samsung galaxy watches run on wear os powered by samsung and have many features, including custom watch faces that you can create with watch face studio (wfs). wfs provides a "theme" feature that allows you to implement multi-color theme palettes to watch face components. theme colors enhance your watch faces by making them more expressive and attractive, and give users customization options. this article introduces the basic concepts of creating color themes for watch faces: defining theme color palettes applying theme colors to components using theme colors on different backgrounds to follow along with the demonstrations in this article, install watch face studio and download the sample project. defining theme color palettes to apply theme colors to watch face components, you must define a theme color palette. wfs enables you to add up to 30 theme colors to a project. to create a theme color palette: in your wfs project, select the “style” tab. click the “+” (plus sign) button next to “theme color palette.” use the color picker to define the color you want. click "ok" to set the chosen color. figure 1: adding theme colors each row in the “theme color palette” section represents a separate theme color palette. a theme color palette is initially created with a single color, but a palette supports up to three colors. the additional colors can be different shades of the main color or contrasting colors. to implement additional colors for a palette: in the “theme color palette” section, select the theme color you want to change. use the color picker to define the color you want. you can also check how the selected color compares to the original color. click "ok" to set the chosen color. figure 2: adding theme colors to a palette the following figure shows several multi-color theme palettes defined for the project. figure 3: multi-color theme palettes applying theme colors to components when you have defined one or more theme color palettes, you can apply the colors to the watch face components. to apply a theme color to a watch face component: select the component and go to the “properties” tab. unfold the “color” section. fill the “apply theme color” checkbox. from the dropdown menu, select whether to apply the first,second, or third theme color from the palette. figure 4: applying theme color to a component to quickly apply the theme color to components: select the components you want to apply the theme color to. in the “layer” tab, click the “apply theme color” icon to cycle through the first, second, and third theme color. the following figure shows the theme colors applied to the components in the sample project. the theme color is not applied to the step icon, battery icon, and progress bars. figure 5: theme colors applied to multiple components now that you have applied theme colors to the watch face components, you can preview the result on the "run" tab or the run window. you can use the selected theme color from the "run" tab of wfs and see the output in the preview window. figure 6: theme color preview note : note: icons and images on complications are converted to grayscale after theme colors are applied. consequently, theme colors can appear differently on them. for information about applying theme colors to complications, see design complications using watch face studio. using theme colors on different backgrounds to expand the customization options of your watch face, you can implement multiple backgrounds to complement the theme color palettes. users can combine their choice of theme color palette and background to suit their preference. to add a background to the watch face: add an image component and define the image as the background. if you want to add more background images, select the background component. in the “style” tab, click the “+” (plus sign) button and select the images to be implemented as backgrounds. you can use the customization editor to preview any combination of theme color palette and background: to open the customization editor, in the “style” tab, click the “customization editor” button. use the side menu to switch between the colors and backgrounds you want to preview. figure 7: customization editor you can also preview the theme colors from the “run” tab. the following examples demonstrate how the same theme colors can provide a different look and feel depending on the background. figure 8: theme colors against varying backgrounds finally, test your watch face on an actual watch or emulator. with up to 10 backgrounds and 30 theme colors, up to 300 background and color combinations are possible. figure 9: examples of sample project output additional resources for more information on designing watch faces with watch face studio, see create a watch face with watch face studio on the android developers site. discuss ideas with other expert developers at samsung developers forum and get tips, help, and answers to your development questions. learn more about watch face studio and other samsung sdks and tools from the samsung developers blog.

watch face studio is a graphic authoring tool that helps you to design watch faces for the wear os smartwatch ecosystem, including galaxy watch4 and galaxy watch5. it is an intuitive graphic tool which allows you to design watch faces without coding. watch face studio includes a notable feature known as a complication. using complications, the user can get a glanceable unit of information for their selected application on their watch face. the complications can display data, such as text, title, image, or icon, which is collected from the applications that provide such information. today, i discuss some complication features in this blog. i design a simple watch face to demonstrate these. for simplicity i add a digital time and a digital date. for complications, i add one short text complication and one ranged value complication. at the end, two different theme colors are applied. you can download this sample design from here and throughout this blog you can follow me. after deploying the watch face on a watch and customizing the complication, the watch face on the real device looks the same as figure 1. figure 1: the watch face demonstrated in this blog getting started to view and deploy the sample design from my blog, watch face studio must be installed on your pc. now , i create a new project and then add basic components for simplicity. i add time and date from digital clock and place them in the center. adding complications as i have said earlier, i use two different complications in this design. to add complications, go to the add component menu on the top middle. from the dropdown menu, add the "short text" complication. for more information about complications, visit this complication document. short text complication first, i add a short text complication. for design purposes, i adjust the complication placement as (x and y) 170 and 45. i leave the dimension and color as it is. however, you can resize the dimension and change the color of the components of the selected complication. now i set the properties of complication settings as follows: complication type: i set it as "editable" so that anyone can customize the complication from their watch. if the type is set as "fixed," then the complication cannot be customized from the watch and it remains the same as what is provided in the design. for example, i choose "sunrise sunset" from the default provider > dropdown menu (see figure 2a). if the default provider is set as > "empty," no complication is displayed in the run window. note : if the default provider is set as "empty," customization from the watch is still possible. complication layout: the layout for this complication is set to the default ("icon + text + title"), but the layout also can be changed to the designer's preference. in figure 2b, the other layout options for the short text complication are displayed. you can find more details about the complication layout from my things to consider when designing complication layouts blog. (a) default provider options (b) layout options figure 2: complication settings ranged value complication now, i add a ranged value complication and adjust the properties as displayed in figure 3. i select the default provider as "watch battery" for this complication. i set the complication type to "fixed" so that the customization from the watch is not possible. figure 3: ranged value properties, "watch battery" is fixed and cannot be changed on the watch for this complication watch face studio gives the opportunity to change the properties for every component of the complication. now, i modify the properties of the progress bar component of the ranged value complication. so, at first, i expand the ranged value complication. an example of this is displayed in figure 4. figure 4: expand the ranged value complication to change the properties, i click on the progress bar under the ranged value complication to display its properties. i change the color of the progress bar by following the steps below: a. click the color box in the color menu. b. select a color from the color picker pop-up window. c. click ok in the color picker pop-up window. figure 5: ranged value progress bar color change figure 6: ranged value complication added i have added two complications in two different positions on the watch face. keep in mind that currently, only one complication can be set in one spot. so only one complication must be set in the same area regardless of normal or always-on-display (aod). for example, i add two same or different complications in the same position. i set one complication for normal mode and another complication for aod mode. now, i can set two different complication providers and test them on the run window for the normal and aod modes. but it is not possible to customize both the complications on the watch as the complications overlap each other. therefore, it is better not to use two complications in one spot. adding a theme color to a complication now, i add two theme colors and apply one of them to the short text complication. the steps to add and apply a color are given below: a. go to the style tab. the tab contains the theme color palette menu to choose the theme color**.