Wear OS opens up to third-party Tiles this spring

Google introduced Tiles in 2019 and it was basically the equivalent of widgets for smartwatches. Tiles were useful and let the users swipe left and right to quickly see updated information or have quick access to applications that supported Tiles. This was all good but Tiles were only available for Google’s own applications.

As of now, Google has announced the release of the Jetpack Tiles library which is letting third-party developers write their own Tiles for Wear OS. Tiles use cases include displaying activity tracking information, quick starting a workout, playing a recent media file, sending a message to a favorite contact, and more.

Brands like Huawei, Fossil, and TicWatch who have stuck with Wear OS are expected to take advantage of the possibility to have third-party Tiles. Tiles, as Google states, “have become one of the most helpful and useful features on Wear OS”.

The new Tiles library is in alpha test right now and is expected to be released this spring. It will be available to all smartwatches using Wear OS after Google incorporates it in its planned platform update.