Android Wear App Count Is Catching Up Fast With Year Old Google Glass Apps List

Google gave its Google Glass device a lot of fanfare when it was first revealed over a year ago. Long in the beta phase, the list of apps has slowly been growing over time yet remains unimpressive despite some coaching and prodding by the search behemoth to ignite the new device with interesting apps.

By contrast, the move towards Android Wear has been gaining ground steadily with new devices like the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live garnering a lot of press attention as the first Android Wear “wrist-wearable” smart devices to hit the market.

Wearable App Market

Google has been busy pushing through app development on glassware apps for over a year and the list is still surprisingly short of big name developers and well known apps.

The number of apps in the Google Play store for the Android Wear brand is improving and growing quickly. At the last count there were 35 wearable apps in the central list including top To-Do list app Wunderlist, chat app Tinder, Pinterest, Google Maps, Google Keep, Thomson Reuters, several airline apps and the British Guardian newspaper. More apps can be found by searching in Google Play market for exact app names.

Clearly there are far fewer Android Wear compatible apps that are suitable for such a small device and one can expect custom-designed apps for Android Wearables to follow in due course, but even so this is an impressive start after only a few weeks on the market.

Strict Rules For Glasswear Apps

Due to the nature of wearing the Google Glass product over your eyes the apps that are accepted by Google have to be more strictly regulated before being approved into the Glass catalog.

The behavior of the apps during use and when idle, and how they look are just a few of the aspects that get some extra attention by the people at Google. This seems to be holding development back with only about 100 glasswear apps so far.

Android Wear – Different Rules Apply

Because Android Wear watches are worn on the wrist and are unlikely to impede vision or breach the privacy of people nearby, there are fewer restrictions by Google. This can make it easier to develop for the Android Wear platform.

Android developers have been enabled by Google to connect Wearable apps to a user's smartphone or tablet to communicate and share information. The apps can be largely similar or alternatively the developer has the choice to create an entirely new user experience based around the uniqueness of the Android Wear form factor (or limitations) and different types of interactions by the user.

Android Wear apps can be found in a central location but this only seems to show some of the apps for download. Others can be found by performing a search for a particular app name. This appears to be because Google wants to showcase the best and brightest apps for the Wear platform perhaps to make the best first impression.

Linking Android Wear Device to Android Smartphone or Tablet

Connections can usually be between a smart phone or tablet running Android 4.3 or later version to the wearable device. The Android Wear site has a link to check whether your Android smartphone is compatible with any of the current wearable devices.