Google revamps Wear OS Play Store page w/ featured apps and watchfaces

Damien Wilde | Apr 15 2021 - 5:18 am PT

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Google has unceremoniously revamped the dedicated Wear OS Play Store landing page giving more prominence to featured apps and watchfaces on the wearable platform.

The change looks to have been made in the past 24-48 hours after a cursory glance on the Wayback Machine, and the older Wear OS Play Store landing layout looks to have been live until at least April 14. While the old layout was more rigid, Google has added some color and greater prominence for sections that include “Featured app,” “Apps to get you started,” and “Featured Watch Faces” with colored header sections helping distinguish. The new core sections are also joined by “Must-have tools,” “Games on Wear OS,” “Music & radio apps,” “Fitness apps,” “Finance apps,” and “Weather apps.”

What’s notable on the new page is the removal of the “Top free,” “Top grossing,” “Trending,” and “Top paid” sections in this Wear OS Play Store redesign. It looks as though Google is more focused on helping surfacing apps rather than having stagnant sections without much alteration for long periods. Even the sectional landing pages have been tweaked, with this slightly cleaner layout applied:

Wear OS often feels like the forgotten stepchild of Google’s software and hardware lineups, so this unexpected Play Store landing page revamp feels as though it has come from nowhere. It might help you find more apps to install on your wristwatch, but it doesn’t affect overall usability too much. In fact, this change is only live when viewing from a web browser with no other tweaks on other platforms — including on your wrist.

The most annoying aspect is that the page URL still notes “ANDROID_WEAR,” which you think would have been changed by now. You can go lay eyes on this new Wear OS Play Store landing page redesign right here.