Android Wear has flourished in recent months, now that a plethora of new smartwatches have arrived in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and designs. While Google has put a lot of time and effort into Android Wear to bring new features and functionality to your wrists, there’s also a ton of apps that add even more capabilities to smartwatches everywhere.-These apps do more than just bring notifications to your wrist — they can help us pass the time, share in-depth information, browse the Web, and more. Related: -Motorola Moto 360 (2015) review-|-Huawei Watch review So, with all that in mind, here are 20 of our favorite Android Wear apps in no particular order. They’re all available right now on the Google Play Store, and we’ve included links for easy access. Some of these are apps that load dedicated versions to your smartwatch, while others are merely apps you may already have, but will load special Android Wear versions to your smartwatch. Either way, they’re all must-haves for your watch. InstaWeather Always want the weather at a glance? InstaWeather is a smartwatch app for your Android Wear devices that offers more than just an app for checking on the weather. It also includes specially-crafted watch faces that share the latest weather alongside the time of day. You can not only see the most intricate of weather information right from your watch face, but some premium watch faces will even show the latest radar images, giving you a clear look at what’s coming. The app will notify you when it’s raining nearby to give you a heads up about inclement weather. Calendar This might be a crazy choice for an app, but Android Wear’s own agenda service is only good at seeing what’s coming up for that day. If you want to see what’s happening later in the week, or just catch a glance at a calendar to see what day is when, then you’ll want to download Calendar for Android Wear. This app offers a simple Agenda service, but more importantly, it’s an easy way to glance at a full calendar without taking out your whole phone. Coffee Android Wear, by default, integrates with the Messenger app that comes with your Android device already, but we find that app to be a bit lacking in functionality. Coffee is a jolted up version of the default messenger app that offers pre-written responses for when you need to reply quickly without speaking to your watch. Coffee also supports quick SMSing to give you a list of popular contacts — all without touching your smartphone. Feel The Wear Another necessary enhancement for your Android Wear smartwatch is Feel The Wear. This app changes up the rather boring default vibration your smartwatch will have for most notifications and messages. Instead, you can customize a special vibration “tone” for all sorts of apps and notifications to tell apart your messages without even glancing at your watch. Find My Phone Ever lose your phone? It’s easy to forget about it when heading out for work some days, and now your watch will remind you about the lost device. Find My Phone will automatically vibrate your watch if it disconnects from your phone, so you don’t end up stranded without it. If you lost your phone in a room and Find My Phone can detect it, then you can also ring the phone from your smartphone to discover wherever you last left-the device. Eat24 Eat24 is an easy way to grab some food. It offers up a list of local restaurants that support pickup or delivery to your home. In case you’re feeling especially lazy while making an order or waiting for your Eat24 order to arrive, now there’s an Android Wear app to help simplify the process. You can look at recent orders, get notifications on your deliveries, and other information at a glance from the app. Wear Mini Launcher Wear Mini Launcher makes it a whole lot easier to find things on your smartwatch. Rather than scroll through apps one by one as you’d do with the default drawer, Wear Mini Launcher is a hexagonal way to navigate your apps. It also gives you a way to quickly swipe over for other quick settings, such as your smartwatch’s brightness level, alarm modes, and other settings. Wear Camera Ever dropped something behind a nook or cranny behind your desk or in some other hard-to-reach spot? Wear Camera gives you a look around by transmitting the video signal of your smartphone to your watch. This allows you to get a look at something only your smartphone can see, saving you the trouble of contorting yourself to see into cramped spaces. It’s also a cool way to keep an eye on things from afar. Tweechip Tweechip is a special Twitter client for catching up on your Twitter account at a glance. After logging in through your smartphone, you can use Tweechip to read your favorite tweets, as well as favorite and retweet them to your followers. The app is pretty simple and straightforward, but makes it easier to catch up on current events or recent tweets without taking out your smartphone. Sleep as Android Sleep as Android is an extension of the same, awesome sleeping technology in the regular Sleep as Android app. Just as the original app uses your phone to track your noise and movement as you sleep, Sleep as Android for your smartwatch allows you to track sleeping patterns without leaving your smartphone on the bed. That way, you can keep your smartphone charging while your Android smartwatch serves