Latest Android Wear 2.9 is now globally rolling to all wearable devices. The current update brings the notification indicator feature. You might have guessed it by now. Android Wear 2.9 notification indicator will show the latest unread notification at the bottom of the Android watch. Also, it comes with improvements to glance the notification cards with longer titles. Apart from these no other major updates accompany latest Android Wear 2.9. The update will not knock into immediately to all the watches. It will hit the wearables in batches. Not long ago we also reported about Android Wear 2.8 Update rolling to wearables.
Although on the other hand there is a good news for the developers too. Now Android SDK 2.2.0 is also available.Developers can customize the notification indicator on their own. Google made this feature handy to the developer community early. It did so because developers can verify that the indicator fits the design of the watch face. Android SDK 2.2 also comes with an all-new emulator based on Android 8.0 Oreo. Along with this two other enhancements, permission handling and a new drawable callback are also following the Android SDK 2.2.0. You can see the changelog for more details regarding this.
Changelog: Android Wear 2.9 and Android SDK 2.2.0
The changelog is pretty impressive on both Android Wear 2.9 and Android SDK 2.2.0. Here is what both the updates bring forth to the wearable devices.
Android Wear 2.9 Changelog
- New notification preview complication that will allow you to preview messages
- Improved glanceability in notification cards with longer titles
Android SDK 2.2.0 Changelog
- Drawable callback
- New emulator based on Android Oreo
- Better permission handling
- Unread notification indicator
Very recently there was a tweet from the official sources stating about these features in the latest Android SDK.
How to Download Android Wear 2.9 Update
Like we said above gradually and automatically the update will roll. Latest Android Wear 2.9 will drop onto your smart wear over- the -air(OTA). When it does, you will be prompted to download the same. Previous software updates to the Android Wear OS required an OTA download and upgrade, but with Android Wear 2.9, all you need is just the Android Wear Companion App for Android.
Simply update your Android Wear Companion App for Android to the latest version. Then pair it with your Android Wear smartwatch. After that when the rollout expands to you, your smartwatch will automatically update to Android wear 2.9.
So, that’s all about it. If you haven’t’ received the airborne update wait for it. Those of you are into developing Android SDK 2.2.0 is all yours for exploring and customizing the smart wearable devices.
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