Add Wear Notifications to Android App

TL;DR: Use android.support.v4.app notification mechanism. Steps are:

• Create a WearableExtender:

  NotificationCompat.WearableExtender wearableExtender =
  new NotificationCompat.WearableExtender()
  .setHintShowBackgroundOnly(true)
  .setHintHideIcon(true)
  .setContentIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher);
  

• Extend the notification mechanism:

  NotificationCompat.Builder mBuilder =
  new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
  .setContentTitle(title)
  .setStyle(new NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle().bigText(msg))
  .setContentText(msg)
  .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_stat_e)
  .setLargeIcon(BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.mipmap.ic_launcher))
  .extend(wearableExtender);
  

• Trigger the notification:

  NotificationManagerCompat.from(this).notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);
  

After reading various sources, I got my application to send notification to my watch using the code above. At the beginning, I thought the notifications weren't sent. I thought I needed to enable wear in the manifest (which I did), but... notifications were sent, just the watch was on charging dock and was't doing anything :(.

To make sure things were OK, I've enabled vibration:

Notification notification = mBuilder.build();
notification.defaults |= Notification.DEFAULT_VIBRATE;

NotificationManagerCompat.from(this).notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);

Note: You need <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE"/> in your Manifest.xml file. References are here, here and, if you dig enough, on GitHub.

Now the watch (and the phone) vibrate when the notification is triggered! Cool!

PS: Never mind the amazon underground swatch :)

HTH,