14 Best Android Wear Apps And Watch Faces From 8/23/14 – 9/8/14

The time has finally arrived for the Moto 360 to begin appearing on wrists around the world continental US. With so many people finally taking the Android Wear plunge, the interest in wearable apps is probably going to take off. Whether you’ve got corners on your watch or not, we’ve got the best new apps aggregated right here.

Wear Apps

Android Wear BeeLink

Android Police coverage: Top 5 Essential Android Wear Apps

Android Police coverage: Android Wear BeeLink Finally Lets You Pair Your Watch With A New Device Relatively Painlessly

Android Wear has a lot going for it, but the experience does still need some polishing. The majority of use cases are accounted for, but if you’re switching devices often, the watch probably won’t take kindly to that. That’s why BeeLink is so useful. It lets you scan for Bluetooth devices from the watch and initiate a connection manually. Then you sync your apps and all should be well.

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BeeLink is an Android Wear application that allows users to connect Android Wear devices to nearby Bluetooth devices. The application puts Wear in command, allowing users to connect/disconnect the Wear device to a tablet, phone or any other bluetooth device. Once paired to a device(s), other android wear applications operate normally with Wear.

Some of the features in the application:
– Search near-by Bluetooth devices
– Once devices are found, pair/unpair the Wear with other devices with a simple click
– The application also shows the Wear BT device name and its MAC address

Lockable

Android Police coverage: Top 5 Essential Android Wear Apps

Android Wear doesn’t a lock screen of its own, but Lockable does a fine job of fixing that. Simply install the app and your watch will ask for a swipe unlock before letting you do anything. A small in-app purchase unlocks options for pattern and PIN locks as well. The app is a lot more attractive than many of the alternatives, and it’s Moto 360-ready.

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Introducing Lockable
Lockable is a smart lock screen for Android Wear featuring Swipe, PIN and Pattern unlocks. Lockable features an easy-to-use user interface crafted with impeccable attention to detail, coupled with smart functionality that leaves a truly transparent footprint on your Android Wear experience. It adapts to both rectangular as well as circular screens.

Swipe gestures
Swipe down from the center of the top edge to instantly lock your wearable. You can even set it to automatically lock a certain duration after the screen dims. The background can be set to transparent as well, allowing you you view what’s underneath on the homescreen without needing to unlock.

Smart features
As the screen dims, the lock screen will disappear leaving the watchface plain to see. Upon interaction, the lock screen will fade back in allowing you to keep track of time while protecting the information on your wearable at the same time.

Lockable Pro for PIN and Pattern unlock
The PIN and Pattern unlock makes Lockable the optimal, secure, and configurable lock screen solution for Android Wear.

  

Heart Rate Training – wearable

Not all Wear devices have a heart rate sensor, but you might as well take advantage of it if there is one. Heart Rate Training lets you monitor your love muscle with color coding to help you keep it in the right BMP range. Battery life is sure to take a hit, but you can’t have everything.

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Android Police coverage: Heart Rate Training App Introduces A Way To Continuously Monitor Your Heart Rate With Android Wear

– Calculate your max heart rate (based on age, or override if you know it)
– Build your own workout on your phone, send it over to your Samsung androidwear watch – you can then leave your phone at home
– App uses the heart rate monitor from the watch and displays in green when you are in correct zone, orange if 1 zone off, or red otherwise
– Shows an ongoing notification when running, so you can still use other functionality on the watch – e.g. change music track

WearResponses

There are a few canned responses for messaging on Android Wear, but you can’t configure any of them. Unless you can talk to the watch, or condense your thoughts into things like yes, no, :), and hehe, you’re out of luck. Well, unless you’re rooted and don’t mind installing Xposed. WearResponses lets you create up to three more canned responses on the phone and push them over for free. The paid version of WearResponses allows unlimited responses. However, don’t be surprised if a future Wear update breaks this.

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** XPOSED MODULE is used to append responses to the existing SMS notification on Android Wear **

** Supported apps for Xposed module are AOSP Messaging, 8SMS, Hangouts (SMS), and EvolveSMS **

WearResponses allows you to respond to SMS messages on your Android Wear device, with the responses of your choice. No longer be limited to the few responses that Hangouts provides you; reply with whatever you do on a regular basis, thus allowing you to get back to your life and enjoy every minute of it.

