Google Play services Preview for Wear

The Google Play services app is currently being rolled out to the hundreds of millions of Android devices and will complete in early July. Because of this, we usually wait to release the Google Play services SDK until all users receive the app. This guarantees that your newly-updated apps can run on the most devices as possible.

However, if want to develop for Android Wear now, complete the following steps to get special access to all the things you need to start developing, without waiting for the rollout to complete.

Warning: Do not publish any apps that use the new Google Play services APIs until the rollout is complete. Your apps will break on most user devices, which will degrade your user rating.

1. Get Whitelisted for the Preview


If you attended Google I/O, your registered Gmail account is automatically whitelisted for these preview resources. If you didn't attend Google I/O, sign up below to get access:

Get Whitelisted

2. Download Required Apps


You'll need the following apps to get the most out of Android Wear:

Here's a list of the apps you need:

  • Google Play services: Allows your Wear device to properly communicate with your handheld device. This is required to use the Android Wear Companion App.
  • Android Wear Companion: The main user app to pair a handheld to a wearable and to provide syncing of notifications and data.
  • Google Search: A preview release of the Google Search handheld app that Wear communicates with to carry out searches.
  • Google Keep: To enable the "Take a note" command
  • Google I/O 2014

To enable the preview versions of the apps, click each app link above and follow these instructions:

  1. Click the Become a Tester button to opt-in to the preview version of the app. The page confirms that you're a tester after clicking.
  2. Click the Download <app name> from the Play Store link to go to Google Play Store download page to get the app. The following screenshot shows how the opt-in process looks like:
  3. When Google Play services is rolled out to all devices, go back to the app links provided to opt-out of the preview versions of the apps. Check back here in a week for the status of the rollout.

3. Start Building


Check out the Building Apps for Wearables training classes for information on how to build for Wear.