Wear OS app quality

Your app must conform to the font size set by the user in system settings. If the user selects a larger font size, ensure that text and controls are not cut off by screen edges.

Provide a minimum of 48x48dp touch targets on your app. For more information, see Accessibility on Wear OS.

Allow users to swipe to close from almost all screens.

Ongoing fitness activities or panning screens, such as an interactive map view, are exempt from this requirement, but you must provide a clear call to action to close the view.

For more information, see the Swipe to dismiss page.

When a user has an ongoing activity, you must do the following:

• Show the ongoing activity indicator on the watch face.
• Update recent apps with the appropriate app launcher chip for the ongoing activity.
• Reference the ongoing activity from the tile, if the tile is present in the tile carousel.

For more information, see design guidance about Ongoing activity tiles.

Preserve user or app-state when leaving the foreground and prevent accidental data loss due to back-navigation and other state changes.

When your app is resumed within minutes of last use, such as from the recent app switcher, then restore the app state as close as possible to its previous state.

In the app launcher, correctly represent the app's icon and name, consistent with device implementation.

For more information, see Appear in recents and app resume.

If content is scrollable, allow the user to use rotary input to control content. This includes scrolling through an app, scrolling a picker, and controlling volume.

For more information, see Rotary input.

Display the scroll bar when the user interacts with a scrollable view.

For more information, see Show the scrollbar.

If you include a tile with your app and the user is signed out, prompt the user to sign in when they open the tile.

For more information, see Empty states.

If you include a tile with your app, add a tile preview to help your user see what content is shown in the tile manager on their watch and phone.

For preview asset specifications see Tiles design guidelines.

This is no longer a quality requirement for Wear OS apps.

Display the time of day clearly on the watch face.

Use a black background for all apps and tiles.

For more information, see Color.

Use a minimum font size of 12sp for essential text and 10sp for non-essential text. This allows the app text to be large enough to be read at a glance.

For more information, see Typography.

Show a 48x48dp app icon on a black background during app startup.

The splash screen icon must match the app launcher icon.

For more information, see Branded launch.

App content must meet the following visual quality requirements:

• Fits within the physical display area.
• No text or controls are cut off by the screen edges.
• Larger or equal to a 192dp circle.

For more information, see Handle different watch shapes.

Ensure that your app meets Google Play's target API level requirements.

Ensure that your app installs, launches, and completes necessary tasks without crashing.

Ensure that the user can install, set, and personalize the watch face without crashing, including adding complications when applicable.

This is no longer a quality requirement for Wear OS apps.

For non-standalone apps, ensure that the companion app can connect with the Wear app and allows the user to use the Wear app as expected.

For more information, see Core app quality.

Your app must not ask the user to input a username or password directly on the Wear OS device.

For more information about best practices, see Authentication on wearables.

Has an Always on Display mode and illuminates no more than 15% of pixels.

Assets do not exceed the memory budget of 10 MB in ambient mode, and 100 MB in interactive mode.

This is no longer a quality requirement for Wear OS apps.

The watch face must have no more than 8 complication slots.

Your app must follow the Play Developer Policy Center requirements.

Your app listing on Google Play Store must adhere to the following:

• List main features of the app.
• Mention Wear OS.
• Do not mention Android Wear.
• Mention tile or complication if the respective surface is included in your app.
• Be localized in languages offered by the app.

Use the Google Play icon design specifications for creating app icons.

For single watch faces, the icon must do the following:

• Accurately represent the watch face.
• Not include text, graphics, or device frames that are not part of the watch face experience.

Apps that include more than one watch face, or apps that are not solely watch faces, are exempt from this requirement. However, apps are more discoverable on the Play Store if they only have a single watch face.

Use the Google Play icon design specifications for creating app icons.

Your app listing on Google Play Store must do the following:

• Contain at least one screenshot that accurately depicts the current version of the app on Wear OS.
• Provide screenshots showing only the app interface.
• Not position the screenshots within device frames, or include additional text, graphics, or backgrounds that are not part of the interface of the app.
• Include screenshots with a 1:1 aspect ratio.

If your app offers Tiles, then we recommend sharing a screenshot of Tiles functionality.

For more information, see Add preview assets to showcase your app.

Note: Android Studio (Hedgehog onwards) provides Play-compatible screenshot functionality. In the Take screenshot dialog, select Play Store Compatible in the drop-down menu to provide compatible screenshots for your app's review.

Your watch face listing on Google Play Store must do the following:

• Contain at least one screenshot that accurately depicts the current version of the watch face.
• Show more than one of the available permutations, if the watch face is customizable.
• Provide screenshots showing only the watch face experience.
• Not position the screenshots within device frames, or include additional text, graphics, or backgrounds that are not part of the interface of the app.
• Include screenshots with a 1:1 aspect ratio.

For more information, see Add preview assets to showcase your app.

If your Wear OS app has an accompanying phone app, you must use the same package name and app signing key for your Wear app and phone app.

For more information, see Package and distribute Wear apps.

For apps with paid features, you must provide login credentials in the Google Play Console for testing of the full app experience.

For more information, see App Access in Prepare your app for review.

Self tag all watch face submissions on the Google Play Console with the appropriate categories that accurately represent the watch face.

For more information, see Self-tag watch faces.