Key Takeaways
- A new APK teardown has revealed the presence of a “Set as watch face” button in the Play Store app for smartphones.
- This will enable users to set watch faces as soon as they’re installed directly from the Play Store app on their phones.
- Google already lets you change and remove watch faces on your compatible smartwatch using the Wear OS app.
The wide selection of watch faces is one of the highlights of Wear OS 5, Google’s smartwatch software that runs on wearables like the Pixel Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch 7. In October, we learned of a new Wear OS 5 feature for Pixel Watch models, enabling users to set a watch face immediately after it’s installed. Google is now working on enhancing the watch face installation experience on smartphones too, per a new APK teardown.
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Looking through v43.9.17-31 of the Google Play Store smartphone app, Android Authority discovered a hidden “Set as watch face” option. Although the site managed to surface this new button in the Play Store app, it reportedly doesn’t function as intended just yet. Nevertheless, the fact that there’s already a prominent button in place to set newly downloaded watch faces from the Play Store app suggests that it will be widely available eventually.
The new button could go live imminently
As you can see from the screenshots above, the large Set as watch face button will appear next to the paired smartwatch in the Play Store app. While the ability to set a watch face directly from the Play Store app in Wear OS 5 is definitely convenient, the ability to do the same on your phone will no doubt make life easier for a lot of Wear OS smartwatch owners, particularly if the smartwatch is not around you.
It’s worth noting that the Play Store’s “Always set watch face” toggle that we came across in October is exclusively available on Pixel Watch models running Wear OS 5. However, this new toggle in the Play Store smartphone app will likely be available to most, if not all, Wear OS smartwatches available today. This includes the OnePlus Watch 2R shown above, which runs Wear OS 4, while an update to Wear OS 5 is awaited.
Exactly when this new button on the Play Store will go live is up to anybody’s guess, though we’re hoping it won’t take too long. For those who do not prefer this Play Store solution, it’s always possible to customize your smartwatch and its watch faces using the standalone Wear OS app.