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Kaitlyn Cimino \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n
TL;DR<\/p>\n
After Google introduced Watch Face Format (WFF) in 2023, WFF and non-WFF watch faces coexisted. This only lasted for a short time, however, as Google eventually made WFF mandatory. Since then, the company has been gradually phasing out support for non-WFF watch faces on Wear OS<\/a>. Google has now announced the next step it will take to get to full adoption of WFF.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Wear OS user who cares about custom watch faces, then you may know that support for AndroidX and Wearable Support Library (WSL) watch faces is being removed. This started in January 2025, preventing new watch faces that use these formats from being published on the Play Store. However, developers are still allowed to publish updates for these legacy watch faces.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that will change at the beginning of next year. Google states<\/a> that the following changes will come to Wear OS starting on January 14, 2026:<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean all these legacy watch faces will be lost. The announcement says that developers using AndroidX or WSL can still migrate their watch faces to the WFF. However, they\u2019ll only have until the deadline to resubmit their creations to the Play Store. The company adds that developers using Watch Face Studio will also need to resubmit to the Play Store using Watch Face Studio version 1.8.7 or above.<\/p>\n WFF is an XML template that allows developers to create watch faces that behave as well as the native faces that come with your smartwatch. It also helps with keeping watch faces light and energy efficient, so there is a benefit to using the template. In turn, the drawback<\/a> is less creativity and the loss of watch faces that aren\u2019t converted over to Google\u2019s format.<\/p>\n\n
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