Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Popular custom watch face distributor Facer is embracing Google’s latest Watch Face Format with hundreds of thousands of new compatible watch faces.
With this revamp, Facer will support smartwatches running Wear OS 6.
Additionally, Facer is bringing new watch faces, a new social feed, and an energy consumption label for watch faces.
In 2023, Google set out to improve the state of battery-hungry third-party watch faces on Wear OS. It introduced a new standard called Watch Face Format (or WFF) and started blocking legacy watch faces on Wear OS 5 — stifling third-party watch face marketplaces in the process — to ensure an effective transition. In response to these changes, Facer, the most popular provider of watch faces, is adopting WFF support and reviving compatibility for newer Wear OS devices, including the recently launched Galaxy Watch 8 series and upcoming Pixel Watch 4.
WFF creates a lighter environment for the watch face to exist and operate. It essentially enables custom watch face designers to create lightweight XML-based variations without executable code. While designers can configure the visual elements, the Wear OS platform handles the rest.
In essence, this saves battery and processing resources on the watch. However, WFF’s downside is that it can limit visual effects, such as depth, shadows, and movement, making the watch faces appear very digital.
Since Google has left no alternatives for developers, Facer’s move was inevitable. With today’s update, numerous watch faces in Facer’s library have been revised in WFF format. It says that “hundreds of thousands” of watch faces are already available in the new store, which is a good sign.
Facer
Facer is also launching new watch faces to celebrate the transition. Besides watch faces by indie developers, it has official collaborations with big franchises, such as Fallout, Star Trek, and The Smurfs, etc., and is now introducing an official range of SpongeBob SquarePants faces. It will soon add more options from Borderlands 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Masters of the Universe.
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