Google Keep adds Wear OS 3 tile to quickly create notes

Over the past year especially, Google has encouraged Wear OS app developers to add tiles, and Google Keep is now the latest first-party application to do so.

It’s quite simple with two circular buttons at the center for starting a new note or list. A pill-shaped “Browse” button is at the bottom to open Google Keep and view everything that’s been created. The app icon appears at the very top.

This tile appears to only be available on Wear OS 3 devices like the Galaxy Watch 4, 5, and Montblanc Summit 3 after updating to version 5.22.322.03.97 of Google Keep. On Samsung devices, swipe left until you hit the ‘plus’ page, while people on Wear OS 2 report not encountering the tile. It joins other first-party tiles from Google Clock, Fit, and YouTube Music.

Google Keep for wearables is otherwise unchanged and in need of an eventual Material You revamp. In recent months, Google did make the time at the very top curved to follow a Wear OS 3 convention.

It otherwise uses a legacy design that would benefit from the new list style. Google Camera is evidence that the company is starting to modernize old applications, presumably ahead of the Pixel Watch launch this fall.

This addition comes as Google earlier this week released the Tiles Material library so that Wear OS developers have access to “pre-built Material components and layouts.” Conforming to the latest Material design for wearables guidance, this includes buttons, chips (in various sizes), progress arcs, and text.

More on Wear OS:

• Galaxy Watch 5 Review: Wear OS’ best gets just a little bit better
• Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Review: Mammoth multi-day wearable [Video]
• Wear OS is getting a revamped Play Store and offline Google Maps later this year
• Google Keep is getting ready to add text formatting and font sizes [U]