Since version 2, the Watch Face Format includes support for weather data. This data covers a range of metrics and timeframes, from the current conditions to hourly and daily forecasts.
Weather is accessed using expressions. For example, to show the current
weather conditions in a <Text> element, use an expression similar to
the following:
<Text>
<Font family="SYNC_TO_DEVICE" size="32">
<Template>Today's weather: %s
<Parameter expression="[WEATHER.CONDITION_NAME]"/>
</Template>
</Font>
</Text>
Availability
Watch faces should always check the [WEATHER.IS_AVAILABLE] value before
accessing other members of the [WEATHER.*] object:
<Condition>
<Expressions>
<Expression name="is_weather_available">[WEATHER.IS_AVAILABLE]</Expression>
</Expressions>
<Compare expression="is_weather_available">
<!-- Weather is available, so show the weather data. -->
</Compare>
<Default>
<!-- Weather isn't available, so show an appropriate message. -->
</Default>
</Condition>
Additionally, the watch face should check [WEATHER.IS_ERROR], which indicates
an error in loading weather data.
Note that [WEATHER.IS_AVAILABLE] and [WEATHER.IS_ERROR] can both be true,
where the data is stale and attempts to refresh the data failed. In such cases,
the available weather can be shown, along with an indicator to show that there
was an error in fetching new data.
Freshness of data
The timestamp of the available data can be accessed using
[WEATHER.LAST_UPDATED] which is a Unix epoch timestamp in milliseconds.
This value can be formatted using the icuText(,) method to obtain a
human-readable representation, as demonstrated in the weather sample.
Weather conditions
The current conditions are available in [WEATHER.CONDITION], with a
human-readable version in [WEATHER.CONDITION_NAME].
The values for [WEATHER.CONDITION] can be seen in data sources. For
example, 4 represents HEAVY_RAIN.
Other metrics
Watch Face Format provides a range of additional metrics, such as
[WEATHER.TEMPERATURE] and [WEATHER.UV_INDEX]. For the full details
of available metrics, including units and data types, visit the
data sources reference page.
Hourly and daily forecasts
You can access forecast conditions for a specific hour or day in the future as follows:
[WEATHER.HOURS.1.CONDITION]- the forecast conditions 1 hour from now.[WEATHER.DAYS.2.CONDITION]- the forecast conditions 2 days from now.
Hourly data can be available up to 8 hours ahead, and daily data up to 5 days
ahead. However, the watch face should always check for the availability of
forecast data. A different range of hours or days might be available at
different times, or different devices. For example, to check whether forecast
data is available for 1 hour from now, use [WEATHER.HOURS.1.IS_AVAILABLE].
Daily and hourly forecasts also feature a range of metrics, such as
[WEATHER.HOURS.<N>.TEMPERATURE] and
[WEATHER.DAYS.<N>.CHANCE_OF_PRECIPITATION]. For the full details
of available metrics, including units and data types, visit the
data sources reference page.
Testing with weather data
To obtain weather data, the Wear OS device must be aware of the device location.
To conserve power, the watch doesn't use the onboard GPS sensor to determine a location for the weather forecast, and instead relies on location from a connected handheld device or from available networks.
To make location data available for testing, do one of the following:
- Pair your Wear OS emulator with a physical or emulator phone.
- Simulate location through the following adb command:
adb unroot
adb shell cmd location set-location-enabled true
adb root
adb shell appops set 0 android:mock_location allow
adb shell cmd location providers add-test-provider gps
adb shell cmd location providers set-test-provider-enabled gps true
adb shell cmd location providers set-test-provider-location gps --location 37.773972,-122.431297
Further details
For a complete example of accessing and rendering weather data, see the GitHub sample.
Recommended for you
- Note: link text is displayed when JavaScript is off
- Data sources