Tiles

Tiles provide quick access to the information and actions users need to get things done. The tiles carousel is revealed by a swipe on the watch face, and additional swipes will switch between tiles. Tiles themselves cannot be scrolled.

Figure 1. Swipe to one side of the watch face to see the different tiles on a Wear OS device.

Users can choose what tiles they want to see. There are tiles to check the weather, set a timer, track daily fitness progress, quick-start a workout, play a song, scan an upcoming meeting, and send a message to a favorite contact.

Tiles next to each other.

Figure 2. Tiles give users easy access to information and actions.

Instead of using Compose (or Views), Tiles are defined declaratively using Jetpack's protolayout and tiles libraries. Because Tiles are rendered in a separate, remote environment, they require different approaches to load, display, and update data within them. Their simplicity makes them straightforward to build, test, and deploy.

Intended use

Wear OS provides tiles as a way for you to show a small amount of key information, which users can read through after they glance at a tile for a few seconds. To provide this high-quality experience for users, follow these best practices:

  • Don't overcrowd tiles with too much content. Instead, allow users to tap on tiles to learn more and take action on another surface in your app.
  • Focus on the tile's layout and content. The system takes care of the low-level rendering tasks.
  • Don't fetch content frequently or start long-running asynchronous work in your tiles. These workflows consume too many system resources.