My Thoughts on Android Wear & Android Wear Support in Augmented SmartWatch Pro

Top 10 reasons to use Augmented for Android Wear http://bit.ly/1xDTRdX

Augmented SmartWatch Pro fills in some key gaps that Android Wear does not support out of the box. These Android Wear Gaps include:

• Vibration may not be enabled for real-time alerts for specific applications (like Skype) – Augmented allows you to vibrate on every notification from any app
• Companion Augmented Wear app provides additional features when combined with Augmented SmartWatch Pro
  • Full screen image alerts
  • Custom notifications for images and text (or text only alerts)
  • Alert on Wear when watch is disconnected from phone
  • “Closest” and “Auto-Tracking in your predicted direction of travel” of real-timeTraffic Camera image views
  • Intent API for Tasker/3rd party integration
  • 

• The contact image may not be displayed on the wear for some specific apps; Augmented will show images from any “sender” from any app
• There is no history of alerts on the Android Wear; Augmented provides a history of prior alerts (viewable on your Wear device)
• The ability to just raise your wrist and see the current temperature; or your next meeting; or the phone battery status;
• The ability to respond to SMS with pre-canned messages (instead of voice where voice is not convenient to use);
• Ability to trigger a Tasker Task from your android wear;
• Automatic Intelligent Quiet Time options to surpress alerts with High Priority Sender override
• Automatic reduction of vibration intensity when you are in a meeting (based on your calendar)
• Fitbit/Withings/Klout integration
• Stealth mode & Much more (Weather, hyper-location alerts)
• Augmented SmartWatch Pro provides all of the above – today on your Android Wear

Tips:

• You can suppress vibrations on your android device via the Android Wear app – settings – Silence connected phone – set to Alert of watch only
• Use the Increment or Simple watchface on the LG to get the optimized experience of Augmented (background image showing when waking up LG watch motion is detected)

Augmented provides for the following key “Added Value” User Experiences

New in Version 7.7.2/Augmented Wear 2.2

• Respects Mute setting on Wear (disabled by default)
• Tweak to custom action alert mode
• New option to show actions possible for last alert (if last alert had actions and you did not select any action) when tapping the icon on the Augmented Card on the Wear (default is enabled). When disabled it will show the weather (or if there were no actions for the last alert).

New in Version 7.6.9/Augmented Wear 2.1

• Augmented Wear 2.1
  • Intelligent Weather updates (if location name changes or temperature changes by +-5 degrees) – enabled by default
  • 
  • Can trigger weather info update as per above image by clicking on icon on notification card on wear. Can be disabled in Augmented Wear app settings – enabled by default. Will also show closest traffic camera image (if enabled)
  • Support for Actions using custom alert system on Android Wear
  • Option to disable actions from Wear during meetings (enabled by default)
  • Option to specify the # of times each action is shown for an alert – default is 3
  • Need to enable which apps to show actions during an alert (under all other notification in settings)
  • 
  • Tweaks to custom animation alert system

New in Version 7.6.8/Augmented Wear 2.0

• Pebble Canvas – Addition alerts history (if not using Fitbit)
• Sony SmartWatch 2 – transparent background for watch-face change
• Android Wear /Augmented Wear 2.0
  • custom animation tweaks to show sender name and subject over image
  • custom replay framework that can be access via and 3rd party app and used for SMS in Augmented SmartWatch
  • Example Tasker Task showing Custom Framework APIs
    • New Option in Augmented Wear settings to override Intent for response – default is Augmented SmartWatch Pro for SMS responses. You can set it with an Intent for your 3rd party app. Two parameters are returned sender (always augmentedresponse) and subject (the option selected by the user from their Android Wear)
    • Demo use case

New in Augmented SmartWatchPro 7.6.6/Augmented Wear 1.9

• Additional animations for Alerts (image and Text): Bounce, slide down, Zoom in and random

New in Augmented SmartWatch Pro 7.6.4/Augmented Wear 1.8

• • Augmented SmartWatch Pro – custom notification system updated to show animation at the start of alerts and in-between image and alert text transitions on Wear. Reminder to enable custom notification system in Augmented:

in augmented – augmented wear settings – enable “use text for alerts”

in android wear options – “enable optimize for sender pictures”

