Today, Google announced the second preview release of its upcoming Android Wear 2.0 platform for wearable devices, adding support for new features and some bug fixes too. Android Wear 2.0 brings about it numerous new features based on feedback received from the first generation of Android Wear, 1.x, which was initially based upon Android 4.4 (KitKat), but was updated based on Android 5.0 and then 5.1 (Lollipop) moving to Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) most recently.
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At the point when Android Wear 2.0 was presented back in May, it was said to speak to a redesign and includes more glanceable notifications, support for keyboards, handwriting and smart replies, and a new user interface.
The latest developer preview brings features such as wrist gestures for developers – thus extending the functionality to third-party apps. Google has incremented the Android Platform API version number to 24 to match Nougat. Previously, you were been able to scroll through the notifications stream using wrist gestures. The new preview is also adding additional support for wearable drawer peeking, which makes it easier for users to access the drawers as they scroll.
As to the wrist gestures for Android Wear 2.0, Google shared the news about the system being opened to third-party developers so they can develop their own apps. Still, the updates to the Wear 2.0 preview should encourage developers to begin writing applications for the new platform. What this means to developers is that you need to use API 24 in your Android Studio projects that target Android Wear 2.0 now.
Other UI improvements include automatic peek view and navigation drawer closure and showing the first action in WearableActionDrawer’s peek view. And finally, navigation drawer contents can now be updated by calling notifyDataSetChanged. Now that the system is open developers, however, those developers will be able to incorporate the same concept into their apps and software. This helps improve single hand usage, for when your users need their other hand to hold onto their shopping or their kids. More information are available on the Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview site.
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This blog post from Google outlined several of the changes in Android Wear 2.0 that fans can expect.
