pebble/devsite/source/_posts/2016-08-19-prime-time-is-approaching-for-os-4.0.md

title	author	tags
Prime Time is Approaching for OS 4.0	jonb	Freshly Baked

Pebble developers of the world unite! Pebble OS 4.0 is just around the corner and it's now time to put those finishing touches on your projects, and prepare them for publishing!

Pebble Time owners will be receiving OS 4.0 before Kickstarter backers receive their Pebble 2 watches, so we're recommending that developers publish their 4.0 watchapps and watchfaces into the appstore from August 31st onwards.

We'll be promoting new and updated apps which utilize the new SDK 4.0 APIs and features by creating a brand new category in the appstore called 'Optimized for 4.0'. This is your time to shine!

If you haven't even begun to prepare for 4.0, there are some really quick wins you can use to your advantage.

Menu Icon in the Launcher

The new launcher in 4.0 allows developers to provide a custom icon for their watchapps and watchfaces.

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If your png file is color, we will use the luminance of the image to add some subtle gray when rendering it in the launcher, rather than just black and white. Transparency will be preserved.

You should add a 25x25 png to the resources.media section of the package.json file, and set "menuIcon": true. Please note that icons that are larger will be ignored and your app will have the default icon instead.

"resources": {
  "media": [
    {
      "menuIcon": true,
      "type": "png",
      "name": "IMAGE_MENU_ICON",
      "file": "images/icon.png"
    }
  ]
}

Timeline Quick View

This new feature really brings your timeline into the present, with your next appointment appearing as a modal notification over the active watchface.

We introduced the UnobstructedArea API in 4.0 to allow developers to detect if the screen is being obstructed by a system modal. Below you can see two examples of the Simplicity watchface. The Pebble on the left is not using the UnobstructedArea API, and the Pebble on the right is.

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Watchface not updated

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Respects new 4.0 unobstructed area

You can detect changes to the available screen real-estate and then move, scale, or hide their layers to achieve an optimal layout while the screen is partially obscured. This provides a fantastic experience to your users.

There's {% guide_link user-interfaces/unobstructed-area "a dedicated guide" %} which goes into more detail about the UnobstructedArea API, it contains examples and links to sample implementations.

AppGlances

While your static app icon and app title from the package.json are being used as the default to present your app to the user, AppGlances allow developers to control this content at runtime and to provide meaningful feedback to users directly from the new launcher. The API exposes the ability to dynamically change the icon and subtitle_template_string text of your application in the launcher.

Preview version of 4.0 launcher

Utilizing the App Glance API doesn't need to be difficult. We've provided guides, examples and sample applications for using the {% guide_link user-interfaces/appglance-c "AppGlance C API" %} and the {% guide_link user-interfaces/appglance-pebblekit-js "AppGlance PebbleKit JS API" %}.

The Diorite Platform

The Diorite platform was created for the new Pebble 2 devices. Its display is rectangular, 144x168 pixels, with 2 colors (black and white). It has a microphone and heart rate monitor, but it doesn't have a compass. If your app works with Aplite it will already work with Diorite, but there are some important considerations to note:

• If you chose to limit your app to some platforms, you need to add "diorite" to your targetPlatforms in the package.json.
• Check for the appropriate usage of {% guide_link best-practices/building-for-every-pebble#available-defines-and-macros "compiler directives" %}.

In general, it's better to use capability and feature detection, rather than platform detection. For example, when dealing with resources, use the suffix ~bw instead of ~aplite so they are picked on all black and white platforms.

What's Next

We're really excited for the release of Pebble OS 4.0 and the new features it brings. It's now time for you to take advantage of the new APIs and enhance your existing projects, or even create entirely new ones!

Why not build something like the {% guide_link design-and-interaction/one-click-actions "One Click Action" %} application, which utilizes the new App Glance and AppExitReason APIs.

Please remember that we will promote watchfaces and watchapps that make use of these new 4.0 APIs if you submit them to the appstore from August 31st onwards.

Let us know on Twitter if you build something cool using the new APIs! We'd love to hear about your experiences with the SDK.

Happy Hacking!

Team Pebble