection of the watch face in the past.
Normally they should not be overlapping to that extent but because of the curved text the area takes more space even though the actual text of the complications have a wide space between them.
That would probably have to be something for the Wear OS but we can add it.
Ron
It was suggested that I come here to request features. I have a number of things that I’ve seen that would be amazing if they would be implemented. As a developer, I know that nearly all suggestions are technically possible but sometimes it can be denied by management or just plainly too difficult to add or change. But if I can offer bribes in the form of skittles or memes, I can certainly come through.
I should note that I’ve only made two watch faces so far and I’m absolutely certain that some of my suggestions would be things I just don’t know yet. Please feel free to flog me and say “You can find this information (here)”.
Aaand here we go:
PLEASE add a lot more to the documentation. So much of it is so scarce that I cannot figure out what I really need to do in order to achieve what I know is possible.
Light theme => increase contrast ratio - it’s currently not high enough to see clearly. The current UI appears to be geared for dark theme where things show much better. On that, kudos on making a dark theme that doesn’t burn itself into my eyes. Thank you so much for that!
Can icons like the “lock ratio” icons be made larger or darker with more distinct state differences? (locked/unlocked) I’m on a 38 inch ultrawide (21:9) monitor with a resolution of 3840x1600 and I find myself getting up to the screen to see certain things
On that note, can you make smaller UI elements either larger or easier to see? Because a 21:9 38 inch monitor makes everything small
Circular progress bars => allow to set angle rotation, angle coverage (not just 1/4, 1/2, 100% increments). Let’s say that I want a curved progress bar that covers only 33% (one third) of the watch face bezel area. I currently don’t see that we can do that.
Is there an easy way to change the curvature of the WHOLE progress bar. For example, if I want it to be half an ellipse, is there an easy way to do that? Or maybe a square? Or a pentagon? Or hexagon, for those looking to make very nice futuristic faces or technical looking features?
Allow zoom more than current max. Again, my monitor settings are high and it would be great if we could zoom in just a little more.
Allow picking transparent colors (or at least an alpha slider for custom transparency levels) on all objects and “sub objects” of components that have multiple components. Currently, some items just lack an alpha layer entirely.
Allow picking foreground and background colors (including transparent) independently for any object, esp. progress bars. This would allow not only for “reverse” progress bars where we don’t have to play with the range values (thus making it awkward to use for meters that aren’t in the 1/4, 1/2, 100% ranges) but also allows us to have meters that shows off background features while having a “countdown” progress bar of a custom coverage area. Currently, the best I’ve managed is to play with the ranges and put it against a solid color background and pick a color that matches the background. If you want a great visual example, look up the “Goldeneye watch face” from the N64 video game and notice the two side meters that measure player health and shields). In an example like that, I have an image for a meter and then I am using a progress bar over 1/2 the face with the color set to the background and 0% opacity for the background and set to “countdown” through manipulated ranges. The result is a meter with a non-standard range of face coverage that counts down however it can only be used against a solid color background. This works great for heart rate where anything over a certain level isn’t really something we want but if we want a whole range (like a steps counter), it’s a different story. See image.
Ruler and snap guides should be on a per-project basis so that I do not have to reset them and then re-reset them between projects.
Allow for custom angle on the ends of progress bars to match any radial angled meter we devise. So if we have a custom meter (per above) that covers 33% (one third) of the watch face and we use a progress bar like I’ve described above and can actually get it to match the coverage area (or use color tricks like above), the flat meter “end-cap” doesn’t match actual angle measurements from the center of the watch like you would expect. The angle of the flat edge is… off. And I have yet to figure out how to adjust that specifically though I can see how I can make a really weird curve overall.
On that note, if I could do an ellipsoid shaped meter, that would be amazing.
Attempting to use a drag handle on a progress bar with “non-standard” values for shape makes it fly across the screen while resizing. These values should give you a starting point for reproduction:
“Tap blocker” objects or polygon shapes to allow us to “mask” off “internal” areas of a larger image used for meters and progress that we want tap capacity on but not on all areas.
