Apple Watch with Android – The Tallest Dwarf

Recently, a friend died of unknown natural causes in his sleep while alone in a hotel in a foreign country. I can’t deny the idea that if they were wearing a smart watch, they might have a better chance of calling for help, and maybe even be alerted to some discrepancy in their vital signs.

There’s no shortage of smartwatches on the market that offer health monitoring solutions, but the Apple Watch has led the way in accuracy for heart rate, sleep, and activity tracking for years; in fact, the 4-year-old Apple Watch is more accurate than its nearest commercial competitors .¹

The only thing is, a few years ago I got tired of Apple’s walled garden and decided I wasn’t going to give Apple any more money,²abuse of monopoly power^3,3.1blatant desire for porn⁴ Marketing, Anti-Maintenance Agenda^4.1 ETC.

Instead, I’ve been happily using refurbished BLE smartwatches and refurbished smartphones for years, with great support from the open source community.

gadget bridge,⁵ By getting rid of the manufacturer’s proprietary apps, I have complete control over the data in my smart watch. hereditary operating system⁶ together with microG⁷ and F-Droid⁷ Allow me to have a private and secure smartphone and protect my data from Google and its data-hoarding partners; thanks to a vibrant and committed open source community.

Sometimes I even dabble in mainline Linux smartphones powered by postmarketOS⁸ and smart watches equipped with Asteroid OS^8.1 Recovering from fatigue caused by the smartphone ecosystem duopoly.

My Gadgetbridge compatible watch does not have fall detection or SOS functionality. The accuracy of the fitness trackers in these watches definitely doesn’t compare to the Apple Watch, and since the Apple Watch is so tightly coupled to iOS, it’s not worth the effort to make it work with Gadgetbridge.

Health tracking has become important to me, but not at the expense of the freedom and security I enjoy using computing devices powered by the open source ecosystem.

So I decided to use my Apple Watch with my Android phone Open source applications, interoperability protocols and third-party services. If you just want to use my code and techniques without reading my comments, feel free to check out my GitHub for the source code⁹.

It’s impossible to live without an iPhone, but there’s no need to carry an iPhone

I bought a refurbished cellular Apple Watch with all the health features¹⁰ I need the latest Apple Watch operating system.

My original plan was to use Apple Watch for Kids¹¹ Paired with my partner’s iPhone, I was quickly defeated because the children’s Apple Watch didn’t support important health features like EKG; even though my profile clearly stated I was an adult.

In addition, only one oligopolistic telecommunications network in my country supports the Apple Watch eSIM under the “Apple Watch for Kids” program, and when I tried it, the program immediately deactivated my network service. Luckily this was my second SIM card so I kept going.

This made it clear that I couldn’t live without an iPhone, so I bought a refurbished iPhone that still had a few years of operating system updates.

I’ve given up on my original goal of not having to buy an iPhone to use an Apple Watch with Android. But I successfully achieved my new goal of not having to carry my iPhone around with me, but still having all the features I need through my Apple Watch synced with my Android phone.

cellular network

I got the cellular network working in the Apple Watch by using the same SIM card in my iPhone as my Android phone, pairing it with the Apple Watch and setting up mobile data.

Accepting and making calls via Apple Watch (when Wifi/BT is disabled) works well, but text messaging is unavailable since the SIM card is in the Android phone; use it to send SOS messages to emergency contacts (even if they are in iMessage ʅ ₍ッ₎ʃ above); but SOS calls are valid.

notify

Implementing notifications on Apple Watch on Android requires maximum effort. But it’s worth it, as notifications are essential for productivity and saving battery on your smartphone.

I wrote a python script to read notifications in Android using the precious terminal emulator – Termux¹² (one of the main reasons why I can’t leave the Android ecosystem) and use Pushover to send it to Apple Watch¹³ – Push notification service.

calendar

Use CalDAV to sync calendar from Android to Apple Watch,¹⁴ Interoperability protocol for calendar data from my self-hosted Nextcloud server^14.1 and apps like Fossify Calendar¹⁵ & DuffX¹⁶.

Contact information

It would be weird if calls on Apple Watch only showed phone numbers, so I used CardDAV to sync contacts from Android phone to Apple Watch^{No. 17}an interoperable protocol for contact data from my self-hosted Nextcloud server and interaction with applications such as Fossify Contacts and DavX.

Task

Another advantage of using DAVx is that it allows tasks to be synchronized from task applications such as jtxBoard¹⁸ Use the interoperability agreement described above.

Tasks in Android are synced to the Apple Watch Calendar and Reminders apps.

in conclusion

I now have a fully functional Apple Watch that works with my Android phone. I leave my iPhone at home, powered on and connected to the internet, but don’t use it as a daily driver.

There is room for improvement in every aspect of the project. If you would like to contribute, please start a discussion in the GitHub project repository.

Ultimately, none of this would be possible without open source communities, interoperable protocols, and small, community-centric applications; all of which are under huge threat from vested interests.

discuss

If you would like to discuss Apple Watch and Android related matters with me, please visit any of the following social platforms – Hacker News, Mastodon, blue sky, twitter and LinkedIn.

source

1: A quantitative scientist’s review of the Apple Watch 6 heart rate tracker – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cUXNlxcKUE

2: Closed Platform- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_platform

3: The Green Bubble, Apple Pay, and Other Reasons America Is Calling Apple Illegal – https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/21/tech/america-apple-monopoly/index.html

3.1: Since Apple’s game subscription platform is named “Apple Arcade”, the “Arcade” category of games is suddenly moved to the “X” category – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28327374

4: iPhone price cuts making headlines are craving porn – https://abishekmuthian.com/iphone-price-drop-making-to-headlines-is-aspiration-porn/

4.1: Exposing every lie in MKBHD softball interview; harsh criticism of “brand safety” influencers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0DF-MOkotA

5: Gadget Bridge – https://gadgetbridge.org/

6: LineageOS – https://lineageos.org/

7: Micro G- https://microg.org/

8: Post-launch operating system – https://postmarketos.org/

8.1: Smart watch to smart clock – https://abishekmuthian.com/smart-watch-to-smart-clock/

9: Apple Watch and Android System – https://github.com/abishekmuthian/apple-watch-with-android

10: Apple Watch health functions – https://www.apple.com/in/healthcare/apple-watch/

11: Apple Watch Kids Edition – https://www.apple.com/in/apple-watch-for-your-kids/

12: Termux – https://termux.dev/en/

13: Push down – https://pushover.net/

14: CalDAV on Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV

14.1: Nextcloud – https://nextcloud.com/

15: Rigidity- https://www.fossify.org/apps/

16:DAVx- https://www.davx5.com/

17: Card DAV – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CardDAV

18: jtxBoard – https://jtx.techbee.at/