Google releases second developer preview of Android Wear 2.0

Google has released the second preview update for Android Wear 2.0. The update brings new features and bug fixes. However, the release does not have much for the end-users. It’s primarily aims to give developers a peek into the changes coming to the software.

As for what’s new? One, Platform API 24. Google has incremented the Android Platform API version number to 24 to match Nougat. Developers can now update their Android Wear 2.0 Preview project’s compileSdkVersion to API 24, and the company recommends that they also update targetSdkVersion to API 24.

Two, wearable drawers enhancements. According to Google, it launched the wearable drawers as part of the Android Wear 2.0 Preview 1, along the UX guidelines on how to best integrate the navigation drawer and action drawer in your Android Wear app. The Preview 2 brings additional support for wearable drawer peeking, to make it easier for users to access these drawers as they scroll.

Other UI improvements include automatic peek view and navigation drawer closure and showing the first action in WearableActionDrawer’s peek view. For developers that want to make custom wearable drawers, it has added peek_view and drawer_content attributes to WearableDrawerView. And finally, navigation drawer contents can now be updated by calling notifyDataSetChanged.

The third new feature is wrist gestures. Since last year, users have been able to scroll through the notification stream via wrist gestures. Google has now opened this system to developers to use within their applications. This helps improve single hand usage, for when your users need their other hand to hold onto their shopping or their kids.