Getting Approved to Publish Watch Faces in Galaxy Store

[STF News]

In order to offer the best experience for consumers in Galaxy Store, watch face sellers must first be approved to publish. This approval is done by submitting an initial watch face design that demonstrates your ability to create exceptional, unique, high-quality watch faces and abide by copyright laws. This process is called a Watch Face Design Review Request.

Approval of new designers by the Galaxy Watch Review Team is very limited and only exceptional designers will be granted access to publishing their watch faces in Galaxy Store.

When can new designers apply?

Applications are only accepted during certain times of the year, this is called the “Open Window”. Visit the Watch Face Design Review page to check the status of the current application window and future open window dates.

Open Window Status

What are the application requirements?

Applications must be submitted as a single (multi-page) PDF and include the following information:

Personal Information

• A cover letter (in English) that contains a brief paragraph saying who you are, why you want to sell watch faces, and how your designs will enhance a Galaxy Watch owner’s experience
• If you are a business, a copy of DBA or articles of association or organization
• Experiences that qualify you to design and sell watch faces such as certificates or diplomas from design schools or universities, design awards, or other design experiences
• Links to your design portfolio (website, Instagram, Facebook page, or other social media sites)
• List of unique features or design elements that set your designs apart from others
• Understanding of Intellectual Property rights, specifically section 3.2 of the App Distribution Guide, regarding Intellectual Property. State in a few sentences what Intellectual Property rights are and who is responsible.

Watch Face Designs

• Include up to five watch face designs for review.
• One image of the main screen of your watch face design at a minimum dimension of 360 x 360 pixels.
• One image of your watch face applied to a watch. See below for details on generating images, tools you can use, and information about how to capture your watch face design.
• Optionally, provide any additional images that demonstrate the features of your watch face that are not shown in the main screen image (animations, tap reveal buttons, etc.).
• All watch face designs should be added as separate pages to your application PDF.
• Do NOT include binary files such as the .tpk or .gwd files.

Submitting copyright protected content

If you are submitting copyrighted content, you must include the license or official documentation showing permission to use the content with your application.

Copyright protected content may include, but is not limited to brand identifiers, public institutions, sports clubs/teams, media, products, landmarks, images of people, and original or artistic renderings of copyright protected content.

If a license or official documentation showing permission is not included, your application will be rejected.

How to apply for review

When the window for applying is open,

1. Go to Watch Face Design Review Request.
   
2. Log in using your Samsung account. If you do not have an account, sign up here.
3. Provide the required information explained in the Application Requirements section above.

Once the application window closes the Galaxy Watch Review Team may take several weeks to review all applications. At the completion of the review, applicants will be notified by email whether or not they have been selected to become watch face publishers.

After a designer has been approved, all future watch face designs are only tested for functionality before being published in Galaxy Store. The Seller Portal Review Team analyzes the user interface, confirming that there are no issues before each watch face can be published. This review process is not related to the Watch Face Design Review that permits you to become a watch face publisher.

Resources for generating watch face images

Below are links to tools for assisting with generating the required images when submitting your application. Use of these resources are optional.

• If you used Galaxy Watch Studio, from the Run window you can view and capture images of your watch face and your watch face applied to a Galaxy Watch (images are 512 x 512 pixels). View this tutorial video on capturing images using Galaxy Watch Studio.
• If you tested your design on a watch, you can capture a screenshot of your design using the watch. (images are 360 x 360 pixels).
• Once you have an image of your watch face, use the Galaxy Store Asset Creator or Lifestyle Photo Asset Packs to help create additional images (requires Adobe Photoshop).

Submit your finest

The Galaxy Watch Review Team wants to see your best! Simple watch face designs may be attractive for some, but they do not showcase your design skills. Submit designs that show your ability to create unique watch faces with a comprehensive user interface.

Simple Watch Face Design

The watch face designs you submit should only contain your original artwork and not the components provided with Galaxy Watch Studio. Your design should include custom imported watch hands and custom component graphics.

Default Galaxy Watch Studio Components

Be unique!

There are thousands of designs available for download from Galaxy Store. How will you make your design stand out from the rest? For example, if you want to design a watch face that shows battery usage and health content, using the default components provided by Galaxy Watch Studio is not enough. Create your own icons and develop your own sophisticated style.
The following watch faces are examples of rejected designs that show battery usage and health content. These designs are not sophisticated enough to show a designer’s capabilities.

 

Content appearance and arrangement
Are you providing enough information? Are you providing too much information? Are your components easy to read and understand in a glance? For example, the color or opacity of a background image or component may make the watch face difficult to read. Make sure your content is organized and easy to understand even basic information.

The following watch faces are examples that were rejected because the information provided in the design was not easy to read.

 

Image quality
Another common issue with rejected applications is that the designs are low resolution or low quality. All images should be well-defined and sharp. Images generated from a Galaxy Watch screen capture or Galaxy Watch Studio (provided that embedded images used in the design are also high quality) are acceptable. The native resolution of a screen capture from a Galaxy Watch is 360 x 360 pixels. The native resolution of a screen capture from Galaxy Watch Studio is 512 x 512 pixels. Note that if you generate your image differently, just because an image matches one of these resolutions, it does not guarantee the image is high quality. A blurry image in high resolution is still a blurry image.

Overall designs or embedded images that are pixelated or blurry will be rejected. If your design purposely contains pixelated or blurry images, please provide an explanation in the comments section of the review request. The examples below show a pixelated, a blurry, and sharp a watch face image.

 

Submitted images

A minimum of two images of your design must be submitted with your design review request. One of the images can be just a screenshot of the watch face, but the other must show how the design is displayed on a watch. For example, if the following image is submitted, the Galaxy Watch Review Team would not know what the design would look like on an actual watch. Would the watch face be centered inside the image, would the entire image fill the watch face, or would the image need to be cropped?

Example of an image that does not meet submission criteria

Examples of well-designed watch faces

The following are examples of high-quality watch faces that meet or exceed the expectations of the Galaxy Watch Review Team.

AWF New Digital by amoledwatchfaces

Matveyan - Round Rainbow by MatveyAn

USA Florencia by USA Design

WAW | FlashY by WAW Watch Faces

Application rejection

The following are common reasons why your application may be rejected:

• Design includes copyright protected content without license or official documentation showing permission to use.
• Watch face design is too simple, not unique, not creative.
• Poor appearance or design execution of watch face.
• Watch face images are low quality.
• Required watch face images are not included.

If your application is rejected, we encourage you to apply again during the next open window.

Get ready to submit!

The Galaxy Watch Review Team is always looking for talented and unique watch face designers to sell their apps in Galaxy Store. Do your research on watch faces and take your time to design the strongest, most unique watch faces you can. Once you have an extremely strong portfolio and have completed all of the application requirements, submit your application during the next open window. We’d love to see you in Galaxy Store!

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