Android Wear has only been out for a few weeks, but already developers are trying their hands at designing apps for Google's wearable platform. Since this is a new usage paradigm for Android, it's hard to know what sort of user experiences will catch on and which will fall flat. This is the first installment of what will hopefully become a regular part of our roundups – all the best apps and watch faces for Android Wear. If it's interesting, innovative, or just plain odd (and designed for your wrist), we've got it here.

Wear Apps

Wear Mini Launcher

Android Police coverage: Wear Mini Launcher Adds A Quick Settings Drawer With Toggles For Your Phone

Android Police coverage: Wear Mini Launcher Already Improving With Brightness Slider, Gear Live Fixes, And More

Android Police coverage: [New App] Wear Mini Launcher Is The First Custom App Launcher For Android Wear

Google chose to make Android Wear apps annoying to launch by touch, for whatever reason. Wear Mini Launcher makes it much less annoying, which is why it's awesome. The app has been updated multiple times since its debut, and it just keeps getting better.

Not everyone is down with this tweak to the way apps are managed on Wear, but when it comes down to it, Wear Mini Launcher is super-convenient.

It's often a pain to open an app on your wear device. You have to remember its name of scroll through different lists to find and launch it.

Wear Mini Launcher is designed to allow you to launch any app from anywhere.

You have also access to quick settings with the double swipe gesture. You can change the brightness of your wear device, change the wifi state, the ring mode of your handheld or make it ring to find it back.

Make it looks like you! With many customization options, the launcher is now exactly as you want it to be.

Wear Volume

Sometimes the simplest apps are the most useful – Wear Volume lets you change the volume of your phone from the watch, which is great if you're listening to audio and don't want to fish the phone out of your pocket.

Control your phone's volume with your Android Wear device.

Launch by tapping the screen or saying "Ok Google". Swipe down to "Start..." and select "Wear Volume".

Wear Calc

The 80s were a strange time of hair metal and questionable fashion. It was also the heyday of the calculator watch. Now you can relive the glory days of wrist arithmetic with Wear Calc. C'mon, you know you want to.

The FIRST and most minimalist Calc make it for Wearable devices.

One of the first Wear Native Apps make it in the world. Download NOW for FREE!

ATTENTION - Instructions:

-Make sure your mobile is compatible with Wear.

-Make sure to pair your phone with Wear with the Wearable App.

-Ones you install the App with a pair Wear the "Wear Calc" would automatically install in your watch.

-To open: Go to "Start..." and open the app "Wear Calc" (Voice Action to open may not work)

-You CANNOT OPEN the app in your mobile after install it, only on your Wear Device.

Compatible with all square wear devices.

Find My Phone (Android Wear)

This is one of several apps that have shown up to make it harder to lose your phone. Find My Phone will alert you if the Bluetooth link between the phone and watch is lost, indicating you might have forgotten your phone. If it's just hiding in the cushions someplace, the app can make it beep. It's kind of like the Android Device Manager, but it's on your wrist and much more convenient.

It's time to say goodbye to forgetting or losing your phone. With brand new Android Wear app you will never forget your phone and quickly find it in one tap.

Android Wear Watch will buzzing to stop you from going out from your phone.

Can find your phone? Just tap on notification or start Find My Phone app on your watch and tap on the button to launch alarm and visual signals on your phone (even if it’s in silent mode).

The alarm can be setting up for your needs. You can:

- Set alarm volume

- Turn on gradual volume increasing

- Turn on vibration

- Set screen brightness

- Turn on Flashlight

The main functionality available for free, but some alarm customization features available only in PRO version, that can be purchased in app (price is $0,99).

Calendar for Android Wear

Android Police coverage: [New App] Calendar For Android Wear Is A Basic, Colorful Calendar For Those Wearable Android Devices

The Google calendar currently lacks any Wear features, though I'm pretty sure Google isn't going to do anything like the aptly named Calendar for Android Wear. This app puts a tiny calendar on your watch with month, day, and detailed view options. The colors are customizable, and it does look nice. At the same time, it's not easy to tap on things this precisely on a 1.6-inch screen. Still, this just goes to show you that if there's a niche, someone will fill it.

This application is only available Android Wear Device.