** b. add a color by clicking the "+" icon. c. the color picker pop-up window opens. select a color from the available options. d. click ok for confirmation. note : you can add as many colors as required by repeating steps a to d. e. now set the theme color for the short text complication. a "fill with color" icon is present for every selected component. click the fill with color icon for the short text complication title, text, and the icon. f. on the run window, the theme color menu is displayed which contains all the selected theme colors from the style tab. choose any color by selecting the checkbox and view the output in the run preview. g. for the short text complication, the theme color is set and the color for the title, text, and icon is changed. figure 7: add theme color for short text complication note : the theme color can be customized from the watch. theme color on a watch on the watch, i can choose a theme color from the available colors that i had added in the project earlier. the theme color is set on every component of the short text complication. however, in the case of the icon and image of the complication, the theme color is applied after converting the original color to grayscale. this is because we do not know the color that is provided by the complication provider. that is why it is converted into grayscale first, before applying the theme color. so be careful about setting the theme color while designing your watch face, as the icon and image colors may interfere with the theme color. for example, from the watch, if i set a short text complication as "sunrise sunset," the icon color of this complication is orange (for sunset). on the other hand, if i set the complication as "weather," the icon color is white. see figure 8 for better understanding. in figure 8a, the icon color for "sunrise sunset" is orange and this color is provided by the provider. therefore, if i apply the theme color on this icon, the icon color is not the exact same theme color as displayed in figure 8b. in another scenario, the provided icon color is white which is as displayed in figure 8c. in this case, if the theme color is applied on the icon, the color is perfectly changed as the theme color. in figure 8d, this case is displayed. (a) "sunrise sunset" complication icon without theme color (b) "sunrise sunset" complication icon after applying theme color (c) "weather" complication icon without theme color (d) "weather" complication icon after applying theme color figure 8: the icon color interference with the theme color deploying the design and customizing complications as your own our target components are added. to view the watch face featured in this blog, download this file and deploy it to your watch by following these steps: connect your watch to watch face studio. for information about connecting, see connection guideline. deploy the design on your watch using run on device. for more details on connection, visit this test guideline. note : as per faq 12, "debug over bluetooth" is not yet supported in galaxy watches with galaxy wearable. 3. customize the complications on the watch. figure 9: designed watch face on a watch figure 9 displays the customized complications. to learn more about complications, visit watch face complications. conclusion as you can see, using complications, you can get detailed information for the selected application on your watch. personalization is a key feature of galaxy watch. you can continue to enjoy customizing the look of your watch style as you develop your collection of watch faces. resources in the samsung developer forum, you can ask and get help for any issue. this is a very active and friendly community where developers discuss their issues. there are many blogs on different topics, including watch face studio, on the samsung developers site. please visit these galaxy watch tutorials to expand your knowledge about samsung galaxy watch and their special features. if you want to develop watch faces programmatically, you can use android studio. you can do more complex operations using the complication api.

watch face studio (wfs) is an intuitive graphical tool that provides designers a means to design watch faces for the wear os smartwatch ecosystem without the need for coding. basic information on a watch face is typically presented as text, and watch face studio enables you to customize how the text is displayed. this article introduces three features you can use to enhance the text on your watch face design: tag expressions curved text bitmap fonts you can follow along with the demonstrations in this blog by downloading the sample project. tag expressions tag expressions enable you to create watch face components for which the rotation, placement, and opacity changes based on tag values. the tag values represent watch data, such as the date and time, battery status, sensor and health data, moon phase, and mathematical operations. for example, you can create a watch face that shows the date and time, and a progress bar that fills up each minute. this section describes how to implement this using tag expressions. to implement the dynamic watch face: create a text component. in the "properties" panel, select the text field text box. select the tags button that appears. figure 1: tags button to add the hour text, from the tag list, select [hour_0_11], then select done. figure 2: tags list similarly, to add the minutes text, create a text component with the [min] tag. to implement the progress bar for the seconds display: a. create a progress bar component. b. define its value as the [sec] tag and set its maximum value to 60. create text components for the date-related elements: [day_week_f] (day of the week), [mon_f] (name of the month), and [day_1_31_z] (day of the month). note : you can also display the weekday and month information as numbers, by using different tags. keep in mind that in watch face studio, sunday is the first day of the week. the following figure shows the progress bar on the watch face after some visual adjustments. figure 3: seconds progress bar on watch face for more examples of tag expression implementation, see the tag expressions code lab for watch face studio. curved text you can place text around a curve by selecting from predefined angular ranges, or by defining a specific start position and distance. you can also easily set the text direction. to place curved text around the top of the watch face: create a text component and define the text you want to display. in the "properties" panel, select apply curved-text. select ok. the curved text settings appear. in the "curving" fields, define the width and height of the circle or oval around which the text is to be placed. the width and height values are in pixels. for this demonstration, set both the width and height to 436. to place the text around the top of the watch face, in the "range" section, select the upper half circle. figure 4: configuring the curved text the following figure shows the curved text on the watch face after some visual adjustments. figure 5: curved text on a watch face note : you can also implement curved text on complications. bitmap font bitmap fonts enable you to replace information on the watch face, such as digits, symbols, and day of the week, with customized images. use different icons and images in the bitmap font to make your watch face more interesting. to implement icons for the am/pm tag: create a text component. in the "properties" panel, select the text field text box. select [ampm] from the tags list, and select done. figure 6: am/pm tag in the "text appearance" section, select bitmap font. open the "bitmap font setting" dialog. figure 7: bitmap font configuration in the "bitmap font setting" dialog, select the other tab. to add an image for a specific string, select + and browse to the image on your computer. do this for both the "am" and "pm" strings. to close the dialog, select ok. figure 8: adding a bitmap font image the watch face displays the selected images in place of the "am" and "pm" text strings. a watch face can have multiple bitmap fonts. you can add another bitmap font from the dropdown menu and apply different bitmap fonts to different text elements. figure 9: creating another bitmap font note : the sample project contains two bitmap fonts. conclusion watch face studio provides various text options for the watch face. the text customization features described in this blog can help you create an eye-catching watch face. resources for more information about watch face studio, see the watch face studio documentation. you can also visit the samsung developers forums, an active and friendly community where you can ask for and receive help with your application development. the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your android apps. to learn more about customizing your watch face, see also the design complications using watch face studio blog.