Selecting multiple layers of mixed state (such as hide/show) should show both states as available options with either a check by the option that the majority have or a greyed check showing the state of the currently right clicked item.
On that note, a keyboard shortcut for that would be fabulous.
In a perfect wishlist, a way to bind our own shortcuts.
The top pixel or so of the title bar of the application does not behave like the rest of the title bar in regards to snap/drag. Meaning if I have the window maximized and slam the mouse pointer to the top of the monitor and drag to unsnap from a maximized state, it does not work. I have to be within some invisible border area to use that feature of windows.
Please allow right click on the taskbar button of the software so that I can access things like “close” and other built in windows features.
Be able to specify frame count for frames in animations. If I have 2 states for an animation, it would be swell if I could say “show frame 1 for 7 seconds, frame 2 for 7 seconds” instead of having 15 frames to specify.
On that note, some clarity to the animation features - I’m still not 100% clear on how it works since I know it’s 15 frames per second and 7 frames should be about half a second but I apparently have that wrong somehow and my animation looks like the matrix is going insane.
It would also be grand for some kind of option to handle an even number of frames per second for ease of math (on/off animations every half second, for example)
Can you fix the “close dirty file” dialog? It asks if we want to save but then presents Ok/No/Cancel instead of Yes/No/Cancel. This isn’t a normal software behavior/prompt.
The undo feature (ctl-z) does not seem to behave consistently. Sometimes it walks backwards like you would expect (one action at a time) and sometimes (especially when working with the timelines), it will undo a whole batch of changes.
You have a feature that allows me to hold the space bar to drag the zoomed view around (just like in photoshop) which puts me into photoshop mode but zoom is ctl-scroll unlike photoshop (which is alt+zoom) and that breaks my immersion into the software (my flow). I don’t know if it’s an issue for anyone else but I have to explicitly remind myself that it’s not photoshop controll.
A sample of icons would be fabulous. There are sample resources such as indexes and watch hands in the program directory but no icons. Some simple ones like steps and heart would be incredible. They could be files in the directory, sure but also having a button somewhere in the program for ALL of those samples would be amazing. Currently, we kind of have to remember where they are in the Program Files directory.
And on that note, when adding a complication, some of them appear with a built in hexagon. I would absolutely adore the ability to have that as an actual icon for some reason.
I know that was a lot, thank you!
You have some good suggestions and I will use most of them. A few of the progress bar suggestions are possible like the 1/3rd progress bar just set the Angular distance for 120 degrees instead of 360.
Some things you need to do as a designer for example you could create your own square progress bars using 4 progress bars the range of each one is a side.
Windows has a magnifying app you might want to learn how to use that on such a large screen.
Animation is optimized for 15 frames per second I think changing that is hard. You just need to adjust your animations for now but I will pass that on.
Because many icons are copyrighted there is an licensing issue if Samsung distributes them.
Watch Face Studio is not meant to be a “image design tool” so some things will never be implemented.
Watch Face Studio is documented HERE and there are some code labs. Our support team usually does one blog a month as well search
There is a Code Lab for tags HERE
Ask here and you will get lots of help from others and myself. This is a very generous group of Designers.
Finally, I kind of like the OK I get a smile every time I close it for that little bit of rebellion snuck in past the translators.
Ron
Samsung Developer Relations
This is what I end up with. The curvature goes… wonky. And the ends don’t line up like I expect on either side (per my previous note about being able to adjust the end cap angle). I’ve made it green so you can see it more easily but it… it just does weird things. The first shot is where I want it but the second shot shows that no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get it to keep the same rounded curvature even if I try to adjust it. It does all kinds of weird things…
So, to be clear: Adjusting the Curvature value means that the progress bar no longer perfectly mirrors the curve of the end of the face and trying to adjust it makes things… break.
