Facer updated to support Android 5.0’s WatchFace API, brings lushly animated watch faces

Facer just got itself a big upgrade over at Google Play. The app allows folks to create custom watch faces for Android Wear smart watches such as the Moto 360, LG G Watch R and the ASUS ZenWatch (we used it to make a pretty neat Phandroid watch face for the Moto 360). Today’s update is important for a couple of different reasons.

For starters, it’s been upgraded to support Android 5.0’s official WatchFace API, which gives developers and designers access to a nice animation library and the ability to create watch faces in a way that lets them behave like any of the pre-installed options. This should make for not only prettier, better watch faces, but also ones that make far more efficient use of the watches’ processing power and behave better when it comes to battery life.

There is one unfortunate caveat to the upgrade: Facer is not backwards compatible, meaning the new version will not work on Android Wear smart watches without the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade. [UPDATE: Another update has been pushed to make Facer backwards compatible with those whose smart watches are not yet on Android Wear 5.0.] As you may know, however, we’re expecting to see said upgrade begin its trek to smart watches at some point today thanks to word from an insider of ours.

Beyond all that, the app itself has gotten a nice Material Design make over to look more at home with the rest of Android 5.0 Lollipops and any other apps following Google’s latest design guidelines. Doesn’t look too bad at all.

To celebrate the release of this update, the Facer developer teamed up with developer Alex Pasquarella to design two new Smooth Sailing watch faces, a Google Now-esque face that features some of the new aforementioned animations and can change its look based on the time of day. You’ll be treated to the watch face upon getting your update. Find your download right here.