All the watch faces I designed were ruined in the new app editor. They did not fit in the screen and the layers I programmed with tap actions were nowhere to be seen. It changed the dimensions of shapes I created, ruining all my watch faces. That is HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF PROGRAMMING, ALL LOST!!! I AM ENRAGED!!!
Whatever legal reasons there were to change it should have just been limited to the restrictions, but redesigning the whole interface was absolutely unnecessary. I took great pleasure creating and programming my watch faces, and now they are all lost, and even if they weren’t, the new app editor is GARBAGE, and unusable to me. Everything that was good and enjoyable about the previous version of the app was erased and replaced by the worst interface I have ever seen. Thank you for running everything that made using the app such a delightful experience, and replacing it with such a disgustingly worthless piece of crap without any consideration or a minimum of respect to ask the user. I would never use the new version of the app, even if my life depended on it!!!
Hey Ricardo — I get why you’re frustrated, especially given how much time you’ve put into your designs.
The issue here is that Google has moved to the new Watch Face Format, which removes a lot of the functionality the old editor relied on (like certain tap actions, scripting, and layout behaviour). Because of that, some older faces simply won’t work the same way anymore — that’s not something we can fully restore on our side.
We didn’t redesign things just for the sake of it — these changes were required to keep the app supported going forward. We are working to support as many features as possible within the constraints of Google’s new Watch Face Format, while keeping things stable going forward.
Honestly this looks more like a Google issue than a WatchMaker one.
They changed how watch faces work with the new format, so a lot of the old behaviour just isn’t supported anymore. Any app in this space is dealing with the same thing - WatchMaker more than others as the functionality was so advanced.
Also the new editor is actually really good — way smoother and more powerful than before once you get used to it. It’s clearly had a big makeover.
It sucks for older designs, but overall this feels like a step forward rather than backwards.
I agree with you 100% ! I love the old format and I have such typical day with the new one
The layers show text so large that you don’t even know what the text was supposed to say
Editng the opacity field is a horror. I have some watches with very long formulas in the opacity field and it’s so difficult now!
The text sizing in layers and the formula editing experience have both now been updated in the latest version, which should help a lot with longer expressions.
Part of the reason we built Studio was to create a more consistent editor across mobile and desktop, and to align things much more closely with how WFF/native watch faces actually behave. That has also made it much easier for us to roll out new features faster across all platforms instead of maintaining completely separate systems.
Since Studio launched, creators have already built nearly 5,000 watch faces with it, and we’ve got a lot more features planned.
We did try to keep the mobile Studio experience as close as possible to the original editor, while still modernising the underlying system. We know long-time creators had very established workflows, so we’re actively taking on feedback and continuing to refine things with each update.