Again we are overflowing with Android Wear apps—both the kind built entirely for Wear, and other apps that have embraced Google's approach to smart watches. So naturally, here we are to bring you the best selections that have popped up in the last week. Strap on your watch and get ready to check out some apps. Alternatively, if you don't have an Android Wear watch, please draw a watch on your wrist with a marker and follow along.

Wear Apps

Tockle

Android Police coverage: Tockle Is Essentially Tasker With Android Wear Support, And It's Now Out Of Beta

Tasker allows you to automate just about anything on Android, but it's a little complicated. Some people are crazy into Tasker, but I'm not really one of those people. If you are, then Tockle is probably a thing you should use. This app includes a few automation options that can be managed from a Wear device, but it can also pull in Tasker profiles so you can trigger almost anything from Wear .

Control your phone from Android Wear.

Tockle enables control of your phone from your wrist. Toggle WiFi and other system settings, send an SMS message, and even activate Tasker tasks with a simple tap.

- Profiles for contextual ActionSets based on time, battery, Wifi, etc.

- ActionSets made up of built in Actions to modify WiFi, Bluetooth, and other settings as well as run Tasker tasks

- Run any ActionSet from the Wear device with "Okay Google, start action set"

- Import Tasker tasks with ease

- Internet - Google Analytics (no personal information is ever uploaded, see our Privacy Policy for details)

- SMS - send SMS messages when SMS Action is used

- Boot - run application on boot if enabled (disabled by default)

- Contacts - allow for quick contact picking for SMS and Email Actions

- Various Settings - Modify WiFi, Bluetooth, and other settings when the respective Action is run

Attopedia for Android Wear

Android Police coverage: [New App] Attopedia Is A Surprisingly Good Way To Browse Wikipedia On Android Wear

There are many, many apps that are trying to use Android Wear in a way Google didn't intend, sometimes with bizarre and gross results. You would think Wikipedia on the watch would be one of those, but Attopedia is actually quite nice. You can search by voice, open articles by section, and scroll around to read.

For Android Wear devices ONLY.

This is a free, open-source application for browsing Wikipedia content in an effort to make the world's information more accessible from smart watches.

Currently supports English only. Support for other languages will come in future releases.

Android Wear Rebooter

This is the first root-only app I recall seeing for Android Wear, but it's not hard to root the two devices we currently have. This app is a lot like reboot managers for regular Android devices—it lets you reboot, reboot into recovery, reboot into bootloader, and shut down all from one menu. There are no tools to manage root access yet, so be careful if you decide to give Android Wear Rebooter a shot.

This app gives reboot options for Android Wear devices (mainly the watches at the moment).

This app requires root.!.

Currently supported devices:

*LG G Watch

*Samsung Gear Live

*Should work on the Moto 360 (when released).

The app gives the following reboot options:

*Reboot to recovery

*Reboot to bootloader

WearSquare

So you're out and about, so why not check into Foursquare? Ah, but your phone is in your pocket and someone is talking to you. Taking out your phone is rude, but surreptitiously tapping at your watch? Genius. WearSquare can be used to explore nearby locations and check-in all from your wrist. You can also start navigation to a nearby location from the watch app.

Lightning fast check-ins and exploring on Foursquare (Swarm) from your watch.

OK Google, start check in lets you check in when you want to

OK Google, start exploring shows nearby venues with photos and the best tip. You can navigate to the venue, check-in or open venue detail on your phone.

(It's even easier to launch it from Wear Mini Launcher)

Report issues and feature requests here:

https://github.com/destil/wearsquare/issues

This app is open-source:

https://github.com/destil/wearsquare

Wear Quick SMS

Hangouts already has support for SMS on Wear with a few canned responses, but you can't edit them at all. Wear Quick SMS augments your SMS sending on the watch with custom messages on a per-contact basis. Neat.

Select contacts and messages on your phone and quickly send them from your watch.

Start by opening the app on your phone and select the contacts you want to be able to send to.

The go to the message tab and select and create the messages that you want to be able to send.

That's all for setup.

Now launch the app on your Android Wear devices and send some SMS messages.

