Unable to distribute app on Android Wear in Google Play Developer console

Question

Im trying to submit my newly created Android Wear watch face through Google Play Developer Console. The problem is checkbox "Distribute your app on Android Wear" in pricing and distribution section is disabled. I cant understand why.

What I did:

1) Uploaded screenshot for Android Wear

2) Uploaded 2 APK files in closed Beta releases. Both files are signed with one key, have different version names. First is phone apk with embedded wear apk (minSdkVersion 23), second - standalone wear apk (minSdkVersion 25) has meta-data android:name="com.google.android.wearable.standalone" android:value="true" in manifest file.

Everythings seems fine and app is ready to publish in production, except the "Distribute your app on Android Wear" checkbox which remains disabled. What Im missing?

Answer 1

I stumbled upon the exact same issue.

• I had <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.type.watch" /> in my manifest
• I had <meta-data android:name="com.google.android.wearable.standalone" android:value="true" /> in my manifest
• minSdk was set to 25

But still the checkbox for Wear distribution was disabled.

For fun I tried editing the HTML with Chrome's inspection tools, and removed the "disabled" attribute from the checkbox. Sure enough, the setting stuck after enabling the checkbox, and now Wear distribution is enabled. Give it a try!

Answer 2

You may want to check Packaging and Distributing Wear Apps and see if you've missed something.

As discussed, aside from specifying APK's version code (standalone Wear and embedded Wear), also check if you've updated your Wear module's build.gradle file to include the following if an existing embedded app has a minimum SDK version of 23:

android {
    // Allows you to reference product flavors in your
    // phone module's build.gradle file
    publishNonDefault true
    ...
    defaultConfig
    {
       // This is the minSdkVersion of the Wear 1.x embedded app
       minSdkVersion 23
       ...
    }
    buildTypes {...}
    productFlavors {
        wear1 {
          // Use the defaultConfig value
        }
        wear2 {
            minSdkVersion 25
        }
    }
}

Also, check Distribute to Android Wear for more information.

Answer 3

I've received the email from Google support saying that they worked on the issue and changed something. They noted that my manifest file for mobile was missing line <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.type.watch"/> I only had this line in Wear module manifest.

I've added this line, uploaded a new version with 2 apk files for wear 2.0 and 1.0 and after that checkbox became enabled.

Currently, the official docks for Wear 2.0 don't clearly say that this line should be added to both manifest files.

Also strange that before the problem with this project I managed to successfully upload another Wear 2.0 project to Developer Console (with checkbox enabled), and the line was only in Wear module manifest.

Answer 4

我实际上是通过电子邮件向谷歌发送了这个问题 - 这是他们身边的一个问题，他们现在已经修复了......

Answer 5

If you add <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.type.watch"/> to your mobile manifest (not wearable manifest) your apk will be distributed only for WEARABLE devices! Don't do it if you want to distribute also for mobile phones.

I have the same problem. Checkbox "Distribute your app on Android Wear" is grey out. I have followed all instructions in App Distribution , added all wearable screenshots and still cannot check the box. I have contacted support. First they said, that in my wearable manifest in need to replace:

android.hardware.type.watch

with:

android.hardware.type.WATCH

That didn't help. Next they told me, that there is a bug in developer console and it should be resolved by Tuesday May 9th. Unfortunately, they didn't fix anything or they didn't do anything at all. Next they told me, that I need to add <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.type.watch"/> to my mobile manifest file. I cannot do it, because apk would then be distributed only for wearable devices.

I have send them my manifest.xml and build.xml for mobile and wearable and waiting for the response.

Before april I have added about 10 wearable apps (also with 2.0 support) and there was no problem.

In my point of view they doesn't know what the problem is and cannot help us. Moreover they instructions App Distribution are out of date and In one place there is info, that minimum SDK should be 23, and few pages below there is sample code with minimum SDK 21.

Answer 6

Your APK requires both tags below as called out in other answers.

However, you still won't be able to check the box if the original APK (without the tags) was uploaded for the release. You must delete that APK and make sure only the APK with all those fields is left.

I made this mistake and had to hack the solution above but couldn't publish afterwards until I deleted the original APK I uploaded without the standalone tag. I asked support and they seemed to verify this.

Anyway, try that before hacking, hope that helps.

Required in your Wear manifest:

Requirement 1:

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.type.watch" />

Requirement 2:

<meta-data
    android:name="com.google.android.wearable.standalone"
    android:value="true" />