Google Releases Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 2

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If you are a owner of a supported Android Wear watch and don’t mind being on the cutting edge of software, there’s some good news for you today to be excited about. Google has released Developer Preview 2 of Android Wear 2.0, bringing a fair few bug fixes and new features (and very possibly some new bugs too, this is a developer preview afterall).

What’s new you ask?

The Developer Preview 2 for Android Wear 2.0 bumps up the Platform API to 24, at par with Android 7.0 Nougat. Then, the Developer Preview 2 has added additional supporting elements for the wearable drawer, focusing on the peeking element and navigation drawer closure. There’s also support for adding in custom wearable drawers, making it a possibility to go down that route.

The real treat in Developer Preview 2 for Android Wear 2.0 are the wrist gestures. More specifically, Google has opened up the wrist gestures to developers, allowing them the ability to make use of these gestures for navigation and control within their individual apps. This should improve one handed usage of wearables as gesture navigation within apps becomes a possibility.

As Developer Previews go, this is also to be considered a Work-in-Progress and not a finished product. Google has invited feedback from the developer community to identify bugs and squash them before final release. Before you do go around doing that, do take a look at the current known issues. System images are available for the LG Watch Urbane LTE 2nd Edition, the Huawei Watch, and the official Android emulator.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on over, flash an image, and experience the newest of Android Wear 2.0 before the consumer world. And if you are an app developer, please do look at ways for incorporating wrist gestures into your app.

What are your thoughts on the Android Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 2.0? Let us know in the comments below!