** Free version is limited to three (3) canned responses **

With the purchase of the Unlocker, you gain access to the following:

* Unlimited canned responses
* Create a new canned response directly from your Android Wear device
* Send an SMS to any contact on phone, with any of your canned responses; all without saying a word.

Wear App Manager

Some of the apps on your phone have Wear modules, but which ones? And what the heck do they do? Wear App Manager lists them all in one handy place. This is useful in particular because some wear apps don’t even have entries in the Android app drawer. Wear App Manager is still in development and is missing a few features—namely all the “manager” parts. The developer plans to add sorting, batch uninstalling, and more at a later date.

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Wear App Manager runs on your phone but manages the apps you have installed on Android Wear. See all your Wear apps (and only your Wear apps) at a glance, and view more details about any of them. Easily uninstall ones you’re not using. WAM. and they’re gone.

No more hunting through all your phone applications to find the ones that are actually installed on your smartwatch. Wear App Manager puts you in control at last.

NOTE: In case you haven’t gathered by now, this app is only useful if you have an Android Wear smartwatch. Please don’t buy it if you don’t

This is Version 1 of WAM, and gets your foot in the door of managing your Wear apps at an introductory price. Many more features are coming soon… Currently in our plans:
• View apps sorted by name or install date
• Separate lists for apps and watch faces
• See what permissions each app is actually using on your Wear device
• See storage space available on-device
• And, how much storage each app is using
• Share apps with friends
• Uninstall multiple apps at once

SPS: Football wearable edition

Android Wear games have been few and far between, but some developers are still convinced people want to play games on their wrists. HandyGames even thinks you’ll pay for it. SPS: Football uses tilt controls to bounce a soccer ball in the air repeatedly. This does not sound comfortable or fun to me personally, but feel free to try it yourself.

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Kick-off: ‘Super Party Sports: Football’ is finally available for your Wearable.

Get ready for some freestyle football and keep the ball up in the air as long as possible to beat the high score. Just move your players easily via tilt control and let them collect as many coins as possible. Watch out for colorful power-up balloons to gain even more points with the help of additional players and balls.

But be aware: Boredom will have no chance against this exciting soccer game for your android wear device.

FEATURES

★ EXCITING COMBOS Combine tricks and power-ups to achieve the ultimate highscore.
★ GREAT POWER-UPS Get additional players and footballs with the help of funny power-up balloons.
★ VERY EASY AND INTUITIVE CONTROL Control your football players by arm movement and let them jump, run and head the ball.
★ OPTIMIZED FOR ANDROID WEAR Whether for SmartWatch or Wearable: ‘SPS: Football wearable edition’ is the perfect casual game for all Android Wear devices and gaming on the go.

So what are you waiting for? Take up the challenge and show everyone that you’re a real football champion.

Vimo Golf Swing Analyzer Wear

Android Police coverage: VimoGolf Uses Android Wear Watches To Track And Analyze Your Golf Swing

An Android Wear watch is basically an accelerometer on your wrist, so someone thought it might be fun to analyze a golf wing with it. Vimo Golf seems to work rather well, but it’s still a work in progress. It tells you how fast you’re swinging, the angle, and the angle of impact. More data is coming to the app with updates. Artem caused moderate damage to his garage testing this app, so you might as well take a look at it.

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For half the price of a bucket of driving-range balls, VimoGolf delivers a golf swing analyzer right on your wrist. Watch your golf swing at up to 200 samples per second, as captured by the built-in motion sensors of your Android Wear watch. There’s no extra hardware to buy and the introductory price is only guaranteed while we are in public beta (similar products sell for up to $150).

An Android Wear watch is required in order to capture your golf swing analysis.

VimoGolf Features:

– Find out your golf swing power and speed measured in MPH
– Visualize your golf swing form in 3D
– Rotate view in any direction to look at your golf swing from any angle
– Up to 200 samples/second (depending on your watch sensor) so that you can see details no human eye can capture
– A number of data reported including swing speed, tempo, swing plane, impact angle, and golf swing power. More data points are coming
– Swing data stored in the cloud so that you can revisit at any time
– No Internet connection required during swing. Your Android Wear golf swing analysis saved to cloud when the phone is connected to the Internet later.

This golf swing trainer tool is extremely helpful in visualizing your arm movement through the swing. For example, you can visualize how your arm cross over through the impact zone. Another use of the Android Wear golf swing reader, if you tend to cast early, you can visualize your arm pushing out and swinging outside in to compensate.

