docs/html/wear/preview/features/app-distribution.jd

page.title=App Distribution
meta.keywords="wear-preview"
page.tags="wear-preview"
page.image=images/cards/card-n-sdk_2x.png
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">

<h2>In this document</h2>

  <ul>
    <li><a href="#publish">Publish Your APKs</a></li>
    <li><a href="#targeting">Setting Up Targeting for a Watch</a></li>
    <li><a href="#console">Using the Play Developer Console</a></li>
  </ul>

</div>
</div>

    <p>
      With Android Wear 2.0, a user can visit the Play Store on a watch and
      download a Wear app directly to the watch.
    </p>

    <p>
      Generally, a Wear 2.0 app in the Play Store needs
      a minimum and target API level of 24 or higher in
      the Android manifest file. The minimum SDK level can be 23
      only if you are using the same APK
      for Wear 1.0 and 2.0 (and thus have an embedded Wear 1.0 APK).
    </p>

    <h2 id="publish">
      Publish Your APKs
    </h2>

    <p>
      To make your app appear in the on-watch Play Store, upload
      the watch APK in the Play Developer Console just as you would any other
      APK. If you only have a watch APK and no phone APK, no other steps
      are required.
    </p>

    <p>
      If you have a phone APK in addition to a watch APK, you must use the
      <a href="https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multiple-apks.html">Multi-APK delivery method</a>.
    </p>

    <p>
      <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/training/permissions/requesting.html">Run-time
      permissions</a> are required.
    </p>

    <p>
      Also see
      <a href="{@docRoot}wear/preview/features/standalone-apps.html">
      Standalone Apps</a>.
    </p>

    <h3>
      Distribution to Wear 2.0 watches
    </h3>

    <p>
      If you only want your app to be distributed to Wear 2.0 watches,
      it is unnecessary to embed the watch APK inside the the phone APK.
    </p>

    <p>
      If you want your app to
      be distributed to Wear 1.0 watches, you need to embed the
      watch APK inside the phone APK, as described directly below.
    </p>

    <h3>
      Distribution to Wear 1.0 and 2.0 watches
    </h3>

    <p>
      If you are already distributing your app to Wear 1.0 watches,
      follow these steps:
    </p>

    <ol>
      <li>Provide a Wear 2.0 (standalone) version of your watch APK that can be made
      available in the Play Store on Wear.
      </li>

      <li>Continue embedding a Wear 1.0 APK in your phone APK,
      for use by watches that do not have Wear 2.0.
      </li>
    </ol>

    <h3>
      Specifying a version code
    </h3>

    <p>
      To ensure that a standalone APK acts as an upgrade to an embedded Wear APK, the
      standalone Wear APK's <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multiple-apks.html#VersionCodes">
      version code</a> generally should be higher than the embedded Wear APK's version code.
      (A phone APK's version code scheme can be independent from that of a watch
      APK, although they must be unique.) However, the version codes
      of the standalone APK and the embedded Wear APK can be the same if
      the APKs are equivalent. If the APKs are not equivalent,
      but the version code is the same, then when a watch updates from Wear 1.0
      to 2.0, the watch may get the new APK only after waiting for a
      longer-than-expected period of time.
    </p>

    <p>
      Note that it currently is not possible to create a single APK that works
      on a phone and watch.
    </p>

    <h3>
      Support in the Gradle file
    </h3>

    <p>
      If you have a Wear app that is intended for both Wear 1.0 and Wear 2.0,
      consider using <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/studio/build/build-variants.html#product-flavors">
      product flavors</a>. For example,
      if you want to target both SDK version 23 and version 24,
      update your Wear module's <code>build.gradle</code> file to include
      the following if an existing embedded app has a minimum SDK version of 23:
    </p>

<pre>
android {
    // Allows you to reference product flavors in your
    // phone module's build.gradle file
    publishNonDefault true
    ...
    defaultConfig
    {
       // This is the minSdkVersion of the Wear 1.0 embedded app
       minSdkVersion 23
       ...
    }
    buildTypes {...}
    productFlavors {
        wear1 {
          // Use the defaultConfig value
        }
        wear2 {
            minSdkVersion 24
        }
    }
}
</pre>

    <p>
      Then update your phone module’s <code>build.gradle</code> file, replacing
      <code>wearApp</code> as follows:
    </p>

<pre>
dependencies {
    ...
    wearApp project(path: ':wear', configuration: 'wear1Release')
}
</pre>

    <p>
      A <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/studio/build/build-variants.html#product-flavors">
      build variant</a> is a combination of the product flavor and build type.
      In Android Studio, select the appropriate build variant when
      debugging or publishing your app. For example, if <code>wear2</code> is a
      product flavor, select <strong>wear2Release</strong> as the
      release build variant.
    </p>