You can view your calendar on your watch.

* Monthly(free), Daily(premium), Detail view(premium).

* Setting color, first day of week(free)

* Displaying calendar of events(premium).

Wear-a-tron

Android Police coverage: [New App] Wear-a-tron Lets You Unlock A Lockitron Door With Your Android Wear Watch

Got one of those fancy connected Lockitron door locks? Okay, probably not since it's still on pre-order for anyone who didn't get in on the Kickstarter campaign. Maybe you'll want to preorder one now that there is a Wear app for unlocking your door. The app is third-party, but it uses the basic Lockitron API to securely lock and unlock your door. That's really all it does, though. The more advanced features like guest passes are not supported, but that's probably not something you need to do from a watch anyway.

Have a Lockitron setup on your door? Wear-a-tron allows you to lock and unlock your lock from your wrist. Run the app on your phone and log in to your Lockitron account and then just tell an Android Wear device "start lockitron" and a lock and unlock button will appear.

Mini Maps for Wear ALPHA

Developers are still exploring what's possible on Android Wear, and mapping could be part of that. Google Maps only ties into the watch for navigation, but Mini Maps actually shows you a map that you can pan around and see your current location. That's all it does right now, hence the giant "alpha" label.

A mini map for your Android Wear smart watch, pannable like Google Maps and powered by the Google Static Maps API. When opened, it should jump to your current GPS location if you have signal. Long press the screen to close it.

This is intended to be a demo of what can be done with Android Wear, not a final product. Consider this an ALPHA release. Occasional glitches may occur and reports would be appreciated. If you find your watch not receiving data, try restarting Bluetooth on your phone (known occasional issue).

PixtoCam for Android Wear

Android Police coverage: [New App] PixtoCam Allows You To Use Android Wear As A Remote Viewfinder / Shutter For Pictures Of Lego (And Also Other Things)

Android Wear has the potential to make operating your phone without touching it easier than ever. Even somewhat creepy uses are possible. Case in point, the description for remote viewfinder app PixtoCam: "as nothing happens on the phone even turned on i can lend my phone and take pictures of girls who use it ;)" Yeah... creepy. Just because it has definite creeper appeal is no reason to abandon ship, though. There are perfectly legit uses for a remote viewfinder and shutter control.

PixtoCam allows you to view and control cameras from your watch to take pictures or make videos. Don't matter if your phone is on or off just launch PixtoCam on your Android Wear Watch and get a realtime preview. You can select the front or rear camera, zoom in and out, rotate the image, use a self-timer, adjust the flash setting, use torch in video mode and more.

what people have told us they do with PixtoCam ? we can not say some. especially under table :/

- as nothing happens on the phone even turned on i can lend my phone and take pictures of girls who use it ;) .

- look my back

- takes family pictures, all together

- scare my cat with torch recording video

Please don't stop to tell us how you use this application, we like it.

- Get realtime preview even in movie recording mode*

- Works without any action on phone, it can be on/off or locked

- 2 modes : camera and video.

- Zoom : double tap to zoom, long click to reset**

- Fast select button : change camera, rotate image, set flash, light torch, self-timer

- On top phone battery level and charging state widget (yellow discharging/green charging)

It is simple, effective and often essential

PixtoCam for Wear OS Developer: Pixtogram
Price: 2.99
2.7
Download

@here for Android Wear

This app is another take on mapping on your wrist, but it has a specific use case. @here shows a card on your watch with your location, which can be used to launch a mapping app on your phone, ostensibly for sharing your location with friends. It's a neat idea, but I'm not sure how useful or convenient it will be in practice, seeing as you need to take the phone out to share things.

Have you ever been at a new location and needed to tell a friend where they can meet you? Well, @here makes your life easy. Whenever you stop at a new location, @here will add a notification to your Android Wear device with your current address. Swipe left to see the neighborhood (e.g. "Mission District" in San Francisco), City, County, and other information about your location. Swipe left once more to see a map, and quickly launch your favorite mapping app on your phone right from your watch.

@here will intelligently update the notification on your watch when you stop at a new location, but if you want an update on-demand, just say "OK, Google, start @here", and the notification will appear.

