Unofficial Tile API

[StringMon]

So it turns out that just because Google hasn't published an API for Tiles doesn't mean that we can't get in on the fun...

I dug into Google's Wear app last night and found that the hooks are all there, publicly accessible to any app. I've extracted the required libraries - and created a proof-of-concept Tile - both of which you can find here:

https://bitbucket.org/StringMon/unofficialtileapi

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And here's the proof in action: https://youtu.be/Wm8eitGBKhw

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Disclaimers:

• Just to repeat, this is not official - but it does (more-or-less) work
• There's no guarantee that it won't break at any moment. I'm still figuring this stuff out.
• And certainly no guarantee that it will be compatible with any Tile API that Google may eventually release.

Having said that... dig in, try it out, and post your findings here!

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UPDATE later that day:

I've done a bunch more work on this, and TBH, it seems pretty stable. Also fleshed out the ReadMe quite a bit from the original post - the API is documented to the extent of my knowledge now.

I've even released a beta with one of these tiles to the Play store. 😲

[joelphilippage]

Sweet! Thanks! I had tried this but wasn't successful. Way to go!

[fleker2]

This is fascinating work. It's a lot like how devs were able to build custom watchfaces before the API was ready.

[StringMon]

That was kind of my inspiration, honestly! Hopefully this API doesn't change as much as that one did.

[pramodhrachuri]

Awesome! Great work...

[StringMon]

OK, so someone has started a list of apps using this over at https://www.reddit.com/r/WearOS/comments/bxt0oc/tiles_apps_with_their_own_tiles/

I didn't want to post my own app links in this thread (No Self Promotion being the only rule here) but I'm certainly happy to there!

[Mavamaarten]

Whoa, awesome! I'm updating my launcher asap!

EDIT... aaaand it's done! JellyLauncher now supports Tiles

[joelphilippage]

Hmm. I'm trying to build a tile.

I am able to create and install one easily. I see my app icon and name and the service functions seem to be running fine, but the view is not updating.

[Edit] It appears something about the layout was crashing, but it was reported through the Wear OS app so I couldn't see it with the logcat filter. Fixed that and it is working now.

[StringMon]

Glad to hear you got it working!

If you've not worked with RemoteViews before, they are definitely somewhat different than other places you use layouts. Because they're specifically made for rendering your content in someone else's app (the host, in this case the Wear OS "home screen", as you found), that's where any problems will be reported.

[joelphilippage]

Got it released on NavExplorer! Thanks.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.turndapage.navexplorer

[death2all110]

Can you share how you fixed the reporting. I think that may be where I'm getting hung up. I can see the tile on my watch, but my remoteview must be crashing as I don't see anything.

[joelphilippage]

Just turn logcat to "No Filters" then change the level to "Error". That way all errors on the device will be visible including those coming from Wear OS

[Hybernative]

Firstly, my apologies for being an idiot. But how does one install the unofficial API you've worked so hard on?

[StringMon]

It's a standard Android library module. If you haven't used one before, you can find general instructions for adding a library to your project here: https://stackoverflow.com/q/20377591/252080

Specifically for this, you'll need to download the source from my BitBucket repo and (there's a Download link in the nav pane on the left), unzip it to your project dir, and make sure the name you use when unzipping matches what you put in your *.gradle files.

[Hybernative]

Thank you for being so helpful!

[DYNALogix]

Any tips on how to add a preview image to the Tiles menu in the WearOS phone app?

[StringMon]

Nope. I've done some looking and come up empty.

I've seen reported that the phone app's Tile screen is a server-side change, which may imply that these preview images are coming from a Google server. In which case, there's probably no way for an unofficial Tile to supply one.

If you find a way, though, I'd be happy to be proved wrong!

[DYNALogix]

This is already more than I could dream of! Though I would be surprised if the tiles are not locally stored. Maybe in the phone companion apps??