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Wear OS 6 introduces several features to help enhance your Wear OS app
experience. Before you add these features to your app, prepare your app for
compatibility with Wear OS 6.
Support for Material 3 Expressive
Wear OS 6 includes a design refresh that's based on Material 3 Expressive,
which is available in the latest release of the Compose for Wear OS
and Wear OS ProtoLayout libraries in Jetpack.
Material 3 Expressive, supported on Wear OS 3 and higher, helps you transform
the expressiveness and creativity of your app's layouts and tiles, making the
most of the round form factor. Explore different shape and typography
combinations, including the latest system font support, and experiment with
dynamic color theming.
Material 3 Expressive also offers the following layout improvements:
- An edge-hugging button shape that invites users to take action or learn more.
- Expressive motion and more prominent scroll indicators within collections such
as lists, offering more fluidity and control when selecting from a series of
options.
- A multi-slot tile layout, supporting up to three columns, that creates
consistency while offering customizable expressiveness of key information.
Learn more about how to migrate to Material 3 Expressive and how to follow
design principles using this latest design system:
Try out Material 3 Expressive designs using the latest Figma design kits.
Enhancements to watch faces
Watch Face Format version 4 is supported for devices that run
Wear OS 6 or higher. This version includes several enhancements:
- Support for showing photos, including user-curated collections of photos.
- Animated state transitions between ambient and interactive modes.
- A new API, Watch Face Push, for supporting a marketplace that features your
watch faces.
Learn more about the Watch Face Format. In the XML reference, look
for items that have changed or been added in version 4.
Continued support for features introduced in previous versions
Wear OS 6 maintains support for several key features introduced in previous
versions, including the following:
- Expanded media controls—including rewind, fast-forward, and playlist
shuffling—starting in Wear OS 5.1.
- Enhanced, streamlined authentication that supports a user's preferred
authentication method, such as passkeys. They're available through
the Credential Manager API, which was introduced in Wear OS 5.1.
Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License. Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-07-10 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-10 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Explore features\n\nWear OS 6 introduces several features to help enhance your Wear OS app\nexperience. Before you add these features to your app, [prepare your app](/training/wearables/versions/6/changes) for\ncompatibility with Wear OS 6.\n\nSupport for Material 3 Expressive\n---------------------------------\n\nWear OS 6 includes a design refresh that's based on Material 3 Expressive,\nwhich is available in the latest release of the [Compose for Wear OS](/jetpack/androidx/releases/wear-compose)\nand [Wear OS ProtoLayout](/jetpack/androidx/releases/wear-protolayout) libraries in Jetpack.\n\nMaterial 3 Expressive, supported on Wear OS 3 and higher, helps you transform\nthe expressiveness and creativity of your app's layouts and tiles, making the\nmost of the round form factor. Explore different shape and typography\ncombinations, including the latest system font support, and experiment with\ndynamic color theming.\n\nMaterial 3 Expressive also offers the following layout improvements:\n\n- An edge-hugging button shape that invites users to take action or learn more.\n- Expressive motion and more prominent scroll indicators within collections such as lists, offering more fluidity and control when selecting from a series of options.\n- A multi-slot tile layout, supporting up to three columns, that creates consistency while offering customizable expressiveness of key information.\n\nLearn more about how to migrate to Material 3 Expressive and how to follow\ndesign principles using this latest design system:\n\n- Migrate to Material 3 Expressive in your [apps](/training/wearables/compose/migrate-to-material3) and [tiles](/training/wearables/tiles/get_started).\n- Follow design principles for your [apps and tiles](/design/ui/wear/guides/foundations/common-layouts).\n\nTry out Material 3 Expressive designs using the latest [Figma design kits](/design/ui/wear/guides/foundations/download).\n\nEnhancements to watch faces\n---------------------------\n\nWatch Face Format version 4 is supported for devices that run\nWear OS 6 or higher. This version includes several enhancements:\n\n- Support for showing photos, including user-curated collections of photos.\n- Animated state transitions between ambient and interactive modes.\n- A new API, Watch Face Push, for supporting a marketplace that features your watch faces.\n\nLearn more about the [Watch Face Format](/training/wearables/wff). In the [XML reference](/training/wearables/wff/watch-face), look\nfor items that have changed or been added in version 4.\n\nContinued support for features introduced in previous versions\n--------------------------------------------------------------\n\nWear OS 6 maintains support for several key features introduced in previous\nversions, including the following:\n\n- Expanded media controls---including rewind, fast-forward, and playlist shuffling---starting in Wear OS 5.1.\n- [Enhanced, streamlined authentication](/training/wearables/apps/auth-wear) that supports a user's preferred authentication method, such as passkeys. They're available through the Credential Manager API, which was introduced in Wear OS 5.1."]]
