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If you’re looking for some useful apps for your Wear OS smartwatch, you’re in the right place. We’ve decided to look through the Play Store to find some apps and present them to you. Just to be clear, there are a lot of Wear OS-compatible applications in the Play Store that you can install, but we had to trim that down to only 11 for this list. We chose the ones that we tried out and that worked really well, while we also tried to keep this list rather diverse.
Below, you’ll find several apps from Google, along with a cool watch face app, a launcher app, an app that will help you keep your fitness in check, and so on. You can really make your smartwatch a lot more useful if you install some of these apps on it. Some people prefer to use it as a notification center and music control gadget, if you want more out of it, read on, and try out some of these apps.
Best Wear OS apps 2023 downloads
Below is a little more information on each app, and a direct link for easy downloading.
All download links go to the app’s Google Play Store listing. Users are always recommended to download apps from Google Play or an authorized app store.
Facer Watch Faces
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: $0.49-$39.99
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
If you don’t like the watch faces that come pre-installed on your smartwatch, you can always download some new ones. You can either look through the Play Store for separate watch face apps, or install an app like Facer. Facer is essentially a hub for watch faces, for your Wear OS smartwatch. There are over 15,000 different watch faces available inside this application, so take your pick.
The usefulness of this app doesn’t end there, though. Facer even allows you to create your very own watch face. It has a really useful tool that you can use for that purpose. Set up a layout that fits your needs, slap a background image of your choice, if you want, add some flare to it, and you’re good to go. Facer is definitely one of the first apps that you should install on your Wear OS smartwatch.
Pixel Minimal Watch Face
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: $0.99-$99.99
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
Pixel Minimal Watch Face app is all about a single watch face, which is really good, by the way. That is the watch face used for the featured image in this article. If you like minimal watch faces that are extremely useful, this is the way to go. You don’t have an option for an analog watch look here, but a digital one is really cool. On top of that, you can also set up some widgets on the watchface itself, making it extremely useful.
For example, I set both time and date to be displayed in the middle, while the weather info is at the bottom. In the top-left corner is my currently-played media content, while next to it you’ll notice the battery percentage, and the notification counter. That way, you can have all the relevant information on your watchface. Simply alter this watch face to serve your needs. Do note that you’ll have to pay up to customize those widgets, though.
Download Pixel Minimal Watch Face
FitMe
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: No
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
FitMe or ‘7 Minutes Daily Weight Loss Home Workouts’ app, is a great way to stay in shape. This app is available for your smartphone, but the same goes for your Wear OS watch. This app is great if you’d like to stay in shape, but you don’t like to lose a lot of time on working out. This app will help you get your blood pumping with a wide variety of exercises that won’t take a lot of time.
The app will provide you with a basic workout plan which consists out of workouts that will take 7 minutes of your time, daily. You’ll get a 3D animated graphic character to show you each workout. There are 12 daily basic workouts included in the app, while a vocal guide is also available. You can also delve into a 15 days workout fitness challenge, if you’d like, while a weight tracker is included in this app as well.
Google Keep
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: No
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Chances are you’ve heard of Google Keep. This is Google’s very own note-taking app. Well, it has full support for your Wear OS smartwatch. Simply install it on your watch, and access everything Google Keep has to offer. That way you can quickly pull up a grocery list on your watch when you’re out and about, making things a lot simpler than holding your phone while you’re shopping.
That was just one example, though, of course. If you install this app on your watch, you can also jot down things really fast by using your voice, or the included keyboard, though that will take more time to do, for sure. You can also check off items as you buy them, and so on. If you’re a Google Keep user, and have a Wear OS smartwatch, installing this app is a really good idea.
Google Wallet
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: No
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Many of us pay with our phones these days, and we use Google Wallet to do so. It’s extremely simple, and safe at the same time. A smartphone is always easy to pull out of the pocket, so you don’t even have to reach out for your credit card, not to mention that paying with a smartphone is faster than when you use a credit card, as NFC does a better job of communicating with a terminal (it’s faster).
Well, you can make the process even simpler, if you want. You can download Google Wallet on your smartwatch, and use your watch to pay for stuff. You won’t have to pull out your smartphone out of your pocket, but simply bring your wrist close to the terminal. This can be tricky in some places, as they don’t really hold terminals readily available for something like that, but for the most part, it’s simpler than using a smartphone.