as a sleep monitor for the smartphone’s tracking technology. Next page: Our next 10 picks for your Android Wear smartwatch Wear Internet Browser Okay, we admit — it’s not often you’ll want to browse the Web on your smartwatch as opposed to your smartphone. But frankly, we couldn’t pass up something as cool as this. Wear Internet Browser is exactly what the name suggests: A tiny, little browser that you can use right from your wrist. It supports searching, has a built-in keyboard function for typing requests, and works with all sorts of online content. At the very least, it’s an easy way to log into a Wi-Fi network from your smartwatch. Plus, you can brag to your friends about being able to browse the Web from your wrist. Lyft Lyft is by far one of the most-wrist-friendly ways to hail a cab. Lyft is already a nifty app for ride-sharing, giving you immediate access to arranging a ride, whether you’re just trying to get downtown or looking to get home after a long night out. Now, you can do it all from your wrist by simply tapping for a ride, and tracking your driver without taking out a smartphone or a wallet. Authenticator Plus If you use two-factor authentication for your Google account, then Authenticator Plus is a must-have, hands down. This app keeps a copy of your two-factor keys right on your smartwatch, linked through the Authenticator Plus app on your smartphone. This means you can get two-factor authentication codes without even taking out your smartphone, glancing at your watch discretely and easily. Your codes will be always in reach, and with two-factor authentication your accounts will remain safer than ever. LevelUp LevelUp is a unique way to pay friends, buy groceries, and handle all sorts of other payment needs. The payment service processes everything through QR codes, as opposed to NFC or other technologies. This means LevelUp works on just about anything with a screen, including your Android Wear smartwatch. You can easily get a QR code loaded right onto your smartwatch, so you can pay without breaking out the wallet or the smartphone. Just a wave of your wrist, and you’re done. @Here Have you ever gotten lost in a city and had no idea where you are? @Here is an app that helps you find out where you are right from your wrist. If you’ve ever been on the phone trying to figure out directions to that new restaurant where all your friends are, you’ve probably had to juggle around a phone as you switched between Google Maps and your ongoing phone call.-@Here solves that problem by telling you where you are right on your wrist.-It even gives you a map layer, as well as an estimated address, making things a whole lot easier to figure out. Keep Keep is probably one of the best note and checklist apps out there. Designed for quick reminders and shopping lists, Keep is a Google note service that brings those same lists and information right to your wrist. When the smartwatch is asleep, most devices with an OLED screen will continue showing the list, making it easy to track your progress in the supermarket without constantly checking a smartphone or written list on paper. Android Wear 2048 If you’re ever bored and want some entertainment without digging out your phone, Android Wear 2048 has you covered. There’s no other way to explain it: It’s 2048, just on a much smaller screen. You can swipe around numbers to reach the grand score of 2048, or at least distract yourself for a few minutes on the bus or subway. Invaders Another fun game to pass the time is Invaders, a remake of the classic Space Invaders game — except now on your smartwatch. This operates more or less just like a generic Space Invaders clone. If you’ve got a few minutes and don’t want to attract too much suspicion, this app might be a nice time waster on your wrist. Wear Audio Recorder If you’ve ever had to keep track of a conversation, or just needed to give yourself a verbal note, then you’ve probably thought about digging out your smartphone to make an audio recording. Instead, Wear Audio Recorder brings that very functionality to your wrist. With the app you can quickly record and save audio messages, whether it’s a reminder to buy milk later, or an important conversation that you need to record. Either way, it’s a simple, easy tool for your smartwatch’s arsenal. Wear Store for Wear Apps Last but not least, we have to note how difficult it is to use Google’s own Android Wear app store. A lot of apps get lost in the confusion, since some are unique, Android Wear apps, and others are regular apps with additional Android Wear functionality. The Wear Store is a third-party store available for download that helps sort through all of that chaos. Compared to the Android Wear store, this app store is far more useful for finding new Android smarwatch apps, and is a much better way to get reviews, hear feedback, and stay tuned to the latest and greatest smartwatch apps launching every week. So there’s a look at the many awesome apps all around for Android Wear devices everywhere. These are all must-haves for your smartwatch, and will help give your smartwatch all kinds of new, important uses in day-to-day life. If you’ve got your own favorite apps, feel free to let us know in the comments! We might add your favorite apps to this list in the near future.



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