The next big thing seems to be the Android Wear apps. We’ve just got our hands on the first Android Wear devices and many Android developers are updating their apps to offer support for smartwatches.
For most of the people, notifications on their watches will be the primary purpose but the smartwatch is capable of doing a whole lot more and we intend to show you just that. The smartwatch is able to count the steps you take, search via commands of the voice and tell the time (of course). Android app developers can expand their apps with extra capabilities in order of making them compatible with the new smartwatches.
Having apps on your watch is very easy. You just have to install an app on your smartphone and sync it to your watch in the Android Wear app. Once you install an app you can open it by saying “Okay, Google, start (name of the app)” or manually launching the apps by scrolling to the Start section on your device. Our experience has taught us that having to search for apps on your device or running them by use of voice can be very messy and tedious.
Just remember that these are the first apps available for the new platform and with time there will be a lot more and a lot more capable apps available for your smartwatch. Even though some of these apps don’t really work all that well this does not mean you should ignore them completely. Here is our list of the 15 best Android Wear watch apps.
1. Evernote Wear
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The Wear app by Evernote is a lot more advanced than many other apps. The Evernote Wear lets you have notifications on your smartwatch and make them using your voice as well as offering you the possibility to search and browse notes already made on your smartwatch. You can search for notes by time, based on your location, or view notes that that have items on them which you can check off as you complete them.
Price: Free
2. Tockle
Image source: blogspot.com
This app is especially useful for those who wish to change the settings on their smartphone. Tockle lets the user control the phone’s Bluetooth connection, Wi-Fi and sounds through their smartwatch. A very useful feature is the one that lets the user set task paths, like controlling the music player on their smartphone just by tapping on the smartwatch. Even though the app is still in its early days, Tockle could prove to be quite an easy and useful watch to phone app. The app is still in beta so there will probably be numerous updates available for it.
Price: Free
3. Duolingo
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Duolingo launched at the same time the Android Wear launched but still remains one of the best and interesting app for smartwatches. Duolingo offers another use for your smartwatch other than fitness tracking, time management and notifications. The Duolingo app allows users to learn a new language and really integrates well with Android Wear. The developer of the Duolingo app says: “Learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, and English…” And you could do so for free.
The watch app and the Duolingo app on the smartphone make learning a new language very fun by making a game out of it. Get the right answer on a translation question and win some points, get the answer wrong and lose some. The Duolingo app also pauses along the way and shows you your progress so far.
Price: Free
4. Wear Audio Recorder
Image source: ggpht.com
We’re certain you don’t wish to walk around all day talking to your watch but you can easily make short reminders or memos by using this simple app. Wear Audio Recorded makes use of the microphone in the smartwatch to record high quality sounds and instantly sync them to your smartphone where you can manage all your reminders and files. So now you have no more excuses for forgetting to buy things at the market.
Price: Free
5. Allthecooks
Image source: gizmag.com
If you like cooking food this app may be of great help for you. Allthecooks contains recipes and tips from more than 12 million users worldwide and will surely provide you with a good idea if you’re wondering what to cook next. There are thousands of images uploaded by users on the recipes along with many reviews. The images and recipes are viewed on the smartwatch so you don’t have to always look at your phone for the next ingredient or step in the recipe.
Price: Free
6. Lyft
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This app is the first of its kind available for Android Wear. Lyft lets you call a car to your current location without having to use your phone. It connects to your android smartphone and by saying “call me a car”, the app will call a Lyft driver to your location in just a few minutes. It’s very probable that we will see similar smartwatch apps from Hailo, Uber and many other car service apps available on Android in the future if Lyft is not your number one choice. It’s never been this easy to call a ride home after spending an evening in a bar.
