Google has some clever new ideas for the Contacts Wear OS UI

Good user interface It’s important any time we use software, but it’s most important on screens that are the hardest to interact with — and you probably won’t find many people who would disagree that smartwatches are at the top of that list. As developers try to make apps as usable as possible on such small displays, every decision matters. Today, we’re checking out some great advances in just that department Google Contacts On Wear OS.

Reviewing version 1.106.0.914792851-release-wear of the Contacts app, we noticed some significant, photo-first changes to how your watch displays your contacts.

There on the left, you can see the old UI for displaying your favorite contacts, the names taking up most of the watch’s screen. But this new favorites layout on the right not only fits more contacts on the screen at once, it does so with beautiful, large, easily identifiable photos.

The same design philosophy behind this change also affects the contact details screen. Instead of the old text-rich look you see on the left, Contacts embraces a new layout that prioritizes photos and actionable buttons. If this look looks familiar to you, it’s probably for a good reason—Google is adapting it to the layout that Contacts uses for the Wear OS tile:

While some of you may prefer the way the old UI highlighted the contact’s actual phone number in the details screen, we’d argue that this is a big step forward in terms of overall usability.