    <p>
      For purposes of code that is Wear 2.0-specific or Wear 1.0-specific,
      consider <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/studio/build/build-variants.html#sourcesets">
      source sets for build variants</a>.
    </p>


    <h2 id="targeting">
      Setting Up Targeting for a Watch
    </h2>

    <p>
      In your Android Manifest file, you must specify the following feature
      restriction: the <code>uses-feature</code> element is set to
      <code>android.hardware.type.watch</code>. Do not set
      the <code>required</code> attribute to <code>false</code>.
      A single APK for Wear and non-Wear devices presently is not supported.
    </p>

    <p>
      Thus, if an APK has the following setting, Google Play provides the APK
      to watches only:
    </p>

<pre>
&lt;manifest package=&quot;com.example.standalone&quot;
    xmlns:android=&quot;http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android&quot;&gt;
    &lt;uses-feature
        android:name=&quot;android.hardware.type.watch&quot;
    ...
&lt;/manifest&gt;
</pre>

    <p>
      The <code>android.hardware.type.watch</code> setting above can be
      combined with other criteria such as SDK version, screen resolution, and
      CPU architecture. Thus, different Wear APKs can target different hardware
      configurations.
    </p>

    <h2 id="console">
      Using the Play Developer Console
    </h2>

    <p>
      Below is an introduction to <a href=
      "https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/113469">uploading</a>
      a standalone Wear APK to an application listing using the Play Developer
      Console.
    </p>

    <p>
      If your app supports both Wear 1.0 and Wear 2.0, continue embedding the
      Wear 1.0 APK (minimum SDK version of 20, 21, or 22, or 23) in the phone
      APK and upload the phone APK. In addition, upload your standalone Wear
      2.0 APK (which has a minimum SDK version of 24).
    </p>

    <p>
      Also see <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multiple-apks.html">
      Multiple APK Support</a> and <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/developer-console.html#manage">
      Manage Your App</a>.
      Before uploading an APK as described below, the APK
      must be <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing.html#release-mode">
      signed</a>.
    </p>

     <h3  id="uploading-apk">
      Uploading your APK
    </h3>

    <p>
      Go to the <a href="https://play.google.com/apps/publish">Play Developer
      Console</a>, navigate to your application listing, and select
      <strong>APK</strong> in the left-navigation panel. An APK screen similar to
      the following is displayed:
    </p>
    <img src="../images/apk-tabs.png" width="" alt="alt_text">

    <p>
      You may need to use advanced mode for uploads, as follows:
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li>Advanced mode is unnecessary if you only have a Wear 2.0 app and no
      phone app. Instead of advanced mode, use simple mode.</li>

      <li>Use advanced mode if you support Wear 1.0 or have a phone app.</li>
    </ul>

    <p>
      Therefore, on the above APK screen, to determine whether to click
      the <strong>Switch to advanced mode</strong>
      button, consider the following:
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li>If your app does not support Wear 1.0, and only has a watch APK,
      upload it using simple mode.
      </li>

      <li>If your app does not support Wear 1.0 and has both a watch APK and a
      phone APK, click <strong>Switch to advanced mode</strong>
      to upload the watch and phone APKs.
      </li>
    </ul>

    <p>
      See <a href=
      "https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multiple-apks.html#SimpleAndAdvanced">
      Simple mode and advanced mode</a> for more information about toggling
      between modes.
    </p>

    <p>
      Select the appropriate tab (<strong>Production</strong>, <strong>Beta
      Testing</strong>, or <strong>Alpha Testing</strong>) for your upload.
      Then click
      the <strong>Upload New APK</strong> button and select your standalone
      Wear APK for upload.
    </p>

    <h3>
      Reviewing and publishing
    </h3>

    <p>
      After you upload your standalone Wear APK and scroll down the resulting
      page, the APK is shown in the <strong>Current APK</strong> table, with a
      version number, in a similar way to the following:
    </p>
    <img src="../images/current-apk.png" width="" alt="alt_text">

    <p>
      Finally, in the <strong>Current APK</strong> table above, click the line
      with the <strong>Version</strong> to review the APK. The <strong>APK
      Details</strong> panel is displayed. You can verify, for example, that
      the number in the <strong>Supported Android Devices</strong> line is far
      fewer than the number would be for a typical phone APK:
    </p>
    <img src="../images/apk-details.png" width="" alt="alt_text">

    <p>
      When you are ready, <a href=
      "https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334282">publish</a>
      your app.
    </p>