Price: Free
7. Runtastic and RunKeeper
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The Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch can count every step you make automatically and will do so right from the first use. The Samsung Gear Live can also measure the heart rate. But even though, both of them count your steps they don’t go much further than that. Runtastic and RunKeeper go beyond that and provide the user with the ability to start tracking just by using a simple voice command and thus filling in the need for a more advanced hiking app. The user can see stats and a very detailed progress after and also during the run. Sadly, both apps require the user to carry the smartphone on his and hers walk or run because neither offers true GPS functionality for a better and more detailed tracking.
Runtastic Price: Free
RunKeeper Price: Free
8. Swipify
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Swipify is another app in the beta stage. The app aims on helping the user do a lot more with his smartwatch. Swipify lets the user switch between apps with a finger swipe and also adjust settings such as brightness and apps in the launcher easily and very quickly. The app also lets the user see how much RAM is being used, which is a pretty nifty feature for people who are trying to preserve the life of their batteries.
Price: Free
9. IFTTT (If This Then That)
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The IFTTT is a very powerful back end for sites and apps you use every single day. As of now, the app is also available for Android Wear. The IFTTT app allows you to mute your smartphone from the smartwatch, upload your location on Facebook, get alerts on your smartwatch when you are mentioned in Twitter and has a whole lot more very useful and easy to use features.
Price: Free
10. PixtoCam
Image source: ggpht.com
Google’s Camera app can be handled with Android Wear but this app is a much greater remote view finder. You can unlock your phone, turn it on, adjust settings for photos, disable or enable the flash, zoom out and in and a whole lot more by using PixtoCam. It’s a very useful app for the framed selfies when no one is around to give you a helping hand.
Price: 1.99 $
11. Wear Calc
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This app is another Android Wear app and is a great tool that better works on your smartwatch than on your smartphone. Make a quick calculation in just seconds without unlocking your mobile phone and running an app on it. It reminds us of the ‘90s when the Casio calculator watch was a pretty big thing.
Price: Free
12. Bunting
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This is the first Android Wear app that lets the user compose and send out tweets by dictating them to the smartwatch and even supports hashtags. It is now possible to tweet just what you are speaking. Even though Bunting is still in the beta stage it is still a very useful app. There will probably be a lot of updates available in the future for the Bunting Android Wear app.
Price: Free
13. Banjo
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Even though this app is not designed specifically for Android Wear, this news app is optimized for use on your smartwatch. In fact, it’s so well optimized that it really looks like a native app. It’s updated automatically with rich content on topics and items that the user chooses. Banjo also updates automatically the stream with news around your location.
Price: Free
14. Golf Shot
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Of course it isn’t possible (yet, anyway) to play a golf game on your smartwatch but the Golf Shot app can help you in your real life game and has details on more than 500,000 golf courses around the world, including details regarding the distance to the hole and will even suggest which club to use. Golf Shot also features very detailed images from satellites and is great for sharing your progress and skills with the world.
Price: Free
15. InstaWeather
Image source: ggpht.com
InstaWeather is a very good weather app that gives the user very complex details and information in real time right on the user’s watch. The app shows you satellite pictures so you know when to expect showers and also has some very beautiful forecast screens. It looks best on the circular LG G Watch.
Price: Free
BONUS: Wear App Manager
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Once you install a whole bunch of Android Wear apps, finding all of them can be very difficult. You could create a special folder for all the apps or you can use this great app for just 99 cents. Wear App Manager organizes all the wear apps on the phone and makes them more accessible.
Numerous apps offer Android Wear capabilities also but you might not be aware of it. For example, our favorite SMS app works with Android Wear. People who use Go SMS Pro may not be aware it also has Android Wear functionality. This app will help you find which apps installed on your phone offer watch capabilities.
Wear App Manager lists all the Wear apps that are installed on your smartphone. Tap on one of the apps in the list and Wear App Manager will give you details and information about the permission and size of the app. The app also shows a link to the Play Store. Wear App Manager allows you to open an app or uninstall it.
Price: 0.99 $
So there you have it. This was our list of 15 best Android Wear watch apps available right now. We hope we helped you in choosing what apps best suit you. All of these apps can be searched and downloaded on the Google Play Store.
