10 best Wear OS apps to install on your smartwatch in 2024

Thanks largely to the efforts of Samsung and Google, Wear OS watches are more exciting today than they’ve ever been before. There are plenty of good Wear OS smartwatches to choose from anymore — but if you want your watch to do much more than track your health data and deliver notifications, you’re going to need some apps. The app ecosystem on Wear OS isn’t quite as bustling as it is on Android proper (which is practically overflowing with great apps), but there are still quite a few great apps to try out. To get you started, here are some of AP’s favorite Wear OS apps today.

1 Google Maps

Navigation on your wrist

Hands-free navigation is one of the more useful features smartwatches can offer, and on Wear OS, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better navigation tool than Google Maps. You’ll feel the limitations of your watch’s small screen while viewing maps or trying to enter destinations by touch, but Maps lets you set your destination by voice, and a smartwatch display is plenty large enough to show useful turn-by-turn directions for walking or cycling trips. Unless you travel exclusively by car (where the Google Maps mobile app makes much more sense), Google Maps deserves a spot on your Wear OS watch.

2 Spotify

Control all your music streams

Spotify’s Wear OS app allows for a lot of the same functionality you’ll find in the streaming service’s other interfaces. You can use the Wear OS app to control music playback on any device signed into your Spotify account, so you can do things like adjust volume, skip tracks, and browse a simplified interface to find media to play — on whichever device you’re listening on, be it your phone, tablet, desktop, smart speaker, you name it. The app also lets you listen to media without your phone. If you’ve got an LTE-enabled watch, Spotify can stream right to it; or, you can download music and podcasts to the watch over Wi-Fi for offline listening through earbuds or headphones connected to the watch itself.

3 Peloton

Make your Wear OS watch a connected heart rate monitor

This one’s a little niche, but for the subset of Wear OS users who can take advantage, the Peloton Wear OS app is pretty great. It lets you use your smartwatch as a connected heart rate monitor for Peloton workouts. Once you’ve got it set up, Peloton — either in guided video workouts in the Peloton Android app or on dedicated Peloton hardware — will show both your heart rate as measured by your smartwatch and your Peloton Strive Score in real time, giving you additional insight into your workout without having to buy additional hardware.

4 Google Keep

No more paper lists

The Google Keep app for Wear OS lets you create and view notes in Google Keep right from your wrist. While the option to take notes by voice using your watch might occasionally be helpful, the ability to view notes and lists on your wrist is hugely beneficial. The most obvious use case that springs to mind is viewing a shopping list while you’re at the store, but the wearable Keep app is helpful for any info you might need to keep handy. Note content stays visible on your watch’s always-on display until you navigate away from the Keep app, making it a very handy way to keep info accessible at a moment’s notice.

5 Bring!

Groceries, handled

If you’re out for a more purpose-built grocery list experience on Wear OS, check out the Bring! app. Bring! for Wear OS syncs with the Bring! smartphone app, making it easy to manage multiple shopping lists, and Bring! even lets you store digital copies of store loyalty cards, saving you the hassle of hunting for a physical card in your wallet or opening up an app on your phone just to check out.

6 Todoist

Stay on top of to-dos

Todoist is one of the more popular to-do apps on Android, and its Wear OS companion app really sweetens the pot. You can use the app to view and manage your to-do lists from your wrist, of course, but Todoist goes above and beyond by taking advantage of Wear OS features not all apps do: it comes with a Day Progress tile that shows how many daily tasks you’ve completed at a glance, and several watch face complications: both a handy shortcut to the Todoist app, and a handful for keeping track of your goal progress.

7 Google Home

Control your smart home without a phone

If you use Google Home to manage your smart home gadgets, you owe it to yourself to give the Google Home Wear OS app a try. A watch display isn’t very useful for controlling your entire smart home at once, but you can define favorite devices that’ll automatically show up when you open the app, giving you quick access to, for example, your smart thermostat or the lights you control most frequently. Sure, you could accomplish the same tasks by talking to the Google Assistant, but for all the times you’d prefer not to speak into your watch, the Google Home app is very handy.

8 Shazam

On-the-go song ID

Shazam is one of the oldest music identification apps out there, and its Wear OS version is an excellent tool. It works more or less the same as on mobile: open the app, and it’ll listen for music and try its best to identify whichever song is playing near you. For added convenience, the app includes a watch face complication to quickly launch the music identification tool, seriously cutting down on the steps required to ID the song you’re hearing. If you often find yourself pulling your phone out to track down music you hear in public, the Shazam Wear OS app could be a major time saver.

9 Facer

So many watch faces

Every Wear OS watch comes with a selection of watch faces pre-installed, and it’s easy to find more watch faces on the Play Store, but the Facer app is a force in the user-created watch face space. The app boasts tens of thousands of ready-made watch faces, both free and paid, and Facer even provides tools that let you create your own watch faces. If you’re finding your Wear OS watch’s built-in face selection a little lacking, give Facer a shot.

10 Infinity Loop

A great time-killer

There aren’t many games worth playing on a Wear OS watch’s tiny, wrist-mounted screen, but simple puzzler Infinity Loop is a great way to kill a few minutes without reaching for your phone. The game is all about rotating small pieces of a larger image to line them all up just so, with controls so simple that they’re easy to manage even on a watch-size display. There are several types of puzzle on offer, and you can swap between them whenever you want with simple swipe-based gestures. With a calming aesthetic and simple, satisfying gameplay, Infinity Loop is worth a look if you’re tired of swiping through watch faces when you’re bored.

Even more Wear OS

We hope this list has helped you find a new favorite Wear OS app or two. For more helpful Wear OS info, check out our guide to the best tips, tricks, and tweaks to get you started on Wear OS. For a more advanced look at the ins and outs of the latest version of wearable Android, we’ve got a post outlining all the details you need to know about Wear OS 4.