watch face studio is an intuitive graphical tool that provides designers a means to design watch faces without jumping into complex coding. complication design is a major feature of this tool, and layout is a vital property of complications. the layout enables you to place components as you wish to create eye-catching watch faces. to learn more about complications, see the design complications using watch face studio blog post. watch face studio has six complication types: short text monochromatic image ranged value long text small image large image each complication has a set of layout options. you can use the layout to present information in a coherent way and make important elements stand out. this article introduces three important behaviors that you must keep in mind when working with complication layouts. blank elements in the default layout some complication providers do not provide data for all the components on a complication. elements without data remain blank on the watch face. for example, figure 1a shows the default layout for the short text complication. it displays the icon, title, and text from the provider. the "step count" provider does not include an icon. if the default layout is used with the "step count" provider, the watch face is blank where the icon is normally displayed, as shown in figure 1b. (a) "icon + text + title" layout (b) no icon for step count figure 1: blank icon slot for step count specifying a single layout watch face studio provides four possible layouts for the short text complication. to implement one specific layout only, you must remove the unwanted layouts from the layout list. for example, if you want to use only the "icon + text" layout, select it and remove the others. (a) keep desired layout and remove others (b) "icon + text" layout on watch figure 2: setting a specific layout components moving between layouts as previously discussed, complication components appear blank when there is no data provided for them. to avoid displaying blank components, you can implement multiple layouts. in this case, the watch automatically selects the appropriate layout based on the complication provider. components changing position this section demonstrates an issue commonly faced when implementing multiple layouts. when the watch switches between layouts, the position of complication components can change undesirably. in figure 3, a short text complication has been selected. to visualize the original position of each component, rectangles have been drawn around them, matching the component boundaries. when the default provider is set to "sunrise sunset" and the default "icon + text + title" layout is selected, the run preview shows the icon and text displaying perfectly within the bounded area. figure 3: visualizing the positions of the default layout components figure 4 shows what happens when the layout is switched to "text + title." the components’ positions have changed and are no longer aligned with our rectangles. note : watch face studio allows you to select and preview any layout. on an actual watch, the user cannot modify or switch layouts. figure 4: complication components changing position between different layouts in figure 5, the watch face has been deployed. customizing the complication reveals that the components do not consistently display in the same location. for example, with the "bixby" or "barometer" providers, the components are in the appropriate positions. however, the components of "feels like temp." and "step count" are not in alignment. (a) bixby (b) feels like temp. (c) step count (d) barometer figure 5: complication components changing position between different layouts on an actual watch fixing the position of complication components this section demonstrates how to make the position of complication components consistent, where the end result is the fixed layout. this resolves the problem of components changing position between layouts. you can follow along with the demonstration by downloading the sample project. to fix the position of complication components: in watch face studio, add a short text complication. to create a rectangle, select add component > shape > rectangle. note : instead of a rectangle, you can also use an ellipse. adjust the position and size of the rectangle to fit the entire layout. set the opacity of the rectangle to 0%. the rectangle becomes invisible. note : in the sample project, for demonstration purposes, the rectangle’s opacity has been set to 20%. give the shape a descriptive name, such as “icon, text, title background.” add the rectangle to the short text complication layout, placing it beneath the icon component. figure 6: adding the rectangle to the layout add the remaining layouts ("text + title," "icon + text," and "text") to the complication. repeat steps 2 to 6 for each layout you want to implement. the following figure shows the result in watch face studio. figure 7: watch face studio view after adding background rectangle when the project is deployed to the watch, the complication components stay in the same place even when switching between layouts. (a) bixby (b) feels like temp. (c) step count (d) barometer figure 8: consistent component position between different layouts conclusion watch face studio provides various layout options for the watch face. the layout considerations described in this blog can help you create an effective layout that enhances and communicates your design to the user. resources for more information about complications, see build complications in watch face studio. you can also visit the samsung developers forum, an active and friendly community where you can ask for and receive help with your application development. the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your android apps.

