Introducing wearable notifications

Wearable devices are very useful for apps as they allow users to read notifications without having to reach for a handheld.

Getting ready

To make use of notifications on a wearable, we need to have the Android Support Library v4 Component or the Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 NuGet installed on our handheld project.

How to do it...

We can make notifications automatically appear on a wearable if we manage our app's notifications using the NotificationCompat type:

1. To display typical notifications on a wearable, we will build and display them using the NotificationCompat and NotificationManagerCompat types:

   var notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
     .SetSmallIcon(Android.Resource.Drawable.StatSysDownload)
     .SetContentTitle("Wearable Notifications")
     .SetContentText("This is a notification from a device.")
     .SetContentIntent(pendingIntent)
     .Build();
   var manager = NotificationManagerCompat.From(this);
   manager.Notify(NotificationId...