How can we help?
With the emergence of wearable technology, smart watches are set to be the next must-have consumer device. With watches running Android Wear available now and the Apple Watch due to be released in the spring it’s time to start working on your smart watch apps. Our skilled team can take an idea and turn it into a fully featured watch application.
The possibilities are endless...
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Custom
Watch Faces
Watch faces are at the heart of the smartwatch and can be used as a very powerful tool to make information immediate. Whether it’s upcoming appointment information from the user’s calendar, weather information or some other key piece of information it can be shown to the user whenever they look at their wrist.
Watch faces can also be used to present time in both new and familiar ways. Want a branded 80’s style digital watch? No problem! Want to show the phases of the moon and tides, along with a binary clock? Again, no problem.
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Track Sports & Fitness
The built-in accelerometer coupled with the GPS in your phone can be used to track all sorts of fitness activities. Use a watch app to let the user see how they are performing against their goals, provide motivation and essential information about how long there is to go.
Smartwatch apps could be valuable tools for a variety of sports and activities. From running and cycling to sailing and hill walking, an app could provide essential information at a glance. Of course, this doesn't mean that these built in features have to be limited to sports tracking. If you have an idea, then let us know.
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Use Your
VoiceMost smart watches are coming equipped with an in-built microphone specifically for voice commands and recognition. This can be used for a large number of amazing features on your wrist, such as a simple note taking app. Had a thought, but don’t want to have to rummage for your smartphone, or a pen and paper or are busy driving? Instead, just talk to your watch and an app such as Voice Note can transcribe it for you and sync it to your phone or cloud for later.
Of course, there can be many other uses for the in built microphone, such voice commands, communication, awareness of your surroundings and much more.
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Feed info
from your phone
Bring the information from an existing phone app to the user’s wrist. The JamCam app knows the user’s location and details of any nearby traffic incidents. An accompanying smartphone app brings the key information closer to the user and shows the relevant incidents. It is a highly simplified version of the phone app, working in tandem with it, but still bringing the salient information to the fore.
As well as providing the key information on the watch, notifications are also used to warn of any new nearby traffic incidents which can be reviewed in a glance.
...And plenty more
Do you have an idea for a smart watch app and want to know if we can make it for you? Or do you already have a smartphone app and want to discuss as to whether we can integrate it within a smart watch app? Why don’t you get in touch?
Contact UsHow We Do It
We design and build smartphone apps for both Android Wear and Apple Watchkit. Many manufacturers have released or are about to release smartwatches based on the Android Wear platform whereas Apple will be releasing their own watch in the spring of 2015. Because the two platforms use different technology, a smartwatch app needs to be written for both of the platforms that need to be supported.
The process of building the smartwatch app is slightly different for each platform as each has different capabilities and in some areas a different approach. Often a smartwatch app is an extension of a smartphone app which provides the watch with access to the internet and any other data that’s required. The watch app is installed via the phone and are available from the Google Play store or shortly the Apple App Store.
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Android & Android Wear
Android Wear provides a framework to build applications for smartwatches running the Google software. Capabilities include synced notifications, voice actions, wearable apps and a means to communicate with an Android smartphone and the internet.
Wearable apps run directly on the watch, giving them access to all of the hardware including the sensors and the GPU. They are essentially the same as apps built for Android phones, but differ greatly in design and usability along with the amount of functionality provided on the small screen.
Voice capability is a key part of Android Wear apps and voice actions can be registered at the system level (‘OK Google’) or within the app. Included is a free-form speech input which will automatically recognize and transcript what the user says.
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iOS & apple watch
The Apple Watch requires the presence of an iPhone to run third-party apps. Creation of an app requires two bundles : a WatchKit app that runs on Apple Watch and a WatchKit extension that runs on the user’s iPhone. The WatchKit app only contains the views and resources required for the app’s user interface. The Watchkit extension contains the code for controlling the user interface and communicating with the internet if required.
The user interacts with a WatchKit app in three ways
- The user can launch the app from the home screen. The app’s interface can have multiple screens of content and interact with the iPhone app / internet.
- A Glance is a read-only interface used to display the most timely and relevant information from the app. Glances are optional.
- Custom notification interfaces allow rich notifications to be shown to the user including graphics, additional content and a custom layout for the notification content. These are optional.
Apple has stated that later this year the capabilities of WatchKit will be extended to allow the creation of fully native apps for WatchKit.
Our development process
Brief
Design
Develop & Test
Launch
Support
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Brief
Working with you, we'll help express your ideas and requirements to outline what the project should deliver. This can take the form of meetings, workshops or other types of collaboration.
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Design
Using the brief as a basis, we will work with your designers or our own to produce a visualisation of what the end product will look like. The can also include wireframes to outline the flow through the solution.
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Develop & Test
We will take the project brief and the design and our developers will start building the project. The process is iterative and we like to send frequent work in progress versions of the app and receive feedback at all stages of the process. Testing is done at all stages and is an integral part of the development.
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Launch
Using our experience we will guide you through the process of submitting your app to the appropriate app stores. This includes making sure any quality reviews or certifications are conducted without a snag. We’ll also make sure any supporting systems are up to production capability to ensure a smooth go-live.
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Support
We are confident in the quality of our work and offer a warranty on everything we deliver. In addition we can also provide a tailored support package, which can cover OS updates and content changes as well as other types of support requirement.
contact us
To discuss your mobile requirements further, contact our Managing Director, Andrew Long.
The best way to contact us is by email, at
E-mail us at:
boom@explodingphone.com
Call Andrew on:
0121 285 0383
Our offices are at:
Exploding Phone
Wheeley Ridge
Wheeley Road
Alvechurch
Worcestershire
B48 7DD
Or get a quote by filling the following form.
About Us
Smart Watch Studio is part of Exploding Phone, a Birmingham UK based SmartPhone development studio. We build mobile solutions for businesses to help them deliver genuine value. Read more at www.explodingphone.com