Unless I’m doing something I ought not?
Some things you need to do as a designer for example you could create your own square progress bars using 4 progress bars the range of each one is a side.
Dear lord, that’s absolutely brilliant…
Windows has a magnifying app you might want to learn how to use that on such a large screen.
I’ve been refusing because I don’t want to feel like I’m getting old. But… I get it.
Animation is optimized for 15 frames per second I think changing that is hard. You just need to adjust your animations for now but I will pass that on.
And I get that too. I was just kind of hoping 
Because many icons are copyrighted there is an licensing issue if Samsung distributes them.
Aight, that’s pretty fair.
Watch Face Studio is documented HERE and there are some code labs. Our support team usually does one blog a month as well search
Oh yeah, I’ve been reading that. It’s just a little sparse on some of the details.
There is a Code Lab for tags HERE
DUDE OMG THAT IS AMAZING AND SOMETHING I WAS LOOKING FOR. THANK YOU.
Also, I’ve noticed that your latest release fixed the progress bar battery temp integration. Thank you again!
Ask here and you will get lots of help from others and myself. This is a very generous group of Designers.
Yeah, you guys are more responsive than I would ever have expected, thank you.
Finally, I kind of like the OK I get a smile every time I close it for that little bit of rebellion snuck in past the translators.
Okay, no, leave it then. If it does that much for you, by all means please take it, lol.
Oh, something I keep forgetting to mention. The indexes objects… they don’t seem to size to the face like I would expect? I created one at 450x450 but it doesn’t seem to accept size dimensions and placements like plain images? Am I doing something wrong or is this an thing that I found that is just… wonky?
Yea you are doing it wrong. In Range Settings set the curvature for a 450 x 450 and for example I set it for 90 degree start point and 120 degree angular distance so it looks like this.
The placement and size are determined by the curving size you can make it smaller or larger.
Ron
Indexes are a special complication. I think they are a carry over from GWS but not fully implemented the same way. In GWS you could overlap them and change the point size and number of points, etc. to create unique designs. They were not tap-able and that is still true with WFS.
I haven’t explored the Index Component too much with WFS. Maybe someone that has will have some tricks. In GWS they were very useful.
Ron
Would it be possible when customizing the watch face from the watch, for the user to be able to see the changes reflected to the AoD mode as well?
For example i create a watch face with styles available to the active mode and styles available to the AoD mode (make screen dimmer or change the color of AoD). As it is know you can see those elements selected in the wear app but when it comes to customizing on the watch due to screen size you see only the changes made to the watch face when it’s active but you cannot see the changes made to the AoD screen and you just scroll the menu without reflecting the changes that are made in the AoD mode.
Another thing is if it could be possible to name the elements for example (Index colors) as a title and then to be able to see the name or a small description of the element (black, black with transparency, carbon textured and so on).
These are not important requests but they should give a quality of life and ease to the creators and the users.
Would it be possible when customizing the watch face from the watch, for the user to be able to see the changes reflected to the AoD mode as well?
No that is a software issue and I was told it isn’t possible on the watch or on the Wearable App.
You should not allow custom colors in the AOD mode because it won’t be tested for all options and you can create battery drain or cause burn in.
You should not use custom complications on AOD mode they may not reflect any changes in the Normal mode and cause bad customer experience.
You should limit number of complications on AOD mode to bare minimum as they also can lead to excessive battery consumption.
In other words the best AOD is only time components.
Another thing is if it could be possible to name the elements for example (Index colors) as a title
This would be a system feature request I doubt it would work on the Watch and internationally may be a bad user experience.
Ron
Samsung Developer Relations
I see, thank you for the quick reply.
I should have added the caveat that this only applies if you plan to distribute the watch faces. If they are for your own use then you can do what you want.
You still can’t customize AOD complications if they are in the same location as the normal one.
Ron
Feature request
Export as Android Studio project
This would help to customize our projects in case we want to add something which WFS cant achieve.