watch face studio (wfs) is a powerful tool for creating custom watch faces for galaxy watches running on wear os powered by samsung. wfs has many features that enable you to create attractive watch faces, such as masking. masking is used to selectively hide or reveal specific parts of a specific layer. you can use it to enhance visual impact, create special effects, or draw focus to specific areas of an image. in wfs, a mask is defined by the bottommost layer of the layers to be masked. in other words, the lowest layer is a mask container that partially hides the layers above it. this article describes how you can use masks in wfs to create a simple watch face with a color-changing effect on the watch index and date. at the end of this blog, you will find a sample project which i am going to demonstrate here. color-changing watch index to create a watch index that appears to change color, define a watch index that selectively shows a rotating image. step 1: create a rotating image first, create an image for the colors of the watch index. to set the image to rotate each second, in the image properties, enter the following tag expression as the rotation angle: [sec]*60 figure 1: define the rotating image step 2: add the watch index next, add a suitable watch index, such as one consisting of digits. since we want the color image to show through the digits on the watch index, move the watch index layer below the image layer. the watch index layer will become the mask container. figure 2: watch index layer below image layer step 3: create the mask select both the image and watch index layers and click “mask.” figure 3: create the mask the image layer is now masked by the watch index. as the image layer rotates, the portion visible through the watch index changes, creating the appearance of a changing color background. figure 4: watch index with color-change effect color-changing date text a mask can also be applied to multiple layers simultaneously. combined with tag expressions, you can create effects such as colors that scroll across text. step 1: create and configure the color images create seven images in different colors on separate layers. to make each image move sideways every second, in the image properties for each layer, define the tag expression for image placement using the following formula: [sec] <= x ? 0 : ([sec] - x)*4 in the formula, replace “x” with “0” for the topmost layer, “10” for the second layer, and so on, incrementing by 10 for each layer. do not define a tag expression for the bottommost layer. figure 5: define tag expressions when the seconds value is equal to or less than x, the image is in its initial position. as the second value increments past x, each second the image moves 4 pixels to the right. to make it easier to work with the set of color images, select all of them and add them to a group. step 2: add the date component and mask create a digital clock date component and adjust its size to cover the color images. in a similar way to creating the mask for the watch index, move the date component to the bottom layer. select it and all the color images above it, then click “mask.” all the color image layers are simultaneously masked by the date text. figure 6: masked date component to complete the watch face, add watch hands to it. watch face preview when you have implemented both the watch index and date, you can preview the watch face in wfs. download the sample project from here and open it with watch face studio. click “run” and select “on watch” to see how the watch face looks on a real device. figure 7: watch face preview note : watch faces with multiple masks can affect device performance. conclusion image masking is a powerful technique that can be used to enhance or manipulate images in various ways. watch face studio makes it easy and intuitive to implement masked text layers in your design, enabling you to create unique and attractive watch faces. for more information about watch face studio, see the watch face studio documentation. you can also visit the samsung developers forum, an active and friendly community where you can ask for and receive help with your application development. if you face any issue regarding wfs, feel free to contact the developer technical support team. sample mask project (247kb) apr. 18, 2023

galaxy unpacked brought exciting new product announcements for galaxy watch4, galaxy z fold3, and galaxy z flip3. in this post, we'll go into more detail on how you can create delightful experiences for these devices in your own apps and watch faces. galaxy watch4 / one ui watch the new galaxy watch4 announcement shines the spotlight on the new collaborative wearable platform from samsung and google. this change from tizen to wear os opens doors for developers and designers to create exciting new designs. as with earlier generations of galaxy watch models, designers can create beautiful work without coding. for galaxy watch4, we've introduced watch face studio. designers who built for tizen-based devices using galaxy watch studio will recognize how this new tool works. for creators with existing designs built with galaxy watch studio, there is also a tool to convert from the tizen .tpk format to the wear os .aab format. this tool is called galaxy watch studio converter. as there are differences between tizen and wear os, some functions are not supported in the conversion process. for support on these tools, please visit the samsung developer forums for watch face studio and watch face studio converter. developers who are interested in creating applications for the new wearable platform can find more information at the android developers site. galaxy z series galaxy unpacked brought news of two exciting evolutions of samsung phones with the galaxy z fold3 and the galaxy z flip3. for mobile developers, these devices provide opportunities to bring a first-class experience to users of their apps by utilizing unique features of the z series hardware and software. possibly the most notable addition to the galaxy z fold3 is the s pen, which had previously been available to owners of galaxy note and galaxy tab devices. developers can integrate the s pen remote and air actions into their apps. code labs with samples are available to get you started. to check if s pen is available on a device, this block of code can be used. spenremote spenremote = spenremote.getinstance(); if (!spenremote.isconnected()) { spenremote.connect(getcontext(), new spenremote.connectionresultcallback() { @override public void onsuccess(spenunitmanager manager) { } @override public void onfailure(int error) { } }); } another feature of the galaxy z fold3 that developers can access is the inner display, activated when the device is opened. developers who want to provide a premium experience for these devices should ensure their apps provide continuity across the displays while interrupting their users as little as possible. samsung provides a code lab and sample code to ensure that your apps provide the best experience possible. the galaxy z fold3 and galaxy z flip3 also provide a unique featured called flex mode. flex mode is activated when a user opens the z fold3 or z flip3 screen half-way. in this configuration, apps are notified to alter their appearance to give the best experience. as with other new features, a code lab with samples is available on this site. follow up even though galaxy unpacked could not be experienced live, it brought new and exciting product announcements that improve our lives. we hope you enjoyed galaxy unpacked and use this information to make incredible experiences for your users. this site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

