Customizing wearable notifications

Notifications displayed on the wearable offer a hands-free experience for using apps; however, it is often desirable to provide the user with a wearable-specific experience.

How to do it...

Notifications from a handheld device can be easily displayed on wearables, but we can also provide special features for notifications that will only appear on a wearable:

1. We can customize the appearance of notifications using extenders, such as NotificationCompat.WearableExtender for wearable devices:

   var background = BitmapFactory.DecodeResource(
     Resources, Resource.Drawable.notificationBackground);
   var extender = new NotificationCompat.WearableExtender()
     .SetHintHideIcon(true)
     .SetBackground(background);

2. We can also use extenders to provide specific action buttons for the wearable, instead of just using the actions from a handheld:

   var icon = Android.Resource.Drawable.IcDialogDialer;
   var action = new NotificationCompat.Action(
     icon, "Make Call", pendingIntent...