Smart Watch Wear API:
Build for the workout and the moments between.

Match the API to the experience

For a Wear OS workout experience, Health Services provides exercise and measurement APIs on supported devices. For data already stored on a phone, a health data store is a different integration path. Vendor cloud records form another path again. These surfaces should not be treated as interchangeable. Decide whether the feature must respond during an activity or can wait until records have been synchronized.

Discover capabilities instead of assuming them

The metrics an app can request depend on the device and the relevant API. Check capabilities before exposing a feature. Design a useful fallback for a watch that cannot provide a chosen measurement. Distinguish an unsupported metric from a supported metric that is temporarily unavailable. Your user should not have to infer the difference from an empty chart.

Give sessions and permissions a lifecycle

Represent workout start, pause, resume, completion, and recovery intentionally. Decide which records are provisional and which summarize a completed session. Request permissions at the point where their purpose is clear. Test interrupted activity, application restarts, and delayed phone synchronization. Keep measurement time separate from the time your application receives a record, particularly when combining a watch session with other sources.

Make your first integration plan

Use the Docs and illustrative record examples to turn these questions into a small data contract. Then review the integration cost checklist before expanding device coverage. The goal is a first implementation whose assumptions are visible and testable.