Android Wear "pseudo" hands-on experience

Google today unveiled the Android-based software platform for wearable devices-android Wear, a clarion call for a formal foray into the mass market. While working with a group of hardware manufacturers, Google certainly did not forget to woo Third-party developers for the Android "subsystem". Although the full SDK has not yet been released, we can first glimpse the Android Wear by Developer Preview for developers.

Card-type UI and Google now gene

The Android Wear interface continues the card style of Google now, and the card will dominate how the content is presented. Various applications are presented in the form of cards, limited by size, which provide only the most important and simplest information (basic, concise and highly correlated with the current situation), which is also the AI feature of Google now.

Different application cards are emitted in stacked form, and users can switch back and forth between different applications by vertical sliding. Horizontal sliding can be used to navigate within the application to obtain more detailed information, not only that, in some cases horizontal sliding is also a gesture of instructions. For example, after previewing the ticket information for San Francisco to New York, swipe right to exhale the check-in button.

This stack of cards is called the context Stream, which is the highest priority information the system considers. Depending on the scenario, the application can generate a card containing important information and join the content stream. Thanks to its rich sensors and powerful Android systems, Android Wear wants to be a personal assistant who can understand users and provide the most accurate information at the right time.

Google has split the Android Wear interface into suggest and demand's two main modules, suggest the above-mentioned content stream of various cards. Demand contains another card, the "Cue card," which we can call "action cards" for the time being, which provides a function like shortcut keys when the system is unable to predict the next behavior of the user. The Cue card can be activated by clicking on the "G" button on the homepage or by simply saying "OK Google".

Finally, there is a card that becomes the pages, which are added to the main card and are arranged on the right side of the homepage. For example, when my watch reminds me to have a picnic with a friend, the extra pages on the right will tell me what kind of food I should bring to the dinner. While there is no limit to the number of cards, there should not be more than three pages available in the case of an action button, and too much of the supplemental content violates the principle of "only the most important and simplest information".

Google encourages developers to add a background image to a variety of cards that can provide supplemental content, such as when the caller's avatar is in the background, and the background should provide a team logo.

The notification system based on Android

Android Wear takes full advantage of the Android platform's notification system, which, by default, will automatically appear in the former's content stream as a card when connected to an Android Wear wearable device. This greatly eliminates the burden on developers, and all they have to do is add some extra functionality, such as allowing the user to use a smart watch for voice input or UI changes.

Google strongly recommends that developers make notification information simple and efficient (Glanceable,zero/low consortium). The notification information appearing on the device should be able to present the most important content in the shortest space, while minimizing the number of user input.

Situational perception and artificial intelligence

With its rich sensors and powerful Android systems, Wear wants to be the user's Smart helper. Google wants wearable devices to proactively sense the current state of the user, providing the most reasonable and timely help, rather than requiring a "smart reminder" manually set by the user.

Moreover, as a personal assistant, wearable equipment should always be in the learning State, to understand the owner's preferences and habits. Only when necessary to intervene in user behavior, always provide the right answer at the first time.

Situational awareness and artificial intelligence are two principles Google has developed for Android Wear.