New in Augmented SmartWatch Pro 7.6.3/Augmented Wear 1.7

• Augmented SmartWatch Pro – Option to show battery drain alerts if Wear battery drain exceeds a user-configured threshold
• Option to disable showing automatically the battery drain info on the Wear device when Augmented Wear is opened on the Android (enabled by default)
• Option for a vibration-only mode (visual alert is not shown by Augmented). Meant for use cases where you want to keep the original visual alert but use Augmented for the vibrations (like Skype which has now vibration on the Wear). You should also disable the auto clear notification settings in Augmented. Disabled by default.

• New in Version 7.6.2

  • Bug fix for predicted travel (traffic cameras)
  • Option to disable disconnect message on Wear (only in Augmented SmartWatch Pro)
  • Augmented Wear 1.6
  • • Option to show a radar overlay for traffic cameras showing relative bearing/distance of traffic camera view relative to current location (disabled by default). Current direction is due north (Noon on watch).
  • 
    • Smart Haptics now works for custom alerts via Augmented Wear
    • Option (in Augmented SmartWatch) to disable showing weather condition in the sender field – this allows for some of the actual sender info to show in the watchface mode.
    • Show closest traffic cameras + manually selected cameras use the compass in radar mode to show the relative true direction of the location of the traffic camera. Auto tracking mode stills shows it relative to straight ahead (as it is your predicted direction).
    • Hourly Battery Drain info on Wear is shown.
      • Opening the Augmented Wear app on the Android will also trigger showing the battery drain info on your Wear

  

  New  in Version 7.6.1

  • Added several new Markham Traffic Cameras (please reload via menu->Initialize Traffic Cameras)
  • Added more support for Closest Traffic Cameras – disabled by default – need to enable in settings (Android Wear – Use Traffic Cameras)
  • Option to automatically reduce the vibration intensity for alerts to 1/3 the normal duration pulse if currently in a meeting marked as “busy” and it is NOT a high priority sender. Disabled by default must be enabled in settings.
  • Augmented Wear (Version 1.3)
    • Text alert on Android Wear when smartwatch is disconnected from Android Phone/Tablet
    • 
    • Can send a Text only alert to the Wear using Augmented Wear

    •         intent1.setAction(“com.alk.wear.action”);

              intent1.putExtra(“sender”, “showtext sender:sendertext:”); // use : to delimit sender text

              intent1.putExtra(“subject”, “subject text”);

    // other parameters are also valid color, size, vibration etc

  • Augmented SmartWatch Pro can also be configured to use the Augmented Wear Text alert (instead of the native Android notification system). This is disabled by default. This is also a bit faster.
  • Can provision text size for sender and subject on the Wear (settings in Augmented SmartWatch or can be set via Intent API)
    • senderTextSize:1: // 1-small; 2- medium; 3- large
    • subjectTextSize:1: // 1-small; 2- medium; 3- large
  • (requires Augmented SmartWatch Pro) On a closest traffic camera alert on your Wear you can touch/swipe on the traffic camera image on the wear to show up to 15 of the closest traffic cameras. Select any to see on your Wear:

  

  

  • Custom notification (which are shown by Augmented Wear/Augmented SmartWatch Pro) on Wear (for image/text alerts) now supports swiping left to see next meeting/weather info and swipe left again to see prior alerts (the same info as provided with the native alerts of Android Wear – which are used if the Augmented Wear app is not installed).

  • Can now trigger closest camera action directly from notification alert on your Android Wear. Tap on camera icon to trigger.

