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Getting Started with Android Wear

October 9, 2014 / no comments, on Wearable Blog

Complete Android Wear Smart Watch Setup Guide

Your new Android Wear powered smart watch is designed and built to work with Android smartphones so you need to pair your smart devices (requires Android 4.3 or above – check if your phone is compatible here: g.co/WearCheck).

How To Pair Your Smart Watch To Your Smart Phone

  1. Turn on your watch within a few feet of your phone
  2. Download and install the Android Wear app to your phone | Download
  3. Open the Android Wear app on your Android smart phone and follow the on-screen instructions (check Bluetooth is on during setup). When you launch the Android Wear app you may see a notification that you need to update your Google app and reinstall the Android Wear app.
  4. Your smartphone should now display a list of nearby devices, select your watch’s name
  5. Your smart phone and watch will now show a pairing code on screen, check that the codes match
  6. Touch pair on your phone, then on your smart watch. You should now see a confirmation message once the Android Wear watch is paired. Note: this can take a few minutes so please be patient
  7. Follow the on-screen instructions on your phone to setup smart watch notifications
  8. Your now connected to your Android Wear powered smart watch, we recommend turning Google Now and Location on so you get the most out of your Android Wear experience

Android Wear App Setup Screen

Your smart watch will provide cards with useful information as and when you need it but you can also get answers to questions and complete tasks using the “OK Google” function. With “OK Google” on Android Wear watches you can set reminders (“Remind me to go to the shops tonight”), ask questions (“What time is my flight?”) and more.

With the Android Wear app installed on your smart watch you will be able to use all your favourite Android apps automatically, you wont need to download anything to your watch at all. Once your devices are paired, compatible apps with automatically populate your Android Wear smart watch.

You can look for more compatible apps using the Android Wear app, just scroll to the bottom of the main app screen (using your phone) and you’ll see an option for “Browse Compatible Apps”, touching this will open the Google Play store where you can download compatible apps and improve your Android Wear experience.

How to Manage Smart Watch Notifications

Android Wear NotificationsYour Android Wear smart watch will display most of the notifications from your phone, including: texts, emails, event reminders, missed calls and more. When your smart watch receives a notification it will silently vibrate.

If you have app notification settings set to not vibrate (or make a sound) on your phone then your watch will not vibrate either (you will still receive a notification card). When you dismiss a notification on your smart watch then it will also be dismissed on your smart phone (and vice versa).

You can mute specific app notifications from your smart watch using the Android Wear app:

  1. Open the Android Wear app on your phone
  2. Touch the settings icon
  3. Touch Mute app notifications
  4. Touch the Plus icon
  5. Touch the app you wish to mute

To mute (or unmute) your entire smart watch from receiving notifications (it will not vibrate for new notifications) you need to swipe down from the top of your smart watch screen until your watch vibrates, you will then see the word “Mute” or “Unmute”, simply select the option you want.

If you want to only receive notifications from your smart watch and not your phone then you just need to follow these 3 steps:

  1. Open the Android Wear app on your phone
  2. Touch the settings icon
  3. Tick the box for “Silence connected phone”

How to Customize your Android Wear Watch-Face

Android Wear Watch FacesImage from The Verge

Customize your smart watch face by simply tapping and holding the watch home screen until your watch vibrates. This will bring up a selection of watch-faces which you can scroll (left & right) through.

Although Google doesn’t officially support third-party watch-faces, developers have worked out how to build and release custom watch-faces through the Google Play Store (these are added as above once they have been installed).

How to Increase your Smart Watch Battery Life

You can increase the battery life of your smart watch by turning off the “Always on screen”, this is a default Android Wear setting which keeps the watch display on a low-power mode which only uses black and white to display the watch-face.

Simply open the Android Wear settings and scroll to the “Always on screen” option and toggle this to “Off”. You can wake your watch by tapping the screen or tilting your wrist (the built in accelerometer can detect when your looking at the watch).

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