First standalone Android Wear applications hitting the Play Store (Video)

Android Wear doesn’t just show you notifications. In at least one developer session at I/O, Google made it clear that its new smartwatch platform will actually be capable of running standalone applications, even further extending the possibilities of what the device will be able to do in the near future. But now, some of these apps are already hitting the Play Store.

According to Google, apps can 1) run on only a smartphone and send simple notifications to an Android Wear, 2) have an APK that runs on both devices, or 3) run only on the Android Wear device itself. One developer by the name of Marian Zorilla has already submitted a couple apps of the third kind to the Play Store, and you can download them right now.

Most notable of these is an app called Wear Calc that you can download right now. If you have an Android Wear device paired to your Android smartphone, downloading the app will leave a useless icon on your device but seamlessly install the app on the smartwatch side. From there, just go to “Start…” and launch the app. As the developer notes, using voice to launch may not work due to being interpreted as saying “Where Calc.”

This is mostly just an experiment at the current time.  The developer has also released an app called Wear Compass, which is practically useless because Android Wear ships with a compass built-in. And the Wear Calc app, while it does technically bring a new piece of software to Android Wear, isn’t actually very useful because you can already use voice commands with the device through which Google can do math for you.

We’re expecting much more exciting entries into the Android Wear application space over the coming months as devices finally ship to consumers and more and more developers have a chance to explore the possibilities here. Word on the street is that Google has asked some of the more important companies developing applications to hold off on uploading them to the Play Store until July 7th, so that day will likely come with a flood of new software.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvERLS36ygo