Swip3

Gaming on your wrist? Why not? SWIP3 is a simple gesture-based puzzler that works on Android Wear or a regular Android device. It's obviously directed mainly at Wear as the gameplay is a little basic for a phone.

Swip3. The addictive match-3 game for Android Wear & Mobile Devices! Simply swipe to match 3 and get as many points as possible.

-Simple controls. Just Swip3 in any direction.

-Battle your friends to get the highest score on the leaderboard

-How many points can you get in a single Swip3?

-Phone battery dying? Why not play on your Watch! Full Android Wear compatibility

Honerable Mentions

Wear-Enabled Phone Apps

Wearable Widgets

Android Police coverage: Wearable Widgets v2.0 Adds Support For Android Wear, Can Send Any Widget To Your Watch

Wearable Widgets is one of the most interesting apps to add Android Wear support. This app's thing is taking the widgets from your phone and mirroring them on a wearable device. Android Wear support was added recently and it works pretty well. Just pick the widget you want to mirror and the app shows up as a card on the watch. Tapping on it lets you view and interact with the widget just like you would if it were on the phone. You do have to spend a few bucks to upgrade to the pro version if you want to mirror more than one widget, though.

Widgets you can wear. Put virtually any homescreen widget from your phone onto your smartwatch or Google Glass™. Supports Android Wear and Sony SmartWatch 1 & 2; Samsung Gear (Tizen) is coming soon.

PLEASE NOTE: You MUST have one of these devices (Glass or a supported smartwatch) to use this app.

This is early software and we're still actively ironing out bugs as they emerge.

Using with Android Wear

With your Wear device paired to your phone, just install and run this app, and select a widget or two. Then say to your watch, "Ok Google, start widgets." (If you prefer, you can also find Wearable Widgets in the touch menu of the watch, in the "Start…" with Sony SmartWatch 1 and 2

You’ll need Sony's Smart Connect app (http://goo.gl/4JDnN) installed and configured on your phone, but you probably already have that. So, just run Wearable Widgets, and select a widget from the list that pops up. To see it on your wrist, simply tap our “W” icon on the watch's home screen, and voila.

Wearable Widgets Developer: Udekowski LLC
Price: Free
3.5
Download

LevelUp

Android Police coverage: LevelUp App Update Brings Wrist-Based Payments Via New Android Wear Support

Android Police coverage: Android Wear App Section Added To The Google Play Store, Including A Ton Of Updated Apps [Update: 10 More]

I have never personally seen a LevelUp scanner, but the company assures us there are more than 14,000 locations accepting payment through this app. Basically, you tie a payment method to the app, and use a little QR code to pay for stuff. Rather than showing up on the screen, the app can now bring up the code on your Android Wear watch. This could be a really great use case for Wear, hence its place on the list.

Pay with your phone. Save time & money.

LevelUp is fast, simple & free.

Step 1: Register for LevelUp by linking any debit/credit card you'd like.

Step 2: Scan your code to pay at your favorite businesses. You'll get an instant digital receipt. It's just like swiping your card, but faster.

Step 3: Save money when you try new places on LevelUp. Unlock rewards whenever you go back.

LevelUp is currently available at thousands of businesses nationwide.

NEW: Android Wear support. If you have a compatible wearable, you'll get notified when you're at places you regularly use LevelUp - just swipe and tap to pay with your watch. Or, say "OK Google, open LevelUp" to get to the app from the main screen of your watch.

Tweetings

Tweetings is a popular Twitter client, and it's one of the first to add support for Android Wear with the ability to reply and post new tweets from the watch. Neat.

A beautiful Twitter client to immerse yourself in the Twitter experience. Beautiful themes, powerful features and highly customizable.

✓ True Push Notifications - Runs over 3G or WiFi for mentions, Direct Messages, when you get a new follower, when you are retweeted, etc. You don't even need the app open! We don't keep connections open to Twitter on your device, like most other Twitter clients, that drain your battery, our push servers do all the hard work

✓ Multiple Twitter photo support

✓ Android Wear support! Reply directly to a notification or send a new Tweet directly from your watch!