for watch app developers, creating your store listing assets can be very time-consuming. with the new play store asset creator, we have made it quick and easy for you to export all of the required graphic assets. built just like the galaxy store asset creator, the new play store asset creator is offered to assist not just designers utilizing watch face studio, but anyone developing watch apps for galaxy watch on wear os powered by samsung. how does it work? the play store asset creator easily exports the assets you need to publish apps to google play store. to take advantage of the tool's special features, you must use photoshop version 16.0 (cc 2015) or later and have a basic understanding of photoshop. earlier versions can open the file, but functionality may be limited. this photoshop template uses multiple artboards and the generate image asset feature to greatly reduce your design time. as you work with the artboards, each asset is updated with your current artwork. these assets include the app icon shown in the play store directory, the feature graphic that appears at the top of your store listing, as well as the wear os screenshot, and product images known in play store as phone screenshots. this tool is a good starting point, but we encourage you to experiment with and customize your designs so they stand out from the competition. the images generated by the asset creator represent play store's requirements. to better convey the capabilities of your app experience, we recommend creating more assets than the minimum required. this can be done by adding additional artboards to the asset creator photoshop template file. learn how to use the asset creator because the play store asset creator works just like the galaxy store asset creator, you can check out the blog create eye-catching galaxy store listings with the watch asset creator, or the galaxy watch asset creator tutorial video for step-by-step instructions. more from google with recent changes to the requirements issued by google when publishing apps to play store, please refer to the following articles to learn about content guidelines and recommendations. add preview assets to showcase your app google play icon design specifications play store app requirements include: app icon 32-bit png (with alpha) dimensions: 512px by 512px maximum file size: 1024kb feature graphic jpeg or 24-bit png (no alpha) dimensions: 1024px by 500px wear os screenshots upload screenshots with a minimum size of 384 x 384 pixels, and with a 1:1 aspect ratio. provide screenshots showing only your app interface. screenshots must demonstrate the actual in-app or in-game experience, focusing on the core features and content so users can anticipate what the app or game experience will be like. don't frame your screenshots in a wear os hardware device. don't include additional text, graphics, or backgrounds in your wear os screenshots that are not a part of your app's interface. don't include transparent backgrounds or masking. phone screenshots jpeg or 24-bit png (no alpha) minimum dimension: 320px maximum dimension: 3840px the maximum dimension of your screenshot can't be more than twice as long as the minimum dimension. a minimum of four screenshots is required for both apps and games. visit the google play developers webpage to learn more about publishing apps to play store. be creative the play store asset creator is a great starting point to help speed up your watch face and app publishing process. as you get more comfortable with the tool, apply the same level of creativity to your marketing graphics as you do your watch face designs. download the play store asset creator to get started! download: play store asset creator (version 1.2) additional resources on the samsung developers site the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

we continue to celebrate the top performing apps in creativity, quality, design, and innovation, as we interview winners of our best of galaxy store awards. next in our blog series, we feature matteo dini. matteo dini, founder and ceo of "matteo dini md", shares with us how he manages to maintain a high level of quality and craftsmanship with his watch face designs, many of which boast five star ratings, the importance of developing a recognizable brand, and how the galaxy store badge has played an integral role in his marketing strategy how did you first get into designing watch faces? at the end of 2016, i bought a samsung gear s3 watch, and that’s when i started designing watch faces. at first, it was just for fun, something i did to explore the easily approachable software “galaxy watch designer” (now “galaxy watch studio"). in the spring of 2017, i started publishing some of my watch faces on the galaxy store, and i realized that people were really interested in them, therefore i decided to continue publishing my designs. as one of our more seasoned and successful designers, can you share some key features of a good watch face design? in my opinion, a good watch face design has to be easily readable. it should also feature well thought out colors and shades that match together, and the layouts shouldn’t be too complex. this is the key to attracting a wider range of customers. with your broad experience as a watch face designer, do you still experience technical or design hurdles when designing a watch face? there really is no limit to improvement when it comes to graphic design. the real obstacle to overcome is the lack of new ideas. there should always be new inspirations about how to improve the design aspect of the watch faces. there have been, and still are moments, when i find myself stuck, even for several whole days, before getting to a final result. after creating several watch faces and crossing paths with so many great creations from other designers, pushing the creative limit further can be really hard, especially on a 360x360 screen. however, when i finally find the right path that can lead me to a new good project, i feel so enthusiastic and passionate about my job that it is definitely worth it. where the technical side is concerned, hopefully i’ll be able to add some new features that leverage samsung’s hardware-and-software evolutions. your brand “matteo dini md” is well known in the watch face community. how important is creating your own brand? having a well-recognizable brand is the key to being well known. your brand identifies your work, that is undeniable. finding the perfect name for my brand was not the easiest choice to make. when i started publishing my work on the galaxy store i was really indecisive about leaving my real name-surname. i even thought of inventing a new name from scratch, but then i decided to go for matteo dini, since it gave me the impression of a more personal brand, and i think it worked, or at least i hope so. my brand “matteo dini md” is a legally registered brand in the us and in europe. how do you come up with new designs to support the continued growth and evolution of your brand? ideas can come from seasons, from highly- or poorly-inspired periods, and obviously from market research. “there are no rules” is the only rule. sometimes a design can sprout from a tiny detail that we come to notice in a random object, not necessarily a watch. in a certain way it’s kind of a meditation process - it’s mind work. at the moment, there are two of us designing watch faces for “matteo dini md”, my brother-in-law luca canaletti and i. together we try to imagine how the product could potentially look, and we then sketch some drafts on paper or directly on the software. your designs are highly rated on the galaxy store which speaks to the quality and craftsmanship of your work. how do you achieve such great quality with your designs? to be honest, when it comes to my work i’m a very strict critic. i always detect some enormous flaws, and i hardly find myself truly and completely satisfied with my work. apart from that, the thing luca and i focus on is quality. to achieve that, we try to include as many details as possible and to test our watch faces for several days, in different light and weather conditions, in order to get a good result. but, as i was saying before, there is no limit to improvement, and we learn something new every day. it’s evident that you understand the market and what users want. how much does user feedback factor into the designs you create? are there other factors? i pay so much attention to user feedback. i obviously cannot design something that works for each of them, however i tend to use their suggestions to improve my watch faces and to meet their needs and tastes. being on the galaxy store has provided me with knowledge about people’s taste, and i’m constantly trying to keep several watch faces on the store that can satisfy a wide range of consumers, both young people and adults. i also keep an eye on market trends and all the cutting-edge news that comes out. you employ various marketing strategies, including third-party watch face reviews from jibberjab, social media promotion, free trials, contests, and giveaways. how important is marketing your designs to becoming a successful seller? what tips can you share? the galaxy store is introducing more and more new content