Notifications are glanceable, time-sensitive information and actions sent to the user.

## Principles

**Valuable**Ask yourself, is it worth buzzing the user's wrist for this? Does the user need to take action right now?

**Glanceable**Use small pieces of information with clear hierarchy to enable users to rapidly scan and take in information.

**Timely**Send notifications as soon as the information is relevant, especially when that information is time sensitive.

## Templates

The Wear OS app suite uses notification templates that you can adapt for your brand.

### Standard

This template works well for most notifications and includes a succinct message, a large icon when applicable, and actions.

![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_3.png)![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_7.png)

**Figure 1.**Standard template for collapsed and expanded notifications.

### Big text

Use this template to display longer text in a preview when the notification is expanded.

![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_6.png)![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_8.png)

**Figure 2.**Big text template for collapsed and expanded notifications.

### Big picture

Use this template for notifications with a picture. When a user scrolls to the notification, the picture displays for a second and then slips into the card.

![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_1.png)![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_5.png)

**Figure 3.**Big picture template for collapsed and expanded notifications.

## Messaging

Use this template to display recent chat history, and leverage Google's Smart Reply features without writing any code.

![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_7.png)![](https://developer.android.com/static/wear/images/design/notification_8.png)

**Figure 4.**Messaging template for collapsed and expanded notifications.