✓ Realtime streaming updates, total optional. Can even run in the background

✓ Beautiful Card UI and Drawer navigation

✓ Wonderful, rich, high-quality image previews

✓ Light, dark and hybrid themes, including translucent background and KitKat style navigation

✓ Internal Web browser

✓ Mute users, hashtags and clients, with official Twitter mute user syncing and auto-expiry

✓ Clickable links in the timeline

✓ Twitlonger and Tweetmarker support

✓ Customizable navigation. Put whatever is important to you at the forefront

Craft - Minecraft Craft Guide

Android Police coverage: [New App] Craft With Android Wear Support Puts Minecraft Recipes Where They Belong: On Your Wrist

Okay, you don't need a crafting guide to play Minecraft, but seasoned players will tell you it's much easier that way. Likewise, having it on your wrist could allow you to keep playing while looking stuff up. You can search by voice for recipes so you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard and mouse. What an age we live in.

This guide provides the recipes for crafting items in Minecraft. It is fast, simple and allows you to bookmark your most-used recipes. You can easily search through all of the items and even get the IDs of the items. This is a perfect companion app to Minecraft.

. Items (with IDs, text IDs, descriptions)

. Crafting, brewing and smelting for items

. Mobs (including health, attack strength and spawning locations)

. Fast search to quickly access item recipes

Level Money

Android Police coverage: Android Wear App Section Added To The Google Play Store, Including A Ton Of Updated Apps [Update: 10 More]

Android Police coverage: [App Roundup] Our Top Seven Picks For The Best New Apps Of January 2014

Android Police coverage: 22 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (1/14/14 - 1/27/14)

Android Police coverage: [New App] Level Is A Financial Management App With Style To Spare

Level was one of the first wave of apps to add Wear support after the platform launched. You can use the watch with Level installed to check out your financial state based on the service's estimation of your spendable cash. level uses a lot of circles, which Google is really keen on these days. I imagine this app is going to look particularly neat on the Moto 360.

Level is the radically simple, digital equivalent of opening up your wallet to see what you can spend today, this week, or this month. All you need to do is link to your bank account(s) – including checking, savings and credit cards. Level does the rest.

Once your accounts are linked, Level automatically calculates total income, savings and recurring bills. What remains becomes ‘Spendable’ cash, showing you exactly how much you can spend that month, week or day.

Every time you complete a transaction – say buying gas or ordering a drink at a bar – Level automatically updates the spendable cash for that day.

  • Over 2,000 US banks support connections to Level, expanding all the time
  • Links to your bank accounts so you are constantly up-to-date
  • You never have to enter transactions manually
  • Automatically detects income and fixed expenses to show a complete picture of your financial situation
  • Delivers a single view of your activity across all your connected accounts
  • Provides at-a-glance, simple view of cash flow and anticipated savings
  • Offers an optimized interface for tablet users
  • We are US only - if you are outside the US you will receive an alert that your device is not supported
  • NEW. Level Money now supports Android Wear. Swipe over from Wear notifications to show Spendable and Transactions

Lyft

Lyft was one of the launch apps for Android Wear. It's a way to get a ride when you don't have a car. Plus, the cars have mustaches.

Millions of 5 star rides enjoyed!

Try Lyft for a friendly, affordable ride whenever you need one. Just tap a button, and in minutes you’ll be picked up by a friendly driver who’ll take you to your destination safely and on time.

Lyft Developer: Lyft, Inc.
Price: Free
3.8
Download

Honorable Mentions

Editor's Note: There are way, way too many apps for this first roundup to go into detail on them all. We're trying to cover our bases this time to get all the launch stuff out of the way, so make sure to peruse this extensive list of honorable mentions.

Watch Faces

Editor's Note: Yes, Google has not released the official watch face API yet, and has advised developers to avoid publishing watch faces to the Play Store. However, these things exist, so we're listing them here. Some devs have already promised a swift update as soon as the API is available. There will be some bugs (like the taller cards blocking things), but a few of them take that into account. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Better Wear Face

I think Better Wear Face is my favorite custom watch face currently. It has options for text and digital time displays along with the date and optional weather. You can set any image as the background from your phone as well. All the UI stuff is kept toward the top of the screen so the taller cards work well. It's nice to have the additional info anyway.

My first Android Wear Watch Face.

