Publishing Your Face on Google Play

Google Play puts your face in front of every Wear OS owner, at a price you choose. It takes more setup than Face Hub, because Google has its own account, review and testing rules. This page walks through them in order.

1. Give the face its permanent identity

Open Build, then Build…. The Project identity card shows three things; click Edit in Project settings to change them.

• Display name: the name wearers see in the watch's face picker and on Play.
• Package id: the face's permanent ID on Google Play, written like a reversed web address, such as com.yourstudio.midnightdigital. Use a name you control. Once you upload to Play it can never change, so pick it carefully now. The build stops if this is empty.
• Version name: the version wearers see, like 1.0.0.

There's also a version code, a plain number Google uses to tell uploads apart. Every upload must have a higher number than the last. Leave auto bump on and WristForge raises it for you each time you build for Play.

2. Create a signing key

Every release build is signed with a key that proves it came from you. Google refuses an update that isn't signed with the same key as the first upload.

1. Open Build, then Signing Keys… and click Create a signing key.
2. Choose where to save the file and set a password of at least 6 characters.
3. Select the key for this project.

You can use one key for all your faces or one per face. Either works; just keep using the same key for each face's updates.

3. Build the Play bundle

In Build, then Build…, pick Google Play bundle and click Build for Google Play. When it finishes, the build window shows where the .aab file was written.

An .aab can't be installed on a watch directly; Google repackages it for each device. To check a release build on your own watch first, build a Signed APK with the same key. It's the same face.

4. Get your store images ready

Google is strict about watch face images and rejects listings that break these rules:

• Screenshots: square (1
  ), showing only the face. No watch frame, no hand, no extra text or background, and no transparent corners. Include one per colour style if the face is customizable.
• App icon (512 by 512): the round face, centred and filling the icon edge to edge, with nothing added.

F12 in the editor (or the camera button on the Scene header) saves a PNG of exactly what's on screen. The area outside a round face comes out transparent, so place it on solid black in any image editor before uploading. Take shots with Preview running so the time and data look real, and use the Simulate tab to set a nice time like 10

.

Your listing also needs a feature graphic (1024 by 500), a short description and a full description. Mention Wear OS in the text; listings that don't are a common rejection.

5. Set up the listing in Play Console

In Google Play Console:

1. Create app. Choose App (not Game), and free or paid. Choose carefully: a free app can't be switched to paid later.
2. Fill in the store listing: name, descriptions, icon, feature graphic, screenshots. Pick a category that fits and add tags.
3. Go to Test and release, then Advanced settings, then Form factors. Add Wear OS, upload a Wear OS screenshot, and accept the Wear OS terms. This step is easy to miss, and without it the face won't reach watches.
4. Complete the App content questions. A WristForge face contains no code and collects nothing, so the Data safety form is short: it collects and shares no data. Answer the content rating questionnaire, set the target audience, and say it has no ads. Play also asks for a privacy policy link; a simple page saying the face collects no data is enough.

6. Test, then release

Upload your .aab to a testing release on the Wear OS track first, and install it on your own watch from Play to make sure it works.

When you're ready, create a Production release, set the form factor to Wear OS only, and roll it out. Google reviews every watch face against its Wear OS quality rules before it shows up on watches. The ones that trip up watch faces most:

• The face clearly shows the time.
• Ambient mode exists and lights no more than about 15 percent of the screen.
• Nothing important is cut off by a round screen's edge, and text isn't tiny.
• No more than 8 complication slots.

Run Window, then Problems… before you build; it catches most of these.

Updating your face

Make your changes, then Build for Google Play again with the same signing key. The version code bumps itself. In Play Console, create a new release on the Wear OS track and upload the new .aab.