Android ar is closing out 2014 with significant software updates geared toward personal fashion flair improved usability. The more showy enhancements include a bunch of fun, style-forward watch faces from name brs artists. But behind the scenes, is improving its smartwatch platform by making tweaks to the on-watch experience itself (everything’s listed in the bullets at the end of this story).

If you’re already a ar watch user, you’ll want this release, which is based on Android 5.0 llipop rolls out over the next week via over-the-air updates. t’s get straight to the details…

A whole new watch face platform

t’s face it: Most of the time, your ar watch functions as “just” a watch. But that’s OK, now is introducing watch face features that make the basic ar experience even more personal expressive.

First, there’s now an official watch face A that will help speed up the creation of faces that won’t break the essential Android ar experience. Second, is launching its watch face initiative with scads of new dials readouts from big-name brs. There are too many to list here, but they include games (c Man), fashion (Rebecca Minkoff), high-concept visual art (Un tite Monde), a few healthy doses of testosterone (rsche Red Bull, to name just two).

Third, a new Android ar companion app will make it easier to browse, download switch watch faces. ay itself is getting a new section devoted to watch faces as well. Bottom line: is taking watch faces very seriously—all in the effort toward making watch faces much more fun.

Quiet, but very welcome, interface tweaks

The new watch faces will certainly cause the biggest splash, because who doesn’t like customizing a smartwatch? But once all the fun dies down, we might remember this latest ar update for its usability tweaks, many of which respond to user requests. Here’s what to expect:

• The ability to retrieve cards you’ve dismissed by accident.
• Tapping on the watch face will show your most recently used actions at the top of the list.
• Swiping down from the top of the screen will give you a new settings menu (it sounds like the third-party ar Mini uncher).
• A new Theater Mode keeps the screen dim mutes vibrations in a dark room.
• Sunlight Mode boosts the screen to maximum brightness (it’s unclear if this mode automatically responds to signals from an ambient light sensor, or is entirely user activated).
• The ability to block app notifications—on the watch itself, without digging into smartphone settings.
• A new screen in the Android ar companion app that shows ar app battery storage stats.

Between new watch faces lots of nifty user-experience improvements, the latest update looks to touch on the entire Android ar experience, not just a limited use case, like offline music, which was introduced in October. Stay tuned for more coverage as our own ar watches update we get a chance to play with the new features.