Designing Always On Smart Watch Apps

This is the year when smart watches take off. Some estimate the Apple Watch sold several million units alone on its first day of release. Android Wear watches have sold more than 1 million units in less than a year and the Pebble watch launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for its new Pebble Color product.

As smart watch platforms increase in popularity, it’s time to think about developing apps for smart watches. Smart watch apps differ from smart phone apps, in that most are designed for light interactions. A user may spend hours on their phone, but seconds on their watch. Smart watch platforms limit what an app can do to reduce interaction time. For example, iOS WatchKit suspends a running app when users lower their wrist and Android Wear returns to the clock face when users dim the screen.

If a watch app requires longer interaction time, developers must take special care to circumvent platform limitations. An example is a golf swing analyzer app I helped develop that runs constantly to track the user’s golf swing. In this article, I will show you some of the ways to keep an Android Wear watch app “always on”.

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by Huan Liu via SitePoint