every day, so it is really fundamental to promote one’s projects on other marketing channels as well. this is why i employ all those things you mentioned, in order to drive awareness and visibility of my brand on the galaxy store. the paramount thing to do is to create a well-recognizable brand identity, in order to be easily found on the store. i created my brand’s accounts on all the most important social media platforms in order to gain followers and to have a community to directly communicate with. this is fundamental, it’s the starting point for any marketing strategy. how does the galaxy store badge support your marketing strategy? galaxy store badge is, without a doubt, an excellent tool. it generates customized short urls, it can monitor all the clicks you get (which is important for statistics and promotions), and it also gives you the opportunity to use an official samsung official logo, which can be really helpful when it comes to marketing strategies. how has the samsung developer program supported your journey and growth as a watch face designer? the sdp team has always been very helpful and professional, promptly answering my request for technical assistance and solving my problems. they always keep us up-to-date about samsung news and share detailed studies about technical topics. they really support our work. it is also important to follow the dedicated forum. the forum allows us to ask questions and get answers from samsung and the developer community, i was very pleased to meet the team in person, twice actually, at the 2018 and 2019 editions of the samsung developer conference. thank you for the question; since you mentioned it, i really want to publicly thank the sdp team for their amazing work. as the winner of samsung best of galaxy store awards 2019 for “best watch designer (big brand)”, what advice do you have for new designers looking to create a successful watch face business? besides being a watch face designer, i’m a technology enthusiast and my first step was studying the product (samsung gear watch / galaxy watch / galaxy watch active), wearing it 24/7 for several months. i got the full user experience, before becoming a designer. passion and patience are fundamental, new designers shouldn’t get discouraged if the big results don’t come right away. they should keep focusing on finding their style and on trying to improve it day after day. the results will come eventually. what is next for matteo dini md watch faces? at the moment we are focusing on watch face development and we are trying to improve ourselves in order to be ready when samsung shares its plans on any new products or product updates. we want to thank matteo for sharing compelling insights on watch face design and tips on becoming a successful designer with a recognizable brand. be sure to check out matteo dini md’s watch face portfolio, and download your favorite in the galaxy store. we recommend this one. follow us on twitter at @samsung_dev for more developer interviews as well as tips for building games, apps, and more for the galaxy store. find out more about our best of galaxy store awards. designing a watch face for galaxy watch running wear os powered by samsung? check out this code lab about creating a watch face using tag expressions in watch face studio.

another year will soon be past and, like many of you, we’re looking forward to next year. we’ll be taking some time the next few weeks to be with our families, and will be back in 2022 with more blogs, podcasts, product announcements, and ways for you to succeed with galaxy store and samsung platforms. with the end-of-year holidays upon us, we’re stopping to reflect on what we did in 2021. even with covid making a disruption in everyone’s lives, we’re still here to help developers find answers and hopefully, also find success. here are some of our most memorable moments. 10. developer portal refresh brought a modern look and support for mobile we’ve been working for several years to bring samsung’s developer portal into a single web infrastructure. we moved content from multiple servers and cloud services into a cms that uses open standards and a responsive design for mobile devices. we pored through a decade of content to make sure it was still timely and accurate for your needs today. we integrated the developer forums to use the same samsung account login for both the developer portal and seller portal to give you a more seamless experience. in october of this year, we made a ux refresh to the site and the most amazing thing is how easy that process went. there were no late nights in the weeks prior to launch. we were able to test the new ux in a sandbox rigorously. then the deployment to production happened almost instantaneously. we spent less time worrying about our website and more time creating the content you need to do your work. we understand how important the samsung developer portal is to you and your work. that’s why we took the time to ensure a smooth transition as we made major infrastructure changes. 9. monthly updates keep developers up-to-date on new galaxy store features the galaxy store product management team began publishing monthly newsletters to enlighten developers of the latest features and improvements to seller portal. these updates also usually appear as blog posts in the first week or two of the month. some of the major announcements include: staged app rollouts (october) local currencies in settlement and financial reports (september) private beta testing (july) galaxy store developer api (april) look for more exciting improvements in 2022 as galaxy store continues to innovate. 8. unpacked events bring exciting new product announcements galaxy unpacked in january 2021 brought announcements of the galaxy buds pro, galaxy s21, and the new galaxy smarttag. the event highlighted samsung’s design concepts with one ui 3 and integrated experiences from partners like microsoft and google. the august galaxy unpacked event brought announcements of galaxy z fold3 and galaxy z flip3 phones. these devices have many new hardware and software features for developers to build upon. this blog post highlighted many of the ways that developers can implement features supporting flex mode and s pen remote, while ensuring that users have a seamless experience with app continuity. the most anticipated announcement of the august galaxy unpacked event was the unveiling of galaxy watch4, featuring wear os, powered by samsung. as with the tizen-powered galaxy watch devices, samsung released a new tool, galaxy watch studio converter, to help existing designers bring their watch faces to wear os. designers could also start a new watch face project from scratch with the newly-released watch face studio tool. 7. remote test lab updates allow developers to experience the latest hardware as new devices are announced, developers can use the remote test lab (rtl) to ensure that their apps work properly on the new version of one ui as well as different screen resolutions and pixel densities. in 2021, the rtl development team added support for foldables and galaxy s21 devices, allowing developers to ensure their apps work correctly before the devices are available to consumers. the rtl team also added support for android studio. in september, thousands of devices were added in data centers around the world to ensure that a compatible device is always available. as part of this release, rtl was re-engineered to work exclusively in the chrome browser, so that no external software is needed to test apps on all the latest devices. 6. samsung developer forums activity the samsung developer forums, based on the popular open-source discourse project, were introduced in january 2020, replacing an aging forum infrastructure that didn’t work well on mobile devices. by using the same samsung account authentication method as the samsung developers site, we’re able to provide a nearly-seamless experience across different hosts and platforms. since their introduction, we’ve seen large numbers of visitors stop by the forums with questions. community manager ron liechty has more than 25 years of experience in managing healthy communities—his knowledge and guidance keeps the forums a useful resource for developers. some of these visitors have become our best community members, providing valuable feedback to their peers as well as helping to moderate spam and malicious content. 