The main features:

- Two Beautiful Watch Styles

- Weather in both Fahrenheit and Celsius (For certain watch faces)

WearFaces

Consider this listing an FYI, because WearFace is kind of broken right now. All the watch faces are full screen, so the taller cards block stuff. It also kind of clutters the watch face selector with several designs you might not be interested in. If you swipe everything away constantly, it's usable, but more than anything this is an interesting look at how designing your own watch face could work on Wear eventually.

Create your own custom Android Wear Watch face (WearFace).

In addition you get three quality design watchfaces for you LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live and Moto360.

Just install the app on your mobile and sync the apps from the Android Wear App.

HOW-TO create your personal watchface (see video)

1. Design your own watchface by creating four pictures for the dial, hourhand, minutehand and the secondshand. (best 320x320px and .png format) Look on www.wearfaces.com to find template file. (Good Imageeditor on Android Pixlr)

2. Save your own custom watch face files into the Pictures folder.

3. Make sure that the Wear device and the phone/tablet are paired (see Android Wear App).

4. Start the WearFaces App, click on "Create custom WearFace" und choose the different files.

5. On the Wear device choose the "Custom WearFace".

6. In the app on the phone click Send to Wear".

7. Wait until the watch appears and be happy about your own clock face.

Matrix face for Android Wear

Android Police coverage: There Is Now A Matrix "Falling Code" Watch Face For Android Wear (It Was Inevitable And You Know It)

Did you ever have one of those Matrix falling code screen savers on your computer? Don't lie. Now you can relive those heady days with the Matrix falling code watch face. This was bound to happen, but again, the lack of a proper API makes its usefulness limited right now.

"The Matrix" themed watch face for Android Wear.

By Dheera Venkatraman

http://dheera.net/

Source code: https://github.com/dheera/android-wearface-matrix

Wear LCD Watchface BETA

Another classic watch face, but this developer specifically says the cards are an issue for the time being. When's that API coming out again?

LCD Wear Watch Face for ANDROID WEAR DEVICES.

BETA till full API released...

known issues cards are over time.

This WatchFace brings your the LCD Feeling from the 90s to your Wrist.

-Pair your device with watch.

-Install the application

-Choose the watch face from your Android Wear watch.

Due some layout problems with the shadow on the Gear Live, i have removed it temporally and working on an solution.

Retro LCD Wear Watchface Developer: Raimund Arning
Price: Free
4.1
Download

Wear Time Circuit

This is one of the few regular paid Android Wear watch faces I've seen pop up. It's probably using the workaround provided by Google to get paid apps to install to a Wear device. Is a circuit board watch face worth $0.99? That's up to you.

This is a custom watch face for Android Wear devices that displays a circuit board with flowing electrons.

During normal operation, the watch face consumes minimal CPU (and therefore battery) by displaying a simple dot-matrix display clock. When you touch the watch face, the screen is illuminated to reveal the circuit with flowing electrons.

The watch face supports both 12 and 24 hour formats. The format will match how you have configured your phone settings.

DigiWatch

DigiWatch is a clean, colorful watch face for Wear. There are a few different themes for the digits and you can swap colors from the watch app rather than going to the phone.

DigiWatch is an early watch face for Android Wear which provides custom fonts, background colors, and settings to tailor the watch face to your device/liking. Currently, it's in an early development stage where features and functionality are going to continue to grow (and fairly rapidly).

Binary Watch Face

I have yet to see evidence anyone actually wants to use a binary clock in real life. It seems more like nerd-cred run amok to me, but whatever floats your boat. This was one of the first custom watch faces for Wear, but the card issue is present here too. Install at your own risk.

At this time, there is not a way to change the notification card height.

The "OK Google" text unfortunately is also unmovable right now.

As soon as APIs is available, we will get that fixed right away.

A Binary watch face for you Android Wear device.

The companion app the installs on your handset with the watch face allows you to configure the colors on the watch face. Choose from a wide array of colors to give you face a style that suits you.

Easy to learn how to read the time and impress your friends with your level of awesomeness.

There is a picture explaining how to read the time in the screenshots below.

NEW - Premium Features

- You can turn on a digital clock which can help you to learn how to read binary time.

- Better color choosers with a wider array of color choices.

