Wearable Apps That People Want

We've been living with Android wear all summer and Google Glass for a few years now. In this talk we will discuss the qualities of effective wearable applications, and cover the different architectures that you can explore to implement similar strategies in your applications.

Transcript

1. Wearables That People Want
2. Overview » What Are Wearables? » Wearable Platform Teardowns » Wearable App Architectures » What Do People Want?
3. Kevin Grant » Android Engineer at Tumblr » University of Nevada, Reno » Co-Author Beginning Android: Development and Design » Developed 4.2 start application on play store from scratch with > 10,000,000 downloads » Actively developing 4.4 star application, Tumblr, on Play Store with > 10,000,000 downloads
4. Kevin Grant Wearable Enthusiast » Jawbone Wearer (even while sleeping) » 2nd Generation Glass Explorer » Android Wearer since Google I/O 2014 » The only person at Tumblr who still publicly wears their Wear and Glass
5. What are wearables?
8. Examples
9. Oculus Rift Augmented Reality
10. Narrative Clip Photo Capture
11. Sensoria Fitness Fitness Tracking
12. Android Wear
13. Jawbone Fitness and Health Tracking
14. Glass
15. Whistle Pet Tracking
16. What are wearables » Often provide a single-purpose solution » Overwhelming emphasis on Tracking and Quantified Self » Wearables are more than just Google Glass and Android Wear
17. GLASS + WEAR There are many wearable categories, but the ones that are the most interesting are the ones we can develop for today, using our existing Android development skills.
18. Teardowns
19. Teardown Glass
20. Teardown Glass » Current OS - XE 22.0 » GDK Based on KitKat - 4.4 - API 19 » 5 Megapixel Camera » 720p Videos » Wifi and Bluetooth » GPS » Accelerometer / Compass / Gyroscope
21. Teardown Android Wear
22. Teardown Android Wear » OS and Wear SDK Based on KitKat - 4.4 - API 20 » Bluetooth 4.0 » Heart Rate Monitor (Samsung Gear / Moto 360) » Accel Compass Gyro » WiFi? (Samsung Gear, but its inactive)
23. What does this tell us? » Wear receives all network and GPS data from the phone » Even images must be transferred over bluetooth » Glass manages it's own network state, either via WiFi or getting data from phone via bluetooth.
24. cool fact Bluetooth » Bluetooth spec Created in part by Ericsson in Sweden » Named after former King of Denmark / Norway who had a bad tooth. » Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson » Danish: Harald Blåtand Gormsen » The Bluetooth logo is made of the Nordic runes for his initials
26. App Architecture
27. Android Wear » Notifications from Notification Builder » Customized Notification using Activtys » Full screen Activitys
28. Android Wear Basic Notifications From Builder » Just works » Keeps same customizations and buttons that you're using in your apps » Adds a new style - collapsible, which you can start utilizing in your other notifications instead of rollup on your own
29. Basic Notifications From Builder Basic Notifications int notificationId = 001; // Build intent for notification content Intent viewIntent = new Intent(this, ViewEventActivity.class); viewIntent.putExtra(EXTRA_EVENT_ID, eventId); PendingIntent viewPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, viewIntent, 0); NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this) .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_event) .setContentTitle(eventTitle) .setContentText(eventLocation) .setContentIntent(viewPendingIntent); // Get an instance of the NotificationManager service NotificationManagerCompat notificationManager = NotificationManagerCompat.from(this); // Build the notification and issues it with notification manager. notificationManager.notify(notificationId, notificationBuilder.build());
30. Basic Notifications From Builder Basic Wearable Specific Actions // Create a WearableExtender to add functionality for wearables NotificationCompat.WearableExtender wearableExtender = new NotificationCompat.WearableExtender() .setHintHideIcon(true) .addAction(/* some PendingIntent Action */) .setBackground(mBitmap); // Create a NotificationCompat.Builder to build a standard notification // then extend it with the WearableExtender Notification notif = new NotificationCompat.Builder(mContext) .setContentTitle("New mail from " + sender) .setContentText(subject) .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.new_mail); .extend(wearableExtender) .build();
31. Basic Notifications From Builder Recap » Simple and familiar APIs » Easy to add basic wearable specific actions and logic
32. Android Wear Customized Notification Activities » Significantly more work (need to manage notification syncing yourself) » Can be significantly cooler » Can use a combination of custom activitys and existing notifications
33. Customized Notification Activities Example - Weather
34. Customized Notification Activities Example - Weather » Wearable Activities live in the Wearables project » Notifications must be built on the Watch itself » Dynamic images you want to show must be transferred from phone
