Android Wear 1.3 coming with interactive watch face support

Today Google announced an upcoming Android Wear update that adds interactive watch face support to the platform. Developers can now write watch face apps with customized layouts and buttons that reveal information and trigger new activities.

One app that takes advantage of the new API is the "Bits" watchface. Right from the watch face, this app lets you see appointments, unread e-mails, the weather, and more. Tapping on any of the circles will expand that section to take up the huge screen.

Google hasn't given a formal name to the Android Wear update, but the Bits app description says it requires "Android Wear 1.3." The update seems to let developers fully customize the main interface of Android Wear. Wearables don't really seem like a fully mature product category, so opening the floodgates of third-party innovation should be a boon to Android Wear. Before today, developers could only make static watchfaces.