Wear OS 5 is blocking one of the best watch apps and it's high time for Google to fix it

Wear OS Weekly

This new weekly column focuses on the state of Wear OS, from new developments and updates to the latest apps and features we want to highlight.

If you only use the standard watch faces that come with your Galaxy or Pixel Watch, you may not have heard of Google’s XML watch face format or may not have noticed the upgrade at all. However, it’s one of the most significant Wear OS upgrades in recent years, requiring minimal storage to extend your watch’s battery life.

It also added a lot of fun to Android watch faces and broke one of my favorite Wear OS apps (Facer) on my Galaxy Watch Ultra and Pixel Watch 3.

I understand why Google made this move, but it’s a creative and economic black hole for Wear developers, and Google’s current Play Store solution isn’t great.

The Watch Face Format (WFF) replaces the old AndroidX and Wearable Support watch faces. XML watch faces use no logic or executable code, with total memory limited to 10MB in ambient mode and 100MB in interactive mode. These WFF watch faces are powered by your watch’s coprocessor without sacrificing battery life.

The obligatory WFF watch faces and Wear OS hybrid interface make the Pixel Watch 3 more user-friendly than the Pixel Watch 2 for me, simply by extending its capacity to two days instead of just a little over a day. But they are too boring. XML excludes any complex animations or functions; It also hinders innovation by blocking the key third-party market for watch faces.

A custom Facer watch face depicting Mewtwo in a capsule on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic

This Mewtwo watch face would change water levels based on remaining battery life. (Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

The Facer app syncs with Android watches and has hundreds of thousands of watch faces, including ones with really creative animations and recognizable brands. The best watch faces cost money, but people found it worth keeping their watches fresh, and you could even create your own watch faces or take out a subscription to try out the entire collection.

Facer works like a Play Store for watch faces, organized by categories, free/paid, and general mood. Because of its discoverability, it’s very easy to browse and find the creators and faces you like, building a nice library that can be carried over to future watches.

It’s a decade old and has been around for about as long as Wear watches. And now Wear OS 5 threatens the future of Facer and the whole idea of “fun” watch faces.

New owners of a Galaxy Watch 7 or Pixel Watch 3 have finally lost face. You can either use the default watch faces and their basic “flavors,” or go to the Play Store, search by device, tap “Watch Faces,” scroll through a long list of WFF options, and buy what you like.

There is no organization and very little opportunity for developers to highlight their watch faces and make money – meaning there is no incentive to do so make new XML watch faces. This is a problem for Google and (more importantly) for us.

Google needs to fix this and work with Facer

Search results in Play Store with different watch faces in WFF XML format.

Finding WFF watch faces for Wear OS 5 watches is a pain. (Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

Facer has created a help page explaining his thoughts on the WFF developments. It says it is “working hard with Google to bring the Facer service” to Wear OS 5 watches, but while it is “actively discussing a solution with Google since the announcement of the Watch Face format” in 2023 “, the “change was unfortunately introduced”. before a solution could be found.

With the current WFF system, Facer would have to convert each of its 500,000 faces to XML, remove any aspects that the “restricted” format couldn’t support, and then upload them one by one to the Play Store. They are not allowed to credit users for previously purchased watch faces, so you would have to pay again for things you “own” and a subscription model could no longer be charged.

Google has every right to tighten its hard XML requirements for Wear OS, even if it limits the most creative watch faces. It makes Android watches look bad when the battery drains quickly due to an aesthetic decision. But the Play Store requirement seems unnecessary and unrelated as it cuts out a middleman without providing an adequate replacement.

The solution to me is obvious: keep letting people install WFF faces from third-party platforms (like Facer) so that artists and developers have a place to sell them and an incentive to make them. Either that or Google could buy Facer and make the app a first-party platform for Wear OS users to discover watch faces more easily.

Whatever route Google takes, it would be better than guaranteeing that the latest Wear OS watches will retain boring, simple watch faces for the foreseeable future. And even if Facer struggles to convert its entire library to WFF, it will be easier if it can continue to make money from its store in the meantime.

Google needs to prioritize fixing the broken Wear OS 5 update on last-gen Pixel watches before worrying about watch faces. But this is not just a superficial matter; It’s a chance for Google to prove it cares about longtime Wear developers and indie developers after steamrolling its ecosystem for a battery boost.

A new Wear OS Weekly column

As Android Central’s wearables editor, I’ve written a lot about Wear OS watches in my weekly Sunday Runday column. But I’m using this space to delve deeply into the hardware quality of Android watches (e.g. heart rate and GPS accuracy tests) and fitness software. It is not the right place to discuss watches in a more general context.

That’s why I’m starting this new Wear OS Weekly column that you can look out for every Wednesday!

My initial focus was on fitness watches because I felt I had more knowledge and authority to cover those. Although I’ve used Wear OS watches for the past few years, starting with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, I’m not one indigenous I’m an Android user and want to make sure I meet our readers’ standards when covering this topic.

Now that I’ve spent more time with Wear OS, I felt it was the right time to start this series. I plan to delve deeply into software updates, talk about the watch apps that Android Central’s staff loves (or think they should be better), and generally try to cover the site’s smartwatch coverage to improve beyond simple messaging.

If you have any areas you would like me to focus on, feel free to comment on this or future columns, or email me with your questions and thoughts!

Wear OS 5 is blocking one of the best watch apps and it’s high time for Google to fix it

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