2.4. Watch Requirements

An Android Watch device refers to an Android device implementation intended to be worn on the body, perhaps on the wrist.

Android device implementations are classified as a Watch if they meet all the following criteria:

  • Have a screen with the physical diagonal length in the range from 1.1 to 2.5 inches.
  • Have a mechanism provided to be worn on the body.

The additional requirements in the rest of this section are specific to Android Watch device implementations.

2.4.1. Hardware

Watch device implementations:

  • [7.1.1.1/W-0-1] MUST have a screen with the physical diagonal size in the range from 1.1 to 2.5 inches.

  • [7.2.3/W-0-1] MUST have the Home function available to the user, and the Back function except for when it is in UI_MODE_TYPE_WATCH.

  • [7.2.4/W-0-1] MUST support touchscreen input.

  • [7.3.1/W-SR] Are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to include a 3-axis accelerometer.

  • [7.4.3/W-0-1] MUST support Bluetooth.

  • [7.6.1/W-0-1] MUST have at least 1GB of non-volatile storage available for application private data (a.k.a. “/data” partition)

  • [7.6.1/W-0-2] MUST have at least 416MB memory available to the kernel and userspace.

  • [7.8.1/W-0-1] MUST include a microphone.

  • [7.8.2/W] MAY but SHOULD NOT have audio output.

2.4.2. Multimedia

No additional requirements.

2.4.3. Software

Watch device implementations:

  • [3/W-0-1] MUST declare the feature android.hardware.type.watch.
  • [3/W-0-2] MUST support uiMode = UI_MODE_TYPE_WATCH.

Watch device implementations:

  • [3.8.4/W-SR] Are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to implement an assistant on the device to handle the Assist action.

Watch device implementations that declare the android.hardware.audio.output feature flag:

  • [3.10/W-1-1] MUST support third-party accessibility services.
  • [3.10/W-SR] Are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to preload accessibility services on the device comparable with or exceeding functionality of the Switch Access and TalkBack (for languages supported by the preloaded Text-to-speech engine) accessibility services as provided in the talkback open source project.

If Watch device implementations report the feature android.hardware.audio.output, they:

  • [3.11/W-SR] Are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to include a TTS engine supporting the languages available on the device.

  • [3.11/W-0-1] MUST support installation of third-party TTS engines.