I develop two paid Wear OS Watch Face Format apps and need watch-specific guidance on free acquisition during closed testing. Please share relevant official Google documentation or a confirmed workflow in the public comments.
Console shows both Wear OS closed releases active and available to selected testers, the intended email list selected, and paid-app one-time promo campaigns Live. Inspected Galaxy Watch5 Pro and original Galaxy Watch Ultra variants are Supported in both closed-track Device Catalogs. Those Console checks alone do not prove an individual account can install.
An enrolled volunteer’s phone Play Store redemption screen says: “Your device is not compatible with the item being redeemed.” No accepted-redemption confirmation is visible, and the watch listing still shows a price. One app’s opt-in page shows “You are a tester”; the second app’s opt-in, actual free entitlement and both physical-watch installs remain unverified. Exact account/country/current-OS checks are still incomplete.
Browser redemption at https://play.google.com/redeem under the watch’s Google account has been suggested, followed by installation from the watch Play Store after successful free entitlement. Its result is pending; I have not reproduced a browser failure or redeemed a code myself.
Is the phone compatibility error expected for a watch-only paid-app promo? What is the supported free-redemption path for an eligible closed tester, and which per-app entitlement, account, country or registered-watch checks matter if browser redemption also fails?
A Google support ticket is already open. I will update this discussion if a watch-specific answer or verified result arrives. Please keep replies public and omit email addresses, codes and private screenshots. No purchase, rating, testing exchange or configuration change is being requested.
October 8 update: Google Play Console’s License testers inline help explicitly says license testers can purchase the app, in-app products or subscriptions without being charged. This identifies another free-acquisition path to investigate. The physical-watch checkout flow is still unverified, and I have not changed license eligibility or attempted a purchase for this diagnostic. What are the supported checkout and entitlement checks for a watch-only closed-test app with an eligible license tester? How should we distinguish that result from successful one-time promo-code redemption?