Advantages compared to other golf swing analyzers on the market:

– No hardware to buy, just use your Android Wear watch. Other analyzers cost $150+
– No calibration, no set up. Start the golf swing trainer app and play.
– No switching. No need to switch the sensor when you switch the golf club.
– No extra weight. Nothing is attached to the shaft, so your golf swing power and form are never affected. You can even use it on the golf course to capture your game swings.

Limitations: Because the sensor location is on your wrist, you will not see problems associated with your hand. For example, if you flip your hand or un-hinge too early, you will not be able to visualize the problem. However, a hand flip is usually a result of compensating for an early arm casting, so you can get a hint from your arm trajectory.

Android Wear Speed

This one’s simple—your watch displays your speed in mph, kph, and several other units. It uses GPS data from the phone to get the speed, then sends that over to Wear. This functionality will cost you a buck.

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Speed – Measure your Speed

Speed shows you current/max speed going down a mountain in powder, jumping off a cliff skydiving, out on the sea or just driving your car.

– Mph
– Km/h
– Knots
– m/s
– ft/s

Info:
Buying or using my apps guarantees support.

Note:
Works ONLY with Android Wear. More info: http://j.mp/WAfRHx

Start the the app in your Wear watch, enable GPS on your Mobile phone. Long press to get max speed, long press again to get current speed.

WearTasker for Android Wear

What red-blooded Android user doesn’t like Tasker? You’re not a real man (or lady) until you’ve created a Tasker profile from scratch. WearTask plugs into Tasker from your Android Wear device so you can run your Tasker tasks on the watch. Anything you can do with Tasker, you can activate from the watch.

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//* Tasker is Required to Function *\

Been looking for more to things to do from your Android Wear Watch? Look no further.
With WearTasker it is now possible to run any task you created with Tasker on your phone straight from your wrist using an Android Wear Watch.

Use the WearTasker UI on your phone to built a list of the tasks that you want to have available on your wrist. Once that’s done continue on your wrist, simply click the clock, scroll down to start, and start WearTasker.
That’s it. Now simply click a task and it will execute on your phone, enjoy.

Note: The free version allows you to configure up to three tasks, if you want to launch more tasks from you wrist you will automatically be prompted to purchase the pro version. The same goes for adding folders, this also requires a pro license.

– Tasker for Android Wear –

Apps With Wear Support

MacroDroid – Device Automation

MacroDroid is essentially an alternative to Tasker that aims to be a little easier to set up. You can use location, time, and a variety of other factors to trigger actions. It’s one of those “whatever you dream” sort of apps, and now your dreams can extend to your wrist with Android Wear support. You can use your watch’s connection status as a trigger and launch tasks from the watch’s version of MacroDroid.

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MacroDroid is a task automation and configuration app that focuses heavily on usability with a simple UI and logical step by step process.

A few examples of what MacroDroid can automate:

• Shake the device to upload the last photo to Facebook.
• Turn on Wifi or Data connection when you launch a particular app (and off again when closed).
• Respond to an incoming SMS by sending your current location.
• Toggle the power button to tell you the time (e.g. when its in your pocket).
• Use NFC tags to configure the device (turn on bluetooth, set volume etc).

Creating a custom Macro is easy:

• Click ‘Add Macro’
• Select a trigger from a list – (e.g. Battery Level).
• Configure any trigger specific settings – (e.g. Battery Level < 10%)
• Select an action from a list – (e.g Enable/Disable Wifi)
• Configure any action specific setting – (e.g. Disable Wifi)
• Add more actions as required (up to 10)
• Optionally select a constraint from a list – (e.g. Day of the Week)
• Configure constraint as required (e.g. Saturday and Sunday)
• Add more constraints as required (up to 10).
• Choose a name and category for the Macro.

 

Braci – Hearing Assistance

Many of the signals we rely on in our day to day life are audible. That’s a problem for those who are hard of hearing, but Braci is a neat little app that offers a work around. It records important sounds like a doorbell or fire alarm and lets you know when it hears them. This app has been updated to work with Android Wear so you can get notifications on your wrist at any time.

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Braci’s Hearing Assistant beta gives you the ability to record your environmental and home sounds to alert you in case of events which are important for you like fire alarms, doorbells, and more. Unlike other solutions with flashing lights and expensive hardware installations, Braci allows you to use the current building infrastructure and alarm systems installed and still be alerted to events even if you are unable to hear or see them. This can give you a sense of security and peace of mind. Braci Hearing Assistant beta is efficient when it comes to quick response, alert time, and is also very affordable (this version is free). It’s perfect for people who are hard-of-hearing, deaf, elderly, and for others too.