- Change the layout from the default vertical layout to a horizontal layout.

- Change the background color to make your watch face even more your own.

Convergence Watch Face

Convergence is the first Wear watch face I've seen that takes advantage of the accelerometer. It has a material Design vibe to it with the floating circles, which actually move as you tilt your wrist. it goes static in sleep mode, though. The card issue is present here, but hopefully the dev gets that straightened out as soon as the API is done. Will it eat battery? Maybe.

Convergence is a Material themed watch face for your Android Wear device. Time elements move as you move... because they can.

Choose from 8 designer color pallets to customize the look to your mood, outfit, or just to appease the voices in your head.

Convergence goes into low power mode when your Wear device dims to maximize battery life. Low power mode drops to 2 color visuals (white on black) and disables animations and motion detection.

Install the app to the device (phone) that you have connected to your Android Wear device. Once installed, just long press on the watch face on your Wear device, then scroll over to select "Convergence" as your active watch face.

Chron Watchface

Chron looks like a nice watch face that I'd consider using as soon as the official API is ready to go. It's not really usable right now because you have to swipe away all your cards and have new ones hidden in sleep mode to read the time.

The perfect face for the perfect system. Customize your Android Wear watch face to

maintain control of your daily cycle while on (and off) the grid.

- Tells time (hour, second, and minute hands)

Wear Face Collection

Wear Face Collection is definitely an app to watch as soon as the API is done. It has a ton of custom watch faces, many of them free. It also doesn't clutter the Wear device with entries for everything. You can just push over the one you want to use. I'd probably hold off on buying a premium license until we know when Google's watch face API is going to happen.

A new collection of watch faces for Android Wear .

Design, classic, casual, the collection is growing everyday.

You MUST have one of the following watch :

- Samsung Galaxy Gear Live

- LG G Watch

After install on your phone, the app automatically installs itself on the watch.

Please activate it from the watch :

Long press on the clock, and select "wear face collection"

This app is freemium, but at least half of the faces are FREE.

NBaret Face Collection 2 Developer: nbaret
Price: Free
4.1
Download

Weather Wear Watch Face

And here's yet another watch face that I'll totally consider paying for once the API issue is sorted out. Weather Wear Watch Face crams a lot of data onto the screen, and does so without looking too cluttered. There are four different themes, plus extra features like a disconnect alarm and multiple vibration modes. The developer pledges to update the app as soon as the API is done.

By installing this you'll get the watchface on your wrist and a companion app on your mobile device which will let you configure the watchface in every part (Few of the options are only for PRO users).

Some of the options and features are:

  • 4 Different watchfaces to meet your taste
  • Battery Percentage indicator
  • 2 Weather providers (for now): Yahoo and OpenWeather
  • Ability to set the weather refresh interval
  • 3 Different watch vibration modes
  • Option to let your wrist vibrate every hour like a cuckoo clock
  • Option to let your wrist sligtly vibrate every time you receive a weather update
  • 24 and 12 hour format
  • Celsius and Fahreneit support
  • Phone disconnection vibration
  • and much more

Cards size issue

We're aware that notification cards are large in this watch face like other watch faces. Unfortunately, at this time, there's no way to choose the size of them. Once google releases the API we'll upgrade the app accordingly :)

Starwatch

Android Police coverage: [New App] Starwatch Brings Star Trek's Iconic LCARS Interface To The Android Wear Watch Face

I want so badly to have this on my wrist all the time, yet we'll have to wait on that API here too. The LCARS UI from Star Trek is lovingly reproduced by Starwatch, and it's free. Even if you're only vaguely familiar with Star Trek, you should read Michael's original post above – it's pretty great. Update: Bummer, looks like Starwatch was taken down because of a copyright claim. It still shows up for people who have previously downloaded it, though. (Thanks, Reboot)

...to boldly go where no watch has gone before!

This is a sci-fi watch face for your Android Wear.

-Pair your device with watch.

-Install the application

-Choose the watch face from your Android Wear watch.

Honorable Mentions

Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!

If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know.

Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below.

  • the app's launch date (or the date of Wear functionality update) has to be no longer than 2 weeks ago
  • it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop

Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire off an email to this address: oh.no.its.the@androidpolice.com.

1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details.