Summary
- Google is transitioning to the Watch Face Format (WFF) for Wear OS to streamline smartwatch development.
- WFF is a declarative XML format without any executable code, leading to better battery life and less code optimization worries.
- Starting January 14, 2026, legacy Wear OS watch faces won’t be available on the Play Store, emphasizing WFF adoption.
If you have a favorite Wear OS watch face that you can’t live without, it might be a good idea to double-check if it’s going to stick around. Google is making some big changes to streamline its smartwatch platform. The final shift to the new Watch Face Format (WFF) is about to become reality.
For the past couple of years, Google has been nudging developers toward the Watch Face Format, and that nudge is now becoming a full-blown shove. The WFF is a declarative XML format, which essentially means it’s a blueprint for a watch face that doesn’t include any executable code. This is great for developers and you because it means less worry about code optimization and better battery life. Wear OS handles much more of the heavy lifting than before.
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Last year, if you snagged a new Wear OS 5 watch, you were already locked into WFF. Then, as of January 2025, any brand-new watch faces hitting the Play Store had to be in the Watch Face Format. But the real deadline comes on January 14, 2026. All those legacy Wear OS watch faces, built with AndroidX or the Wearable Support Library (WSL), will no longer be available from the Play Store. You won’t be able to install them, but if you already have one installed, it’ll keep working. However, developers won’t be able to push out any updates.
Starting January 27, 2025 (already in effect):
Looking further into the future, at Google I/O 2025, the company previewed version 4 of the Watch Face Format for Wear OS 6. This new iteration brings some neat features, like photo support, smoother transitions when going in and out of ambient mode, and improvements to color and text autosizing.
Also, as we’ve talked about in the past, Wear OS 6 will bring the “Watch Face Push” feature that will allow the popular Facer and Pujie apps to create their own watch face marketplaces. So, while you might lose a few old favorites, the future of Wear OS watch faces looks bright and more efficient than ever.
Source: Google
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