- The SMS messages will be sent from your phone to the numbers of your contact.

- This is a early version of the app, everything might not work perfectly. Please send me an e-mail if you are having any problems.

Apps With Wear Support

Facebook Messenger

Android Police coverage: Facebook Messenger Updated With Android Wear Support

I'm actually quite surprised that Facebook Messenger added improved support for Android Wear—it's not usually the first company to take advantage of new Android features. Seriously, have you seen the main Facebook app? The updated Messenger will let you respond via voice, and the new notification buttons for thumbs up and reply will come over to the watch.

Instantly reach the people in your life—for free. Messenger is just like texting, but you don't have to pay for every message (it works with your data plan).

Not just for Facebook friends: Message people in your phone book and just enter a phone number to add a new contact.

Group chats: Create groups for the people you message most. Name them, set group photos and keep them all in one place.

Photos and videos: Shoot videos and snap selfies or other photos right from the app and send them with one tap.

Chat heads: Keep the conversation going while you use other apps.

Free calls: Talk as long as you want, even with people in other countries. (Calls are free over Wi-Fi. Otherwise, standard data charges apply.)

Even more ways to message:

Bring your conversations to life with stickers.

Preview your gallery photos and videos without leaving the conversation--then choose the perfect ones to send.

Record voice messages when you have more to say.

Know when people have seen your messages.

Forward messages or photos to people who weren't in the conversation.

Search for people and groups to quickly get back to them.

Turn on location to let people know when you're nearby.

See who's available on Messenger and who's active on Facebook.

Create shortcuts to get to any conversation right from your home screen.

Turn off notifications when you're working, sleeping or just need a break.

Stay logged in so you never miss a message.

Messenger Developer: Meta Platforms, Inc.
Price: Free
4
Download

Emergency Panic Button (SOS)

When things go wrong what do you do? Yeah, panic. Or alternatively, let a button do the panicking for you. Emergency Panic Button creates a widget that can be used to send an SMS, email, or call to one of your contacts to let them know you need rescuing. It also has an Android Wear app, but launching apps is still not great on Wear. You might not have the time, so then you can panic.

The Emergency Panic Button is an app that must be pre-installed on all Android devices.

Improve your own safety by installing our emergency alert button and let everybody know you are in trouble by letting the app send a short alert notification to your friends or family via email or SMS/text message and calling a number with a simple push of the power or soft widget button.

If you care for the safety of your family members, loved ones, let them know about this App. Are you a lone worker or working somewhere outdoors? You also need this App.

Make sure to watch the embedded youtube video for proper way of invoking the emergency.

Here is a short user review explaining some of the main features:

[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-SlhF-3VzA[/EMBED_YT]

Features at a glance:

✔ Android wear support (one button click required) - the only Emergency app with Wear support.

✔ Set up a list of contacts (phone numbers or emails) and every time you are in need of assistance (being attacked, robbed, lost or having health problems) you can issue an emergency call by a combination of presses on the power/sleep button (fast presses within 2 seconds to avoid false alarms.) OR with a Home Screen or Lock Screen Widget (same number of fast presses for safety reasons).

✔ Current location (either GPS, Coarse or both) and predefined message will be sent to your selected contacts as SMS and or Email.

✔ A contact person set up by you will also be called

✔ Home Screen and Lock Screen Widget

✔ Use the sms contact feature to post on Twitter and Facebook when you are in trouble via their post from sms features.

✔ Set up a trusted list numbers and everybody in that list (or everybody knowing the SMS command if you choose to do so) can send SMS commands to the phone if they suspect that something wrong is happening to you, even if no emergency has been triggered.

✔ Receive one time location updates or start automatic locations predefined by the device holder in the App's settings

✔ Password protection, both for the app itself or for the SMS commands.

✔ Auto enabling GPS. The app will try to auto enable the GPS chip even if disabled in Android settings to get the best current position (works on almost any Android device, but might not work on some.)

✔ Stealth mode - Choose to have a notification icon in a case of emergency or disable it and run the emergency in stealth mode, so that potential abusers would not suspect anything.

