A few months ago, Google said that it was working on improving the way you discover and install apps on Wear OS watches, by allowing you to browse the watch's Play Store from the larger screen on your smartphone. At the time, we thought this would only roll out once the all-new Wear OS revamp was out, but it seems this isn't the case. Two of our team members are already seeing these changes in the Play Store on their phones, and we can say with certainty: this is the easiest way to find and send apps to your watch.
There are three distinct ways to find apps for your watch, at least for those who already have the functionality in the Play Store — it's currently rolling out via a server-side switch. The first one is through a new section for watch-compatible apps under Apps > Categories > Wear OS. This opens up a special page where you can find curated apps and watch faces for your wearable. Browsing here is all about discovery, so you can find the most popular apps and watch face styles downloaded by other users.
But if you're looking for a more specific app type, you can simply start searching for a keyword then use the new "watch" or "watch faces" filters on top to narrow down the results and only show Wear OS-compatible options.
Finally, if/when you're sure about the app you want to install, simply open its listing in the Play Store and you'll see two checkboxes below the Install button. One is for your phone, the other for your watch. That way you can choose whether to install the app on both or either.
It's really as simple as this, and it's a much better experience than squinting and scrolling through endless lists, screenshots, and reviews on your tiny watch screen. It's also more convenient and readily available than the Play Store website, where you could already do this, but had to be in front of a desktop to use.
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