Do standalone Android Wear 1.x apps require a companion app?

Question

I have an Android Wear app (a watchface) that was originally created before Wear 2.0, so it is embedded in a phone APK. I am working on porting it to 2.0, and keeping it backwards compatible. It is standalone and requires zero connection to a phone.

I understand that for Wear 2.0, the only thing needing to be published for a standalone app is the Wear APK. I have been reading through Google's documents and recommendations for moving 1.x apps to Multi-APK instead of embedded. They are a bit vague, however, on if a standalone Wear 1.x app even needs a companion app. I'm asking about this because it seems strange that we would need a dummy app on the phone that does literally nothing, if the Wear app is now its own APK.

Answer 1

From my understanding, that is the case, unfortunately. Since there is no Play Store app on Wear 1.0 watches, it's not possible to install the standalone app directly. So a user needs to install the companion app on the phone, and Play Services should install the Wear app if there is a Wear 1.0 watch connected.