SWApp Launcher Wear For Your Android Wear Device

[DroidModderX]

Android Wear is great except for the fact that launching apps is not entirely intuitive. You end up having to scroll through various menus to find your app and then launch it. SWApp Launcher for Wear devices allows you to launch apps right from your smartwatch homescreen, just like on your phone. With SWApp you can launch apps on your watch, remotely launch apps from your phone, and do actions on your watch or your phone. You get three panels of shortcuts on your watch with a page indicator, and you can use the phone app to set the shortcuts. Once SWApp is installed on your Android Wear device just swipe from the right to launch it. Once you are finished with the launcher just press the X in the middle. Head to the Play Link below for the download.

via Play Store

 

[WildcatRudy]

A single tap on the default Android Wear watch face brings up a list of recently used apps, yet finding one not-so-frequently-used does involve scrolling way down and hunting for what I need.

I tried another couple of launchers and felt them to be somewhat unfinished or clunky. I'll give this one a try. I don't use may apps on my watch yet, but I honestly haven't seen many "must have" apps anyway. More will be coming though!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I've been fighting installing a launcher on my g watch. Like Rudy said above, I don't find myself using many apps on the watch itself. Those that I do use on occasion are, like Rudy said, listed as recent apps right in the "Google Now" screen.

Other than that, as long as you know what an app is called, it's not hard at all to launch one by voice.

 

[RedRamage]

When I was using Pebble I used the Glance watch face. A nice feature of this was the ability to push the side buttons to do custom things. I had a semi-complex setup with Pebble Tasker so that when I hit the bottom button it would launch a menu screen, which would then allow me to pick a sub-menu, and then pick one of three options from there. I had, in essence, 9 "quick links" that either stated a phone call or adjusted audio settings on my phone or performed a basic task with my home automation.

All this can be done on Android Wear as well, but not nearly as quickly using the standard Android Wear interface. I've used a couple of other launchers and while they worked well enough, this one has some nice advantages. Specifically:

1. The ability to arrange the links how/where I want them. Others usually only let me put them in alpha order or most used order.
2. The ability to have 8 options on one screen. Others it's usually 4 or 6.
3. The ability to launch phone apps from my watch.
4. The ability to turn on/off things like WiFi and Toggle Audio states.

Now, having sung the praises so far, things are all rosy. There's still a few things missing, in my humble opinion:

A. Tasker integration. I want to be able to add tasker tasks as shortcuts. (The developer has said this is coming.)
B. Change images. I'd love to setup some "quick call" buttons have them be pictures of the people.
C. Option to auto-exit the launcher after a choice has been selected.

Over all I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. It's best Wear launcher I've found so far, and given it's very young state it's a great start. But there's room for polish and improvement.