How does Google want to solve the app problem

Google makes app developers responsible: The search engine provider wants to use stricter guidelines to ensure high-quality apps for Android smartwatches. With an innovation, however, there are doubts about its benefit.

After years of stagnation, something has happened again in the world of Android smartwatches. Wear OS 3, co-developed by Google and Samsung, breathes new life into the near-dead platform. So that Fresh Start is also visible in the Play Store, Google has now revised the instructions for Wear OS apps.

Android smartwatches: Google publishes stricter guidelines for Wear OS apps

In the future, it should be used for Android smart watch applications It gives three different grades: Basic, Best, Best. (Those: Android developers via Android Central). The first category includes apps that support basic Wear OS functionality, but not a standalone smartwatch app. Messenger apps like WhatsApp are an example of this, which makes it possible to reply to incoming messages directly via the watch.

There are a higher level of apps that run natively on the watch and support round and square screens, for example, and they can be found using a separate search in the Play Store. Wear OS apps, which also work offline with a smartphone and support login and authentication, belong to the king category and are a step higher.

I Video: What you need to know before buying a smartwatch.

Wear OS apps only without text or device mockup

In addition to the new guidelines, which will take effect on October 15, Google has also taken a look at the Play Store. For example, app developers are required to take screenshots of their apps No longer included in device models and scripts to be deletedIt does not belong to the application interface.

subordinate The benefit of this innovation is not clear at first glance. On the contrary: since very few users actually read the description of the application, the text in the screenshots helps to present the functionality of the application concisely and clearly. The ban on hardware mockups is also questionable, after all, users get a realistic idea of ​​what the app could look like on their smartwatch.