How can I use Views in a Watchface for Wear OS?

Question

When I want to insert a view in my watchface (class: CanvasWatchFaceService), findViewById is not resolved. I need it for AnimatedDrawable.

Answer 1

I wrote a blog post on the subject a few years back: Layout-based Watch Faces for Android Wear. Because it was written in 2015, a few details have changed - like the name of the OS, and steps for creating the initial project in Android Studio - but the general approach still works.

Also, here's a more recent sample where I used the technique specifically for animations: https://github.com/StringMon/io18watchface