5. supporting game developers in 2021 games are a noticeable part of the galaxy store experience and we work with many partners and internal teams to ensure that gamers have a great experience on galaxy devices. the galaxy gamedev team works closely with some of the top publishers and developers to improve performance of top titles on mobile. this team creates tools that provide great detail on the performance of the cpu and gpu during intense moments of gameplay. the gamedev team then documents their efforts in a series of best practices and blog posts to help developers everywhere. in addition to our internal team work, we frequently work with our partners at arm to deliver relevant content for game developers. this summer, we published and promoted a number of educational articles, webinars, and training series in cooperation with the arm developer team. best practices for mobile game developers and artists new vulkan extensions for mobile: maintenance extensions new vulkan extensions for mobile: legacy support extensions new game changing vulkan extensions for mobile: descriptor indexing new game changing vulkan extensions for mobile: buffer device address new game changing vulkan extensions for mobile: timeline semaphores mike barnes from the gamedev team, together with eric cloninger from the samsung developers team, presented at the virtual gdc2021 event in july. gdc is an important event for all of us at samsung and we hope to see you all there at the live event in march 2022. 4. new voices appeared on samsung developers podcast, season 2 shortly before the covid-19 pandemic changed our lives, tony morelan from samsung developers attended a podcasting event and came back to the office inspired to start a podcast. he lined up guests from internal teams and important partners. everyone had a great time participating and it gave us a way to continue delivering quality content to developers. as 2020 turned to 2021, we continued bringing interesting guests from across the mobile design and development ecosystem. we used the podcast to talk about the upcoming virtual samsung developer conference and chat with the people that made the event a success. here are some of the highlights from season 2 of the samsung developers podcast: drazen stojcic, urarity – watch faces, design tan nguyen, butterfly-effected gmbh – galaxy themes, marketing, licensing the samsung internet advocacy team – web standards, privacy, foldable devices we’re still hoping for a return to days where we can travel and meet in person, but until that time comes, please join us in listening to these industry veterans and top developers on the samsung developers podcast. season 3 begins in early 2022. 3. blog series instructs readers on design and successful marketing without live events the past two years, we have searched for new ways to continue delivering timely and helpful advice to mobile app designers and developers. as mentioned previously, we worked with arm this year to bring great technical content front and center. we also worked with our network of top designers, developers, and thought leaders on concepts that will help you succeed on galaxy store and in creating better experiences for your users: better for all – in this blog series, we talked with leading designers and experts to help understand the increasingly important concepts behind the diversity, equality, and inclusion movement. this series discussed aspects of language used in apps, themes, and watch designs. it also highlights important guidelines to ensure apps and web sites are accessible to users with sight, mobility, and hearing impairments. better for all: mobile accessibility better for all: inclusive policies with daniel appelquist better for all: equal accessibility better for all: bringing diversity to design with eglantina hasaj and manpreet kaur better for all: diversity in design better for all: developing and designing for diversity refresh for success – it’s not enough to simply submit a title to a digital marketplace and assume success will follow and continue without extra effort. in this series, top galaxy store designers and developers talk about how they maintain their product lines to ensure a steady flow of revenue and new customers. refresh for success: maintain quality themes design with olga gabay from zeru studio refresh for success: improve your process to keep designs fresh with tan nguyen from butterfly-effected, gmbh refresh for success: improve your process and de-clutter your galaxy store with drazen stojcic from urarity prime time design – finding success in designing new products is an intensely unique and personal process. the prime time design series includes interviews with some of the most unique people creating for galaxy store. read how these talented people inspire themselves and how they convert that inspiration into action. prime time design: unpacking the creative process with ramon campos from friss in motion prime time design: unpacking the creative process with pedro machado from health face prime time design: unpacking the creative process with john shih from x9 studio strategies for success – tony morelan was a successful watch face designer before coming to work with the samsung developers team. we’re grateful for his knowledge of design as well as how to turn designs into revenue. in this four-part series, tony points out steps to creating successful galaxy store product submissions. strategies for success: selling your apps strategies for success: understanding consumer trends strategies for success: building your fan base strategies for success: making your brand successful 2. best of galaxy store awards highlight successful developers the galaxy store app on your mobile device is more than just an app. behind the scenes, there is a team of developers, product managers, business leaders, and security experts devoted to ensuring the best possible online experience for consumers in 180 countries. because of their dedication, developers and designers have a great platform for monetizing their work. each year, the samsung developers team works with the galaxy store operations and business development teams to determine the best games, apps, and themes based on revenue, downloads, and impact to consumers. the result is the best of galaxy store awards. in 2018 and 2019, the best of galaxy store awards were presented live, on stage, at the samsung developer conference (sdc). without a live event in 2020 or 2021, the samsung developers team decided to continue the tradition of highlighting and awarding our top galaxy store products. even without an in-person event, we used a live premiere on youtube to have a single moment in time to celebrate with the winners. tony morelan emceed the event, but he had a lot of help from ron liechty, jeanne hsu, susie perez, and shelly wu. we thank them for their hard work. we hope you’ll enjoy watching! look for the “best of galaxy store” sash on apps, games, themes, and watch faces in galaxy store to know that you’re getting a truly unique experience. 1. discovering new opportunities at sdc21 each year, the samsung developer conference is the culmination of an incredible amount of planning and work by hundreds of people. even though the event was virtual in 2021, there was still a huge volume of work. instead of preparing for a live audience, our teams practiced in front of a galaxy phone on a tripod (really). instead of building booths and planning meals, we built a website and social media campaigns to reach a larger audience. eric cloninger and tony morelan kicked off the promotion for sdc21 with a podcast featuring a previous sdc speaker, chris shomo. before the conference, visitors were invited to create whimsical caricatures of themselves using the mysdcstack mini-site and submit their designs to social media. by participating in the event website, watching sessions, and trying the code labs, visitors would earn points toward a prize drawing after sdc. relive the experience of sdc21 by watching the keynote or any of the highlight sessions and technical talks by viewing this playlist wrapping up when sdc is finished, our team takes a collective deep breath, happy to be done. it is a satisfying experience to pull off a big industry event. we don’t know yet how we’ll handle live events, but we remain optimistic that some will occur. we are making plans and we hope we’ll be able to see you, somewhere, in 2022. 🤞 take care. stay warm (or cool). best wishes to you all and happy new year!