I believe it was discussed somewhere.
WFS really simplifies process of creating watch face but what if I want to have more than one complication type in one complication area ? Not possible with WFS but can be easily done with some minor tweak of the watch face code.
@amoledwatchfaces I’ll pass these on but…
what if I want to have more than one complication type in one complication area ?
I think this is an issue with the system customization. I know it messes things up when you have them overlap from Normal and AOD and it seems like it would be very confusing to the end user.
Export as Android Studio project
I think this is beyond the scope of Watch Face Studio intent.
Ron
Samsung Developer Relations
Hi Ron, it only takes few lines of code to add more complication types. Now we can only do one type SHORT_TEXT / LONG_TEXT / SMALL_IMAGE etc…
We can add multiple layouts.
More complication types means that user will have more options for one complication area. For example: short_text - steps but he can also add small_image app shortcut or ranged_value battery.
It would require to add more layouts probably but it would be great for end user.
You can check Google Fit watch face or some stock wear os watch faces (emulator). These all have this implemented.
Edit: I’ll add more explanations & sample projects later
send something to me as I don’t understand how it can be customized.
Ron
Hi Ron, unzip this apk & install with ADB
WatchFaceKotlin-unzip-apk.zip (4.2 MB)
Try setting one of the two complications (for example one on the right)
SINGLE Complication spot on this watch face supports not only SHORT_TEXT or RANGED_VALUE or MONOCHROMATIC ICON but all of them - this is crucial
Look how many possibilities !
You can set date & time, but also app shortcut, activities shortcut, basically any complication provider as this watch face complication spot supports all complication types
With the current version of WFS we can only create complication with one type. Yes, we can create different layouts if for text + icon + title but it’s still only one complication type.
So let’s say you create watch face like this
On top there are three complications with only SHORT_TEXT complication type (WFS does not allow multiple types). At the bottom from left - Monochromatic Icon(ICON), SHORT_TEXT, Monochromatic Icon (ICON).
This watch face has six complication spots. Our wear os user thinks that watch face works as other watch faces on the play store and he wants to use favorite app shortcuts on the top left / right complication spots. So he goes to customization but he is out of luck as these two complications are SHORT_TEXT only.
With the ability to set multiple complication types in one complication spot - just like in the WatchFaceKotlin apk, user could choose app shortcuts on top, ranged_value complications at the bottom, basically any combination he wants.
We just need ability to merge complication types in one spot. Similarly as layouts are working.
For every complication type - there could also be layout editor with possible layout styles.
I hope I wrote it in an understandable way. It would be a great benefit for users and developers &add an awful lot of options.
At the same time, in my opinion, it doesn’t have to be difficult to implement because we already have everything set up, we have set up the addition of complications, we have set up the editing of layouts. We only need to direct the watch face so that it can produce one complication spot with the support of several types of complications.
Tomas
How it could work ?
Code-wise, this is definitely possible & easy to do.
> /**
> * Represents the unique id associated with a complication and the complication types it supports.
> */
> sealed class ComplicationConfig(val id: Int, val supportedTypes: List<ComplicationType>) {
> object Left : ComplicationConfig(
> LEFT_COMPLICATION_ID,
> listOf(
> ComplicationType.RANGED_VALUE,
> ComplicationType.MONOCHROMATIC_IMAGE,
> ComplicationType.SHORT_TEXT,
> ComplicationType.SMALL_IMAGE
> )
> )
>
> object Right : ComplicationConfig(
> RIGHT_COMPLICATION_ID,
> listOf(
> ComplicationType.RANGED_VALUE,
> ComplicationType.MONOCHROMATIC_IMAGE,
> ComplicationType.SHORT_TEXT,
> ComplicationType.SMALL_IMAGE
> )
> )
> }
Let’s unlock full Wear OS complications potential with WFS !
@sinjae @r.liechty_SDP @Jakia.Sultana @phdzor
Tomas