The app uses your smartphone or smart device/watch’s microphone to constantly listen to your environment when you activate “Detection Mode”.

Braci can be connected to smart watches such as the Pebble Watch or those on Android Wear. This easy-to-use app enables a fast way to be notified of all situations. The unique Braci platform is able to detect a broad range of sounds with it’s smart algorithm and alerts the user by vibrating their smartphone and smartwatch, flashing your mobile’s camera light, and showing an icon image of the current event on your smartphone and smart watch’s screen with a text note of the name of the event under the icon.

            

My Diabetes

My Diabetes does not give you diabetes, rather it helps those with the disease manage the myriad of tests, injections, and other treatments many of them have to endure. The app has just been updated with Wear support including some watch faces and screens with stats piped in from the app. It’s a lot more convenient than checking the app to remember when you have to poke this or inject that.

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Designed for smart phones and tablets this application is intended to help diabetics to manage better their diabetes and keep it under control. It helps diabetics to find trends in blood glucose levels and to calculate insulin dosage using its highly effective, top-notch bolus calculator. It helps to analyze the data from manually entered data from glucometers or imported data from Medtronic insulin pumps via Medtronic CareLink® software export.

───── MAIN FEATURES ─────
• Log Diary for glucose, insulin, injection sites, medications, carbohydrates, notes and time categories.
• Tracking and graphing weight, blood pressure, pulse, HbA1c, cholesterol, ketones and physical activities.
• Easy and fast data input for multiple entries at once.
• Allows entry of insulin units in decimals for the insulin pump users.
• Categorized food database with easy portion and quantity selection.
• Curvilinear tracking of the active insulin (Bolus on Board).
• Carbohydrates and insulin dose calculator.
• Extended bolus calculator mode for both multiple day injections and insulin pump users.
• Detailed history graph including insulin activity graphs.
• Detailed statistics charts.
• Sending the statistical report, log entries and the charts via e-mail.
• Easy set reminders according meal time for glucose check and log the entries.
• Analysis of Carbohydrates Ratio and Insulin Sensitivity per hour.
• Synchronization with Dropbox and Google Drive account. Useful for parents of children with diabetes.
• Comma separated Export and Import.
• Import from Medtronic CareLink®, Abbott CoPilot™, LifeScan OneTouch®, Nipro TRUEmanager™, Accu-Chek®, Tandem t:connect™, Bayer Glucofacts™ and OnTrack exported files.
• Backup and Restore of the entries database.
• Supports both international (mmo/L) and US (mg/dL) glucose units.
• Supports grams, bread units, 10g and 15g exchanges for carbohydrates units.
• Widget on the device home and lock screens.
• Support for Android Wear watches. BETA version – might not yet work properly.

Watch Faces

Watch Face – Modern Classics

If you’re going to use watch faces based on incomplete software hooks, it might as well look nice. Modern Classics looks nice, so give it a shot on your wrist. You’ll probably have cards obscuring the time, but such is life.

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Modern Classics watch face is true eye-candy on your smartwatch.

This watch face is a stylish interpretation of a classic watchface combined with modern functions of Android Wear.

Key custom features:

-Ultimate readability
-Clean and simplistic look
-Battery indicator
-Date information
-Weekday display

This watch face is for rectangular smartwatches such as the Samsung Gear Live and round watches such as the Moto 360.

Orbits Watchface for Moto 360

Many of the round watch faces in Google Play are a little gaudy and overwrought. The Orbits Watchface is a nice departure, though. Yes, these watch faces look neat, and yes they are intended for the new Moto 360. However, the watch face stuff still isn’t done in Wear. It might not work perfectly, but it looks really cool.

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This watchface is a true eyecatcher for your Andorid Wear device.

Although Orbits is clearly made for round smartwatches like the Moto 360 it also works great on rectangular smartwatches.

This wearface features a special dimmed mode in order to save precious battery.

For more watchfaces please visit our exclusive wearface collection for Android Wear on the Play Store http://goo.gl/QOsOu4.

Also please let us know if you like to have any other watch faces to be added to our selection of watch faces.

Made in Germany

 

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:[email protected].

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