Google Maps
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: No
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
Google Maps app is also really useful to have on your watch. Why? Well, what better way of following directions while you’re walking than to have them on your watch, readily available. This is especially useful if your hands are otherwise engaged with luggage or something else. You can simply take a look at your watch and see where to go, and do that periodically as needed.
You can essentially get turn-by-turn navigation on your wrist, along with time estimates. Google Maps do have full support for Wear OS, and the whole experience is excellent. You’ll still need to use your phone to get everything set up regarding your destination, but past that point, you can simply use your watch without a problem, it works like a charm.
Wear Gesture Launcher
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: No
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
Wear Gesture Launcher is a great app to have. This app will save you from making a ton of unnecessary taps on the display. You can simply draw a gesture in order to launch a specific app or action. This app allows you to map those gestures the way you feel is best. So, for example, if you activate the gesture launcher, and draw a letter ‘K’ on the screen, you can open Google Keep. That’s just one example.
There are a ton of gestures this app allows you to map, so you can really become more productive when it comes to using your watch. The app works really well, at least it worked for us, and it really did save us time. You can set everything up on your smartphone, so that it’s ready for usage on your smartwatch. The app on the phone is easy to use, even though its layout is a bit older. Still, you likely won’t even open it on your phone once you set everything up.
Download Wear Gesture Launcher
Wear Casts
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: $0.99-$19.99
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars
If you’re big on listening to podcasts, Wear Casts is the app you may want to try out. This app enables you to listen to podcasts directly from your smartwatch, which is ideal if you tend to run without your smartphone, for example. You can set this app so that it automatically updates your favorites, so that everything’s ready to go once you decide to go on a run, or any other type of exercise.
The best of all, the app will simply use your phone to update your podcasts, it will use its WiFi connection, so you don’t need to use WiFi on your watch. You can create custom playlists if you want, and also search the podcasts directory from your smartwatch. The app is free to use, though there are some features in the paid version of the app that you may want to take advantage of.
Lifesum
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: $3.75-$99.99
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Lifesum is a great app to keep track of your health. This app can track your water intake, while it also allows you to set some health goals. Once you do that, Lifesum will help you keep track of the progress, while being readily available on your wrist. This app is also available for your phone, of course. It has a built-in meal planner, diet tips, and much more than that. No matter if you’d like to try out a keto diet, some type of fasting, or something else entirely, this app has you covered.
This app is a health tracker, food planner, and a macro calculator all in one. The app may help you lose some weight if you really decide to give it a shot. It can send you all sorts of reminders on your wrist, and help you keep track of everything that is relevant. Water intake is extremely important in the general scheme of things, so don’t forget about that. This app will sure send you plenty of reminders to keep you on track.
Infinity Loop
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: $0.99-$30.99
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
The last app on this list is actually a game. We had to include at least one game for your smartwatch, just in case you get bored and need a quick game to pass the time. Not many of you will be playing games on your watches, but this one is actually quite appropriate. This is a puzzle game that actually looks excellent on your wrist. The last of screen real estate really doesn’t hurt it at all.
This game aims to increase your logic skills. You’ll need to connect all the lines and corners to make perfect connections. The game will throw you into a chaotic situation, and you need to make sense of that. The game is extremely simple to play, but it will make you think in order to complete it. Some levels can be really challenging, and ideal to waste a couple of minutes while you’re waiting for a bus, train, or doing something else when you’re out and about.
Messages by Google
– Price: Free to download
– In-app purchases: No
– Size: Varies with device
– Google Play rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Wear OS does support responding to messages by default, sure. What you cannot do by default, however, is start a conversation. Well, if you’re an avid user of SMS messages, or RCS, by any chance, then you may want to install Messages by Google app on your smartwatch. Why? Well, this app allows you to initiate messages to your contacts without using your phone, not just respond to them.
You can simply open up your conversations on your watch, or find a specific contact, and start a conversation with that person, or people. If you’re not into text messages or RCS, however, then this app won’t do you much good. It’s up to you. Still, this app works great on Wear OS, to say the least, and can be quite useful.