Google pretty much divulged the most important things about Android Wear when it launched the OS, but this new video lays out all the details complete with visual aid. Timothy Jordan, the company’s developer advocate, shows off a number of user interface elements in the video and explains how it doesn’t make sense putting phone icons on a smartwatch. As mentioned before, you can issue voice commands by saying “OK, Google,” and the OS uses Google Now-like cards to show you various information. Jordan also details how apps made for the platform can use different types of notification, like Stacks, which, well, stacks several for easier viewing. There’s also the Pages format that shows one lengthy notification in several cards, and the Replies format, which gives you the option to respond through the watch itself using voice commands. Bottom line is that Android Wear, according to Jordan, is “glance-able” and reduces the time you need to interact with your smartwatch.
Android Wear was announced just over three months ago, and since then we’veseen plenty of little details find their way online, most of which focused on the software. In a new video released by the Google Developers YouTube channel, we get to see how notifications, including their specific parts, will work. Timothy Jordan, a developer advocate at Google, took the reigns for the video that showcases plenty of new features within Android Wear, all of which should be important to any consumer that plans on picking up a wearable running the set of APIs that extend the Android platform. He outlines plenty of details regarding Android Wear’s use of notifications, and goes over some of the finer details when it comes to the general user interface. One of the takeaways here is that the Android Wear team is trying to keep your interaction with any wearable running Android Wear to a minimum. No grid of icons, keeping you searching. As we’ve seen, and as this latest video reinforces, Android Wear is clean and simple, and card-based. The specific parts to notifications on Android Wear are interesting, too. Stacks does exactly what it might sound like it does: stacks your notifications, and essentially prevents you from hearing individual notifications for a flurry of incoming items you may get. For instance, if your email inbox is suddenly bludgeoned with six new emails, Stacks will clump them together for you, and show you on the wearable a grey “+5″ under the top message. A nice, clean way of showing you that there are five new emails behind the one you’re looking at now.