The Traveler

The idea behind The Traveler is that you can track all the specifics of a trip in one app and then view it later. It tracks where you are, pulls in location data, and can account for stops and points of interest that you enter. The Android Wear integration lets you add recordings and create new trip markers without touching the phone app.

Created at Ball State University, Traveler is a trip journal and digital sketchbook, designed for anyone who travels and wants to capture the experience in one seamless package.

The app is available for Android phones and tablets running Android 4.0 or above, with additional capabilities included for the Samsung Galaxy Note device line‐up.

Traveler features the integration of captured photos, short videos, drawn sketches, recorded audio files, quick location markers, and GPS tracking into a package that allows the user to organize information and media in an efficient and travel‐friendly interface. With Google Maps built into the app, users can retrace their steps, noting the locations where photos and other media assets were collected and the path traveled along the way. For an immersive, virtual experience with contextual 3D buildings, the path can be "played" back in Google Earth on the device.

For Samsung Galaxy Note devices, Traveler includes support for the S Pen to provide a sketching and drawing canvas for digital sketchbook capabilities.

* Capture photos, videos and audio on your trip and a marker will be added to the map where they were created;

* Record your path and replay using Google Earth;

* Send your paths to Google using Google Docs, Maps or Spreadsheets;

* Share media with friends and family using your favorite social media apps;

* Work offline to record your trips no matter where your travels take you;

* Start, pause or stop a new recording, or add a marker from Android Wear;

* Capture photos with Google Glass and share with your trip;

* Sketch and draw with a variety of brushes, tools and colors using the S Pen.

Text Me! Free Texting & Call

Text Me offers free SMS (not IM) messaging through its app in a few dozen countries. There are also free calls available in a subset of those. There is a standard Android app, but now it also has Wear support. You'll see call notifications and be able to view messages, then reply to them directly from your wrist.

Free Texting (real SMS messages) to any Phone number in the United States, Canada and 40 countries.

Free HD Voice and Video Calls between Android and other platforms

Turn your Android Tablet into a Phone.

TextMe is a cross-platform messaging application that allows you to send text messages (real sms) to any phone number in United States, Canada, Mexico and 100 countries in the World for FREE. Also, if your friends install the app as well, you will be able to do a lot more with them, including FREE CALLS and FREE VIDEO CALLS between Android and other platforms. So Sign up, share TextMe with your friends and start a call or a video chat for free. Of course, you can also text them for free.

What makes TextMe different? With TextMe you and your friends can:

- Send Texts (real SMS messages) to any number in the United States, Canada, Mexico and more than 40 countries worldwide FOR FREE from your Android Phone or Android Tablet

- Send Texts (real SMS messages) to more than 100 countries using your credits.

- Enjoy Free HD Voice and Video Calls to other TextMe users

- Watch videos to earn free calling minutes to any phone number in the United States , Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, China, Pakistan, Philippines, India, France, Germany, UK, Turkey and many others (1)

- Get your own TextMe phone number, receive and send SMS messages from your TextMe number and place and receive calls from your TextMe phone number

- Easily find your Facebook friends on TextMe and Chat, Call and Video Chat with them for free

- Send and Receive large pictures & videos from Android to any device

- Send your Dropbox photos and videos via sms directly from TextMe

- Super easy video messaging

- Enjoy group texting features with text, photos and videos

- Earn free rewards just by using the application (Pocket Change)

- Get notified when your message is delivered and read by your friend

- Receive your TextMe messages on Google Glass and Pebble watch

- Full Android Wear support, get your messages & reply to them directly from your wrist. Control your calls & see your balance on your Android Wear device. Simply go the the Wearable section in the "preferences" screen to enable Android Wear support .

- Login with Google +

Other goodies that come with TextMe:

- Overall speed and performance of the app

- Super simple sign up

- Push Notifications for new messages: never miss an important text.

- Free Voice messages

Contractions

There's not much to say about this app—it has something to do with human reproduction. Giving birth seems like an odd time to be fiddling with a phone, so maybe the new Wear support in this contraction tracking app is a good thing. Or maybe it's really lame. I really don't know as the owner of neither a uterus nor a child.

When you start having contractions, this is the app you need to have.

