What you need to know
- Third-party Android developers will soon be able to create custom Tiles for their Wear OS apps.
- A new "Tiles API" commit has been posted to the Android Open Source Project.
- Currently, Tiles are limited to Google's own Wear OS apps.
In May 2019, Google finally added widget-like "Tiles" to Wear OS. Unfortunately, however, Google still hasn't added support for custom third-party Tiles to its wearable platform. Thankfully, it now looks like this could finally change later this year.
The folks over at 9to5Google have spotted a code change that was recently posted to the Android Open Source Project, which confirms Google is working on a "Wear Tiles API." As the name clearly implies, the "Wear Tiles API" will make it possible for Wear OS developers to create custom Tiles for their apps.
The code contains several references to "androidx," which suggests Google plans to add the ability to create custom Tiles as an update to Android Jetpack's Wear Library. What remains to be seen, however, is how long it will take for Google to release the update. The new Tiles API entered the review process just a few weeks back, so it is likely that Wear OS developers will have to wait a few more months to start creating their own Tiles.
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