bredlix/wf_companion_app

Sample companion app for you wear OS watch face

wf_companion_app

The main purpose of this app is to open your watch face’s Google Play Store page directly on the connected Wear OS smartwatch with a simple click.

Additional features:

• Opens your google developer's page to showcase other apps
• Directs users to review section of the watch face to rate it

Bonus: support of light/dark themes

You can freely use it to build and distribute your own companion apps.

NOTE:

• companion app's package should be the same as the watch face package
• all the steps bellow suppose the use of Project project view
• most of the changes are supposed to be done in the scr > main folder (app module)
• the build can be tested on the device either before step.2 or after step.4. simply File > Sync Project with Gradle Files
• everything is done in Android Studio v2023.2.1.25

1a. Clone the project directly in Android Studio

Open Android Studio and select Get from Version Control. Enter the URL of this GitHub repository and click Clone. The project will be downloaded and opened automatically in Android Studio.

OR

1b. Download zip and open with Android Studio locally

On the repository page click Code > Download ZIP. Extract content to the preferred folder. Open Android Studio and select Open an existing Android Studio project. Navigate to the directory where you extracted the project and open it.

2. Update the Gradle build file

Open the build.gradle.kts file in the app directory.

• Find the android block and change the namespace to your new package name.
• Find the defaultConfig block and change the applicationId to your new package name.

3. Change the Package Name

In the Project pane, go to the Options (3 dots) > Tree appearance > Compact Middle Packages and uncheck/de-select it. Your package directory will now be broken up into individual directories (com > android > wf_companion_app >...). Individually select each directory(android, wf_companion_app) and:

• Right-click it
• Select Refactor
• Click on Rename
• In the Pop-up dialog, click on All Directories
• Enter the new name and hit Refactor
• Allow a minute to let Android Studio update all changes.

Eventually you should have com.your_comany.your_app_name and the corresponding folder structure main > java > com > your_comany > your_app_name.

4. Update AndroidManifest.xml

Open the AndroidManifest.xml file. Find the <activity> tag and change the android:name attribute to com.your_comany.your_app_name.MainActivity.

5. Change app icon

Right-click the res folder and go to New > Image Asset. On the Foreground Layer tab, select the Asset Type to Image and browse to the new icon you want. On the Background Layer tab, select the Asset Type to Color and pick a color of your choice. Click Next > Finish and the icon should be changed.

6. Change watchface image

Go to res > drawable to find the wf_img.png. You can replace an existing image by right-clicking it and selecting Reveal in Finder (or Show in Explorer for Windows), then replace the file there with your new image (it should have the same name and format). If you want to add a new image, simply copy and paste your image file into the res/drawable directory. You can then use this image in your project by referencing it as @drawable/your_image_name.

7. Change app display name

Go to res > values to find strings.xml. Change name="app_name" entry to your desired app name.

8. Change google play developer ID

Go to res > values to find strings.xml. Change name="dev_id" entry to your google play developer ID (to open your dev page when user clicks 'more apps' button).

9. Change Privacy policy URL

Go to res > values to find strings.xml. Change name="policy_url" entry to your Privacy Policy URL.

10. Sync the project with gradle

After you've made these changes, be sure to sync your project with Gradle files. You can do this by clicking on File > Sync Project with Gradle Files.

11. Test the build

Run your project on the connected or emulated device to see the changes take effect.

12. Build apk/aab for upload

Click Build > Generate signed Bundle/APK.... Sign with the same keystore & alias used for the watch face build.