Contractions is the easiest, simple to use, most beautiful app for recording your contractions, their length, and even intensity. The last thing you want to worry about when you start having contractions is how to measure them for when you should go to the hospital.

Contractions is the first Wear compatible app for recording contractions. You can record everything right from your watch, without even taking your phone out of your pocket.

Whatsapp beta

Android Police coverage: WhatsApp Beta Update Adds Android Wear Support With Voice Replies

The beta version of Whatsapp has Wear support now, which will make a large number of people very happy. This app has almost 1 billion downloads in the Play Store, but you have to go through the Whatsapp site to install the app right now. That's just how the company tests betas. The Android Wear support includes stacked notifications and voice replies.

Included in v2.11.318:

  • Complete message preview: instead of seeing a truncated notification, you now get the entire message displayed on your watch. It even shows you the individual sender's name in a group conversation.
  • Stacked notifications: if you get several WhatsApp messages, you will be able to expand them and read each one separately.
  • Voice replies: by swiping, you get the option to dictate a reply to the message thread.

Get the beta from here, or use the widget below for the stable release.

WhatsApp Messenger Developer: WhatsApp LLC
Price: Free
4.2
Download

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.

Chrono Watch Face for Wear

Chrono Watch Face looks like it would be great on a round watch, but even on a square one it seems pretty good. It has a clean design with customizable colors and comes with optimizations for AMOLED screens. It will still suffer from the lack of a proper API, but what else is new?

Chrono Watch Face for Android Wear has a clean and simple design while offering useful information at a glance.

- Battery levels of phone and wear

- Date and Weekday

- 12-hour mode supported (AM/PM)

- Smart 24-hour display

- Explicitly crafted to prevent battery drain

- Optimized to prevent screen burn-in

- Samsung Gear Live monochrome mode

- Customization options (setup on-the-fly)

- Alternative watch face styles (more to come)

Chrono Watch Face for Wear Developer: Codejugglers
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Terminal Watch Face

Android Police coverage: Terminal Watch Face Is The Android Wear App Your Inner Geek Was Clamoring For

Let your nerd flag fly with this watch face. This terminal-style watch face shows the date and time as a retro green-on-black command line read out. A quick tap "re-enters" the date command and spits out the requested data. As a bonus, it stays up at the top and avoids the card issue altogether.

A Terminal-themed watch face for your Android Wear device.

- Animated terminal simulation

- 12/24-hour format support

- Compatible with all Android Wear devices.

- Hidden handheld app

- More watch faces coming soon. Stay tuned.

After install, please resync apps in the Android Wear app. It

may take a few seconds before the watch face appears.

Nexus Watch Face

And here we have another nifty watch face from the same developer of the terminal one above (there are actually a few from NetGeek on the list). This one celebrates all that is Nexus with a simple round clock with Nexus colors.

A Nexus-themed watch face for your Android Wear device.

- Compatible with all Android Wear devices.

- Hidden handheld app

- More watch faces coming soon. Stay tuned.

After install, please resync apps in the Android Wear app. It

may take a few seconds before the watch face appears.

Omnitrix Watch Face

Another watch face from NetGeek. This one is apparently a homage to the Omnitrix from a show called Ben 10. This is not something I have ever heard of, but a quick Google search confirms that this is a reasonable approximation of the design.

A Ben 10 Omnitrix-themed watch face for your Android Wear device.

- Animated Omnitrix Simulation

- 12/24-hour format support

- Compatible with all Android Wear devices.

- Hidden handheld app

- More watch faces coming soon. Stay tuned.

After install, please resync apps in the Android Wear app. It

may take a few seconds before the watch face appears.

Woto Watch Face

You know that watch face that shows up in all the Moto 360 renders? This is basically a copy of that for your square watch. It'll probably work fine on a round watch too, but the Moto 360 will have the real deal. Maybe this will help you forget about those corners a little bit in the meantime.

A Moto 360-themed watch face for any Android Wear device.

- Compatible with all Android Wear devices.

- Hidden handheld app

- More watch faces coming soon. Stay tuned.

After install, please resync apps in the Android Wear app. It

may take a few seconds before the watch face appears.

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.