Google Warns Wear OS Users To Install Their Favorite Legacy Watch Faces Before 2026
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Wear OS users won’t be able to install legacy watch faces from the Play Store starting January 14, 2025.
- Legacy watch faces will still work if they are already installed on the device.
- Developers won’t be able to publish updates for legacy watch faces to the Play Store.
After Google introduced Watch Face Format (WFF) in 2023, WFF and non-WFF watch faces coexisted. This only lasted for a short time, however, as Google eventually made WFF mandatory. Since then, the company has been gradually phasing out support for non-WFF watch faces on Wear OS. Google has now announced the next step it will take to get to full adoption of WFF.
If you’re a Wear OS user who cares about custom watch faces, then you may know that support for AndroidX and Wearable Support Library (WSL) watch faces is being removed. This started in January 2025, preventing new watch faces that use these formats from being published on the Play Store. However, developers are still allowed to publish updates for these legacy watch faces.
Unfortunately, that will change at the beginning of next year. Google states that the following changes will come to Wear OS starting on January 14, 2026:
- Availability: Users will not be able to install legacy watch faces on any Wear OS devices from the Play Store. Legacy watch faces already installed on a Wear OS device will continue to work.
- Updates: Developers will not be able to publish updates for legacy watch faces to the Play Store.
- Monetization: The following won’t be possible for legacy watch faces: one-off watch face purchases, in-app purchases, and subscriptions. Existing purchases and subscriptions will continue to work, but they will not renew, including auto-renewals.
This doesn’t necessarily mean all these legacy watch faces will be lost. The announcement says that developers using AndroidX or WSL can still migrate their watch faces to the WFF. However, they’ll only have until the deadline to resubmit their creations to the Play Store. The company adds that developers using Watch Face Studio will also need to resubmit to the Play Store using Watch Face Studio version 1.8.7 or above.
WFF is an XML template that allows developers to create watch faces that behave as well as the native faces that come with your smartwatch. It also helps with keeping watch faces light and energy efficient, so there is a benefit to using the template. In turn, the drawback is less creativity and the loss of watch faces that aren’t converted over to Google’s format.
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