    • Weather Info is shown in the alert area (if enabled)

  

  

  • “Beta” Feature – meaning it may be disabled in a future update
    • Automatic showing of images from real-time traffic cameras when driving in the direction of your current direction (bearing)!
    • This will use GPS and must be used sparingly (for battery purposes)
    • Can trigger only if traffic cameras are enabled in Android Wear settings of augmented.
      • If you live in Toronto – you must also “Initialize Traffic Cameras” under Augmented->Menu
    • You must start by scrolling on the custom Augmented alert on the Android Wear until you see this action option
    • 
    • Auto tracking will stop as follows:
      • automatically after 5 minutes of no location movement (e.g. if you stop driving)
      • automatically (if not in Toronto) after a certain distance is travelled – due to API restrictions
      • Manually by using the action button (by scrolling again in the custom Augmented Alert notification on your Wear)
    • It will only show a camera view once (you can reset by selecting the traffic camera icon on the Augmented custom alert on your Wear)
    • It will show cameras images < 2 km/m in your predicted direction of travel

  New in 7.6

• • Augmented Wear (Version 1.2)
    • Optional sender/subject info for full screen Image alert. The alert will be shown in two parts: 1) full screen image for 10 seconds with 2 vibration pulses, and 2) the sender/subject text info for 5 seconds with 1 vibration pulse
      • sender info is specified as sender:message:
      • subject info is specified as subject:messageinfo:
      • Example:  intent1.putExtra(“sender”, “showimage sender:hello: subject:one more time:”);
    • Ability to provision settings for Full screen Image Alert on Wear (appended to showimage command sent in the sender field
      • vibrationCount:2: // will vibrate Wear 2 times for image – default is 2
      • vibrationPulseOn:300: // each vibration pulse is 300 ms – default is 300ms
      • wearImageOn:6000: // image will be shown for 6000 ms – default is 10000ms
      • Example: intent1.putExtra(“sender”,

  “showimagesender:Closest Camera:subject:Highway 7 @ Highway 404:vibrationCount:2:vibrationPulseOn:400:wearImageOn:6000:”);

  • • Alerts that have a sender with a contact picture will be shown using Augmented Wear (if installed and the optimize for Sender Pictures is enabled). These alerts will be shown in two screen updates (image of the sender alert and the text of the alert).

    • 

    • Augmented SmartWatch Pro has been updated to use this feature for closest camera and Google Now alerts

      • Color customization of text shown in Augmented Wear is also supported via AUgmenrted SmartWatch Pro only.
    • Separate preferences in Augmented SmartWatch Pro settings (if Augmented Wear companion app is detected as being installed)
    • Separate notification is shown on Wear for full screen alerts (separate from normal Augmented SmartWatch Pro alerts)
    • Faster vibrations for custom image alerts (now in parallel – vibrations and display of image)

• New  in Version 7.5.3

  • Xabber Optimizations (notification access only)
  • Android Wear
    • New Augmented Wear Companion App (Free) will provide Wear Battery life in background images

  

  Augmented Wear will also vibrate the Wear watch when it gets disconnected from the Android (vibration is 4 medium pulses – screen will not light up)

  Full screen images now show on watch without any other info! Intent API into Augmented Wear:

          intent1.setAction(“com.alk.wear.action”);

          intent1.putExtra(“sender”, “showimage”);

          intent1.putExtra(“subject”, ***URL of image to show ***));

   

  Augmented Wear is free and available here

  • • Fix for Hangout messages to provide the correct # of vibration pulses (hangouts must be enabled via optimized notifications in Augmented settings)
    • Tweaked Weather Update Alert
    • 
• New in 7.5.2
• • • Optimize For Sender Picture Feature (enabled by default, can be disabled in settings):
      • If enabled, When a sender’s picture is found – it is shown in full screen mode on the Wear and the subject is shown in the alert (for only two lines max). Note one very key advantage of Augmented is that it always queries for the Sender’s picture in the contact info for all alerts – so even if an app does not normally show the picture on the Android Wear using the default Wear alerts, Augmented will!

