Google recently gave its update on its newly launched wearable device, Android wear, a Smartwatch with a robust operating system that it has a workaround that allows paid Android applications, and other that uses Google Play’s forward-lock mechanism on Android Wear.
So, if you are planning to order Android wear devices, Google launched last month, then it’s good to keep yourself aware regarding the updations announced by Google. And the updates is that wearables are not playing well with the paid apps. Generally, Wearable apps are installed from Google Play along the side of a handheld device, which installs the app automatically over Bluetooth and connect it with the paired wearable device. But, unfortunately, the wearable components of paid apps are not transferring properly.
As per the statements revealed by the Android Police, the problem lies in Google’s app encryption measures, a kind of copy-protection system developed to prevent the app from the attack of harmful bugs. Due to this, Android Wear Devices are not able to locate wear apps provided in the encrypted packages. No matter what the size of the bug is, it could be a serious issue as all the paid apps are not able to make most of the newly device introduced by Google.
The assets/directory of the apps which almost every reputed Android App Developing Company might be aware of where the wearable APK resides, cannot be extracted easily by the wearable installer. However, Google’s workaround suggests that developers can do this by placing the wearable APK in the res/raw directory.
Since, the Android automated processing can’t do this, the Android documentation unveil two ways which help developers to package wearable apps manually either by using the “wear app” Gradle rule or to package the wearable APK into res/raw directory by following these steps.
STEP #1
In the first step, developers need to copy the signed wearable app into their handheld project’s res/raw directory and then rename it to wearable_app
STEP #2
After this, create a res/xml/wearable_app_desc.xml file. Through the file developers can gain knowledge of the path and versions of the wearable app.
You’ll see this type of format after completing the step.
<wearableApp package="wearable app package name">
<versionCode>1</versionCode>
<versionName>1.0</versionName>
<rawPathResId>wearable_app</rawPathResId>
</wearableApp>
The package, VersionCode and VersionName have the same values as mentioned in the Wearable App’s AndroidManifest.xml file. The static variable name the resource is rawPathResId, which means of the filename of your resource is wearable_app.apk, then the static variable would be wearable_app
STEP #3
Once you are done with the secodn step, the next steps calls for creating a <meta-data> tag to your handheld app’s <application> tag to provide reference to the wearable_app_desc.xml file
<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.wearable.beta.app"
android:resource="@xml/wearable_app_desc"/>
STEP #4
Now, in the final step, developers are asked to create and sign the handheld application.
Google says that it is working on the updation process of the “wear app” Gradle rule, which will in turn update the Android SDK building tools and support APK embedding intores/raw. For a while, for paid apps the above mentioned steps could be followed. The Google team is working hard to make the things easy for the future.
Android Wear has indeed opened the doors for the bright future of Smartwatches that any other device. As a first-generation product, it has high-growth potential, which attracts various shoppers to upgrade their accessory collection. Backed by a sophisticated and powerful operating system, Google has amazingly developed a device that moves with the user and connects their Smartphones to their wrist. One day or so, the platform of Android Wearble will blossom as more apps will come out, in the mean time, Wearables have to integrate more innovation before consumers finally decide on purchasing them.
Even though, Android Wear is struggling with some issues, users still find it an amazing device which is smart, powerful, and worn on the body. Android wear by extending the platforms to a new generation devices has definitely provided an experience that’s designed for wearables for sure.
At present, Wear is the best OS for Android users who passionately sees in the market of smartwatches, since, these devices sometime fail to relate to the user’s basic necessities, they need to be more stylish and add ease to their lives, and must have the potential to attract average customers.
Author Bio:
Victoria Brinsley is associated with a leading Android Development Services – Appsted Ltd as a technical writer. She can aid you in hiring Android Apps Developer from India, in case you are looking forward for the same.
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