Posted by John Zoeller – Developer Relations Engineer, and Caroline Vander Wilt – Group Product Supervisor
New Put on OS options allow ‘standalone’ watches for teenagers, unlocking new potentialities for Put on OS app builders
In collaboration with Samsung, Put on OS is introducing Galaxy Look ahead to Children, a brand new children expertise enabling children to discover whereas staying related with their households from their smartwatch, no cellphone mandatory. This launch unlocks new alternatives for Put on OS builders to succeed in youthful audiences.
Galaxy Look ahead to Children is rolling out to Galaxy Watch7 LTE fashions , with options together with:
- No cellphone possession required: This expertise permits the watch and its related apps to function on a totally standalone foundation utilizing LTE, and when accessible, Wifi connectivity. This contains calling, texting, video games, and extra.
- Collection of kid-friendly apps: From gaming to well being, children can browse and request installs of Instructor Accepted apps and watch faces onGoogle Play. Along with approving and blocking apps, mother and father can even monitor app utilization from Google Household Hyperlink.
- Keep in contact with parent-managed contacts: Mother and father can guarantee safer communications by limiting textual content and calling to authorized contacts.
- Location sharing: Affords peace of thoughts with location sharing and geofencing notifications when children depart or arrive at designated areas.
- Faculty time: Limits watch performance throughout scheduled hours of the day, so children can focus whereas in class or learning.
Constructing children experiences with standalone performance lets you attain each standalone and tethered watches for teenagers. Apps like Math Tango have already created nice Put on OS experiences for teenagers. Take a look at the video beneath to learn the way they constructed a wealthy and fascinating Put on OS app.
Our new kids-focused design and content material rules and developer steering are additionally accessible at present. Take a look at among the highlights within the subsequent part.
New rules and tips for growth
We have created new design rules and tips to assist builders reap the benefits of this chance to construct and enhance apps and watch faces for teenagers.
Design precept: Lively and enjoyable
Construct partaking wholesome experiences for youngsters by together with activity-based options.
An excellent instance of that is the Odd Squad Time Unit app from PBS KIDS that encourages youngsters to stand up and be bodily energetic. Through the use of the on-device sensors and power-efficient platform APIs, the app is ready to present a enjoyable expertise all day and nonetheless keep battery lifetime of the watch from wakeup to mattress time.
Observe that whereas experiences needs to be catered to children, they have to additionally observe the Put on OS high quality necessities associated to the visible expertise of your app, particularly when crafting contact targets and font sizes.
Content material precept: Thoughtfully crafted
Think about adjusting your content material to make it not solely applicable, but additionally consumable and intuitive for youthful children (together with these as younger as 6). This contains each audio and visible app parts.
Tinkercast’s Two Whats?! And a Wow! app makes use of age-appropriate vocabulary and enjoyable characters to assist of their educating. It’s a fantastic instance of how a developer ought to account for studying comprehension.
Improvement tips
New Put on OS children apps should adhere to the Put on OS app high quality tips, the rules for standalone apps, and the brand new Children growth information.
Decrease influence on gadget battery
Decrease occasions that have an effect on battery life over the course of 1 session. Children use watches that present essential security options for his or her mother and father or guardians, which depend upon the gadget having sufficient battery life. Under are greatest practices for lowering battery influence.
✅ DO design for offline use circumstances so that youngsters can play with out incurring network-related battery prices
Select a growth surroundings
To develop kid-friendly apps and video games you should use Compose for Put on OS, our advisable method for constructing UI for Put on OS, in addition to Unity for Android.
We suggest Unity for creating video games on Put on OS when you’re acquainted and comfy with its workflows and capabilities. Nevertheless, for video games with only some animations, Compose Animation needs to be ample and is best supported inside the Android surroundings.
Make sure you think about that some Put on OS high quality necessities might require customized Unity implementations, similar to help for Rotary Enter.
Originator’s MathTango showcases the flexibleness and richness of creating with Unity:
Creating Watch Faces
Creating watch faces for teenagers requires using Watch Face Format. Watch faces ought to adhere to our content material and design rules talked about above, in addition to our high quality requirements, together with our ambient mode requirement.
The next examples show our Content material Precept: Interesting. The content material is related, partaking, and enjoyable for teenagers, sparking their curiosity and creativeness.
The Crayola Pets Watch Face comes with a fantastic number of customization choices, and demonstrates an informative and nice watch face:
The Marvel Watch Faces (Captain America proven) present a enjoyable and helpful step monitoring function:
Children expertise publishing necessities
Builders trying to get began on a brand new children expertise might want to preserve a couple of issues in thoughts when publishing on the Play Retailer.
- Age and Content material Ranking: Children apps needs to be configured within the Play Retailer to fulfill the age and content material necessities applicable to their performance
- Utilizing Watch Face Format: Solely watch faces that are constructed with Watch Face Format will likely be made accessible for teenagers
Broaden your attain with Put on OS
Prepare to succeed in a brand new era of Put on OS customers! We have created all-new tips that can assist you construct partaking experiences for teenagers. Right here’s a fast recap:
- Give attention to enrichment and age-tailoring
- Ensure it really works with Standalone, and keep watch over the battery
With the Put on for Children expertise, builders can attain a completely new viewers of customers and be a part of the following era of studying and enrichment on Put on OS.
Take a look at all the new experiences on the Play Retailer!