  

  • If enabled, When a sender’s picture is not found then the default background image is shown (as well as sender/subject in alert).
  • 
  • If disabled, then the default background image is always shown (as well as sender/subject in alert).
• New in 7.5.1
• • Fix for showing whatsapp image on Sony SW2 (root only)
  • Android Wear
    • New option (configurable – default to true) to pre-pend the current weather temperature to the sender of alerts. This allows the Temperature to always be shown on watchfaces (that show the last alert info)

• Revised background images to optimize better for Moto360
• Smart Haptics – ability to customize GMail vibration pattern separately
• New in 7.5.0

More info here – Auto Enhanced Haptic Feedback – Taking the cue from Google Maps (short-short-long) vibration cues. Alerts are enhanced as follows:

For high priority senders – the # (from 1 to 4) of the high priority sender is pulsed to the Wear watch (after the normal # of pulses to indicate a high priority sender). The # is a short pulse(s) which is the vibration duration / 3;

For example – assume we set high priority vibrations to 2 and the high priority sender is #3 then the Android Wear will pulse – long-long-short-short-short

SMS – coded to N-1 short and 1 long pulse – e.g. coded as short-short-long (if set to 3 vibration pulses).

Network connected or Android Wear re-connect message – coded to all short pulses – e.g. code as short-short-short (if network disconnect is set to 3 vibration pulses)

680newstraffic and Google Now alerts are coded as one short pulse

Rain Alerts are coded as two short pulses

• New in 7.4.5
  • Icon bug fix where Icon shown may be a stale image
  • Optimized background Images for Klout and Withings Scores (if enabled)
  • Support for dynamic images in alerts (perhaps for security camera motion triggers – can be sent from Tasker/Intent based API into Augmented
    • sender: “show alk image” (without quotes)
    • subject: URL of image##text to show (e.g. http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/compass/camera/pictures/loc50.jpg##Younge&401)
    • Example Tasker Task here
• 
  • Added 2nd Tasker Task to menu options
  • Android Wear – Added “show closest camera” (sender) Intent action (for Tasker/3rd party) to show the closest traffic camera on the Android Wear! (Toronto, Boston, SFO supported). Must also enable option in augmented-android wear settings. Example Tasker Task here for Android Wear (optimized).
  • Android Wear Google Now Tweak – When “Time to leave” Google now alert is received, the closest traffic camera image is automatically shown as the background image for the alert via augmented!

• New in 7.4.2
  • Added next upcoming meeting in background image (configurable in settings)
  • Phone Battery status in top left of background image (configurable in settings)
  • Settings re-organized

• New in 7.4.1
  • SMS tweak to show contact picture properly
  • up to 3 SMS canned responses – no need to depend on voice!
  • Reconnect alert indicating # of missed alerts while Wear watch was disconnected from Android Watch

• New in 7.4.0
  • Ability to trigger a Tasker task – which can be programatically set.
  • Extra card with next upcoming meeting, phone battery, weather details, Fitbit, Klout, Withings
  • Extra card summarizing the prior notifications for quick access
• Customizable notifications vibration patterns including special support for high priority alerts
• Rich Quiet time options
• Hyper aware rain/snow alerts
• Contact pictures even from apps not providing this in their notifications (e.g aquamail)
• Weather information is show in the background of alerts
• Intelligent filtering/re-formatting of some alerts – based on the legendary augmented experience in pushing notifications to many smart watches in the past two years
• This is just the start – I will continue to optimize Augmented for Android Wear – there are many possibilities

Please setup as follows:

• Ensure Android Wear is enabled in Augmented settings (enabled by default)
• Ensure Augmented is granted notification access (in system security settings)
• Mute all notifications from all apps other than augmented smartwatch pro – see this.
• Enable apps in augmented you want to see on your Wear
• Augmented Wear companion app can be installed from play

Initial Thoughts on Android Wear

I have been using the LG Wear watch for just over a week now and it has become the smartwatch I would choose over all others despite its shorter battery life:

• It simply works – notifications come through reliably – I have had zero bluetooth connection issues that plague all other smartwatches.
• The motion of simply lifting one’s wrist to see more context/color info is the killer feature in Wear (IMO) because it always works and hence it can be used to provide for what I will dub “Two-Step” Always-on Hands-free information “at a glance:
  • Step 1 – normal (low-power) watch-face;

• • Step 2 – a colour (bright) contextual information screen (typically based on the last alert shown on the Wear).

• • The fact that it “hands-free” and “always reliable” in switching from Step 1 to 2 with the motion of the wrist is what makes it the killer feature of Wear that can be leveraged for more compelling “at a glance” scenarios.