the samsung developer conference (sdc) for 2021 kicked off on october 26, 2021, and we hope you enjoyed the keynote and highlight sessions. as with many events, there is so much information to digest. fortunately, with the virtual format this year, developers can go back and review the sessions they've watched and study how they might take advantage of all the opportunities available with samsung platforms, sdks, and services. while there are too many announcements and technologies to cover in one post, here are some moments from the conference that should be interesting to developers. keynote samsung electronics president dj koh began the conference, as he's done in previous years. the keynote session included overviews of announcements that were described in more detail during the highlight sessions, tech talks, and code labs. voice control of iot devices (bixby/smartthings) samsung mobile senior vice president daniel ahn kicked off the announcements at sdc with a keynote session highlighting the integration of bixby voice control to the smartthings ecosystem with details from smartthings vice president samantha fein. technical talks with more details of the integration for developers and device manufacturers are also available. bixby : best voice interface for connected experience enabling intelligent voice control on your iot devices further, the smartthings platform team provided technical talks on the new smartthings edge platform and smartthings build for use in multi-family home environments. support for the matter standard was announced during the highlight session. samsung electronics vice president jaeyong jung and smartthings vice president samantha fein talked about the bright future for home automation with matter in this highlight session. the samsung newsroom has more information on the bixby and smartthings integration as well as the matter standard support. security and privacy with samsung knox samsung executive vice president kc choi details how samsung knox unlocks the $80b enterprise market with devices and services to ensure that critical data is secure and employee information is kept confidential. in the tech talk sessions below, samsung b2b product experts give developers the information they need to integrate their own apps and services for this lucrative market segment. samsung ese: a trusted partner for enhanced security redefining edge computing & foldables for b2b beyond a limit with the mobile b2b partner program developers with solutions for the enterprise market should sign up for the knox partner program. services and solutions for smarttv platform at sdc21, developers interested in smart tv solutions had plenty to learn. in the keynote, samsung eelectronics senior vice president yongjae kim and samsung research vice president bill mandel discussed many new and exciting opportunities for developers with the tizen platform, which are available for viewers to watch in these sessions. what's new in samsung smart tv services what’s new in tizen 6.5 what's next for tizen: smart screen for business build a trusted service with samsung tizen security what's new in the tizen web platform for smart tv game developers are rising stars with samsung the experience of the last 18 months has shown that self-care is important to our well-being. by allowing us to disconnect from reality, games help reduce stress and give a temporary reprieve from the stresses of daily life. samsung support for gamers and game developers comes to the forefront at sdc21 with these important sessions. galaxy store: games-focused, developer-friendly games for everyone: samsung instant plays in addition to mobile gaming, the announcement of hdr10+ for gaming will delight gamers looking forward to top-quality experiences on smart tvs. building better web experiences with samsung internet the samsung internet browser ships with every samsung galaxy phone. the developers and advocates for samsung internet want to ensure that consumers have the best possible experiences, mixing web content with mobile hardware. how to build browser extensions on samsung internet unfolding the future of responsive web design one ui brings beautiful and secure interactions to your mobile world samsung electronics executive vice president janghyun yoon unveiled the one ui 4 platform, showing numerous examples of beautifully designed cross-device experiences, such as taking a photograph from galaxy z flip3, sharing to the galaxy book, and editing using a galaxy tab s with s pen. while beauty is only skin deep, one ui 4 adds layers of security to these experiences. learn more about one ui 4 in these sessions. one ui 4 design: focus, comfort, self-expression one ui: designing a more approachable experience designers and developers explore new worlds with one ui watch platform galaxy watch4 was introduced at galaxy unpacked in august 2021. the one ui watch platform uses wear os powered by samsung. developers interested in bringing their ideas to the new platform should check out these talks. watch ecosystem: a new era build your app in the new watch ecosystem galaxy watch4 for enterprise business new health platform based on wear os powered by samsung further, designers who are interested in expressing their creative side with watch face designs should view this session on how to use watch face studio to create beautiful designs without writing code. rewarding successful developers with the best of galaxy store awards samsung sr. developer evangelist tony morelan presents the best of galaxy store awards, now in their 4th year. these awards are samsung's way to express gratitude to those developers and designers who are bringing beautiful and exciting apps, games, and themes to galaxy store. for the second year, the bixby team recognized the top developer and capsule for their platform. following up with samsung this site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps through the galaxy store. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem. thank you for joining us for sdc21 and we look forward to seeing you in 2022.