What’s new in Put on OS 6

Posted by Chiara Chiappini – Developer Relations Engineer

This yr, we’re excited to introduce Put on OS 6: essentially the most power-efficient and expressive model of Put on OS but.

Put on OS 6 introduces the brand new design system we name Materials 3 Expressive. It contains a main refresh with visible and movement parts designed to provide customers an expertise with extra personalization. The brand new design presents a terrific degree of expression to satisfy consumer demand for experiences which are trendy, related, and distinct. Materials 3 Expressive is coming to Put on OS, Android, and all of your favourite Google apps on these units later this yr.

The excellent news is that you just don’t have to compromise battery for magnificence: because of Put on OS platform optimizations, watches updating from Put on OS 5 to Put on OS 6 can see as much as 10% enchancment in battery life.¹

Put on OS 6 developer preview

At the moment we’re releasing the Developer Preview of Put on OS 6, the following model of Google’s smartwatch platform, based mostly on Android 16.

Put on OS 6 brings quite a lot of developer-facing modifications, comparable to refining the always-on show expertise. Try what’s modified and attempt the brand new Put on OS 6 emulator to check your app for compatibility with the brand new platform model.

Materials 3 Expressive on Put on OS

Materials 3 Expressive for the watch is absolutely optimized for the spherical show. We suggest builders embrace the brand new design system of their apps and tiles. That will help you undertake Materials 3 Expressive in your app, we’ve begun releasing new design steering for Put on OS, together with corresponding Figma design kits.

As a developer, you may get entry the Materials 3 Expressive on Put on OS utilizing new Jetpack libraries:

These two libraries present implementations for the parts catalog that adheres to the Materials 3 Expressive design language.

Make it private with richer colour schemes utilizing themes

The Put on Compose Materials 3 and Put on Protolayout Materials 3 libraries present up to date and prolonged colour schemes, typography, and shapes to carry each depth and selection to your designs. Moreover, your tiles now align with the system font by default (on Put on OS 6+ units), providing a extra cohesive expertise on the watch.

Each libraries introduce dynamic colour theming, which robotically generates a colour theme to your app or tile to match the colours of the watch face of Pixel watches.

Make it extra glanceable with new tile parts

Tiles now assist a brand new framework and a set of parts that embrace the watch’s round kind issue. These parts make tiles extra constant and glanceable, so customers can extra simply take swift motion on the knowledge included in them.

We’ve launched a 3-slot tile structure to enhance visible consistency within the Tiles carousel. This structure features a title slot, a foremost content material slot, and a backside slot, designed to work throughout a variety of various display screen sizes:

Spotlight consumer actions and key info with parts optimized for spherical display screen

The brand new Put on OS Materials 3 parts robotically adapt to bigger display screen sizes, constructing on the Giant Show assist added as a part of Put on OS 5. Moreover, parts comparable to Buttons and Lists assist form morphing on apps.

The next sections spotlight a few of the most enjoyable modifications to those parts.

Embrace the spherical display screen with the Edge Hugging Button

We launched a brand new EdgeButton for apps and tiles with an iconic design sample that maximizes the area throughout the round kind issue, hugs the sting of the display screen, and is available in 4 normal sizes.

Fluid navigation by means of lists utilizing new indicators

The brand new TransformingLazyColumn from the Basis library makes expressive movement straightforward with movement that fluidly traces the sides of the show. Builders can customise the collapsing conduct of the listing when scrolling to the highest, backside and each side of the display screen. For instance, parts like Playing cards can scale down as they’re nearer to the highest of the display screen.

Materials 3 Expressive additionally features a ScrollIndicator that contains a new visible and movement design to make it simpler for customers to visualise their progress by means of a listing. The ScrollIndicator is displayed by default whenever you use a TransformingLazyColumn and ScreenScaffold.

Lastly, now you can use segments with the brand new ProgressIndicator, which is now out there as a full-screen element for apps and as a small-size element for each apps and tiles.

To be taught extra in regards to the new options and see the total listing of updates, see the discharge notes of the newest beta launch of the Put on Compose and Put on Protolayout libraries. Try the migration steering for apps and tiles on improve your present apps, or attempt one in every of our codelabs if you wish to begin growing utilizing Materials 3 Expressive design.

Watch Faces

With Put on OS 6 we’re launching updates for watch face builders:

• New choices for customizing the looks of your watch face utilizing model 4 of Watch Face Format, comparable to animated state transitions from ambient to interactive and photograph watch faces.
• A brand new API for constructing watch face marketplaces.

Study extra about what’s new in Watch Face updates.

Search for extra details about the final availability of Put on OS 6 later this yr.

Library updates

ProtoLayout

Since our final main launch, we have improved capabilities and the developer expertise of the Tiles and ProtoLayout libraries to handle suggestions we obtained from builders. A few of these enhancements embrace:

The instance beneath reveals show a structure with a textual content on a Tile utilizing new enhancements:

// returns a LayoutElement to be used in onTileRequest()
materialScope(context, requestParams.deviceConfiguration) {
    primaryLayout(
        mainSlot = {
            textual content(
                textual content = "Howdy, World!".layoutString,
                typography = BODY_LARGE,
            )
        }
    )
}

For extra info, see the migration directions.

Credential Supervisor for Put on OS

The CredentialManager API is now out there on Put on OS, beginning with Google Pixel Watch units operating Put on OS 5.1. It introduces passkeys to Put on OS with a platform-standard authentication UI that’s in step with the expertise on cellular.

The Credential Supervisor Jetpack library gives builders with a unified API that simplifies and centralizes their authentication implementation. Builders with an present implementation on one other kind issue can use the identical CredentialManager code, and a lot of the similar supporting code to meet their Put on OS authentication workflow.

Credential Supervisor gives integration factors for passkeys, passwords, and Check in With Google, whereas additionally permitting you to maintain your different authentication options as backups.

Customers will profit from a constant, platform-standard authentication UI; the introduction of passkeys and different passwordless authentication strategies, and the flexibility to authenticate with out their cellphone close by.

Try the Authentication on Put on OS steering to be taught extra.

Richer Put on Media Controls

Units that run Put on OS 5.1 or later assist enhanced media controls. Customers who take heed to media content material on telephones and watches can now profit from the next new media management options on their watch:

• They will fast-forward and rewind whereas listening to podcasts.
• They will entry the playlist and controls comparable to shuffle, like, and repeat by means of a brand new menu.

Builders with an present implementation of motion buttons and playlist can profit from this characteristic with out extra effort. Try how customers will get extra controls out of your media app on a Google Pixel Watch gadget.

Begin constructing for Put on OS 6 now

With these updates, there’s by no means been a greater time to develop an app on Put on OS. These technical sources are a terrific place to be taught extra get began:

Earlier this yr, we expanded our smartwatch choices with Galaxy Look ahead to Children, a novel, phone-free expertise designed particularly for kids. This launch offers households a brand new option to keep linked, permitting kids to discover Put on OS independently with a devoted smartwatch. Seek the advice of our developer steering to create a Put on OS app for teenagers.

We’re wanting ahead to seeing the experiences that you just construct on Put on OS!

Discover this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google beginning Could 22.

¹ Precise battery efficiency varies.