35. Example - Weather On Phone Since we can't build Activities on the phone, we have to tell the watch to build them using the GoogleApiClient mGoogleApiClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this) // Context .addApi(Wearable.API) .addConnectionCallbacks(this) // ConnectionCallbacks .addOnConnectionFailedListener(this) // OnConnectionFailedListener .build(); String node = // Name of the wearable to notify String path = "start_weather_notification"; // The watch receiver also listens on this path byte[] payload = weatherDataUri.toString().getBytes(); // Send message to the watch Wearable.MessageApi.sendMessage(mGoogleApiClient, node, path, payload);
36. Example - Weather On watch // Each page is a separate activity Intent weatherDay = new Intent(context, WeatherDayActivity.class); weatherDay.putExtra(BasicNotificationDisplayActivity.EXTRA_TITLE, "Day Forecast"); PendingIntent weatherDayPi = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, weatherDay, 0); Notification weatherDayPage = buildBasicNotification(context) .extend(new Notification.WearableExtender() .setCustomSizePreset(Notification.WearableExtender.SIZE_FULL_SCREEN) .setDisplayIntent(weatherDayPi)) .build(); // You can add as many pages as you want Intent weatherWeek = new Intent(context, WeatherWeekActivity.class); weatherDay.putExtra(BasicNotificationDisplayActivity.EXTRA_TITLE, "Week Forecast"); PendingIntent weatherWeekPi = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, weatherWeek, 0); Notification weatherWeekPage = buildBasicNotification(context) .extend(new Notification.WearableExtender() .setCustomSizePreset(Notification.WearableExtender.SIZE_FULL_SCREEN) .setDisplayIntent(weatherWeekPi)) .build(); // We finally add all the pages to an actual notification return buildBasicNotification(context) .extend(new Notification.WearableExtender() .addPage(weatherDayPage) .addPage(weatherWeekPage)) .build();
37. Advanced Notification Syncing Architecture Study these projects in the SDK Examples » Data Layer » Synchronized Notifications » Notifications
38. Android Wear Full Screen UI App » Fancy way of saying "Just a plain ole' Activity" » Can use the GridViewPager to mimic / simulate the primary screens navigation. » Careful - Android Wear cannot directly access the internet. It must communicate via the MessageApi or DataApi.
39. Google Glass » Mirror API (Deprecated) » Publishing Cards to the Stream » Immersive Mode (Full Screen Activities)
40. Google Glass Mirror API (Deprecated) » Develop in most languages, enabled by calling REST APIs » Projects are setup in AppEngine and use Mirror API access » Sample projects exist in Java, PHP, and Python » Android Wear team members are not suggesting new development here
41. Google Glass Publishing Cards to the Stream
42. Google Glass Publishing Cards to the Stream » Declare a Service which will post LiveCards to the stream » LiveCard takes a RemoteView as content » LiveCards are removed during reboot or when system is low on resources unless you use LiveCard.attach(). » Docs on LiveCards is quite good https://developers.google.com/glass/develop/gdk/ live-cards
43. Google Glass Immersive Mode » Immersive mode is a fancy way of saying "Just a plain ole' Activity" » Build like a normal Android app, but use the GDK for voice commands or card styled UI components. » The only reliable way to keep the screen on.
44. It's pretty different Application Architecture between Wear and Glass is fundamentally different, and you should approach solutions and ideas with that in mind.
45. The early lead
46. I hear people saying
47. “It doesn't really do anything for me.”
48. “I want less notifications, not more.”
49. “It doesn't do anything my phone doesn't already do.”
50. “I stopped wearing it for a week... I didn't miss it.”
51. Who's succeeding?
52. Calendar
53. Hangouts
54. Wordlens
55. Weather
56. Stocks
57. Fitness data
58. Hmmmmmm...
59. Why are the most best apps all from Google? » Google made both of these platforms. It suits their needs. » Platforms are optimized to showcase Google Now style content. » Countless lessons learned from Phone and Google Now.
60. Do I have to be a first party app? » No! » Wear SDK has been out less than a year, and there are few devices. » Nobody has Glass outside of Google. » It took years for reliable services to surface in the app store. » Lots of room for immersive experiences and hands free innovation.
61. Its not me, its you Not everyone is convinced.
62. Recap
63. Recap A whole world of wearable computing Wearable technology is more than just Android Wear, Apple Watch, and Google Glass.
64. Recap Same same, but different Wearable technology hardware and software have subtle and important differences.
65. Recap Same problem, multiple solutions Implementing the same idea on multiple platforms can quickly become complicated, but it's doable.
66. Recap In the beginning... (and the end of the presentation) There are some early winners in wearables, but they are mostly first party apps. It's still the early days.
67. The challenge Wearable technology is still anyones game, and there is room for lots of winners. » Great wearable apps are parts of great services. » Build great services.
68. Thanks! kevingrant@tumblr.com Tumblr: kevinthebigapple.tumblr.com Twitter: @kevingrant5 Github: @kevinthecity tumblr.com/jobs