Tutorials

15 trucos Wear OS: exprime al máximo tu reloj inteligente

Do you have a smartwatch with Wear OS and want to get the most out of it? Well, we’ve put together the best selection of tricks for you to get the most out of Wear OS. Get save battery power, you go faster, active hidden functions and more.

Google has been in the market for watch operating systems since March 2014. What was originally known as Android Wear was renamed Wear OS in an attempt to disengage from phone software. After more than seven years of history, Google has managed to evolve it to what it is today: the most versatile system for smartwatches . And with a remarkable amount of tricks, often very hidden.

Wear OS cheat list

  • 1. How to lock your watch with a security code.
  • 2. Install the applications from your mobile.
  • 3. How to uninstall the applications.
  • 4. Steps to take screenshots in Wear OS.
  • 5. Browse the Internet from your watch.
  • 6. Install your Spotify playlists on the clock.
  • 7. Create your own “watchfaces”.
  • 8. Turn off (or turn on) Google Assistant voice control.
  • 9. How to completely erase your Wear OS watch.
  • 10. So you can find your lost watch.
  • 11. Save battery with saving mode.
  • 12. How to enable developer settings in Wear OS.
  • 13. Speed ​​up your Wear OS watch.
  • 14. Uninstall the apps that cannot be removed (carefully).
  • 15. How to install APKs on your Wear OS watch.

How to lock your watch with a security code

Wear OS Lock Screen

Wear OS can add extra security so that the watch locks as you remove it from your wrist. This lock must be activated by default when using Google Pay (otherwise it does not work), but there is no reason to turn on Pay to have the screen lock:

  • Go to your watch settings.
  • Go to the “Personalization” menu. Depending on your device, the lock may be found within the “Security” menu (as in the Galaxy Watch 4).
  • Click on “Screen lock”.
  • Select whether you want to lock the watch with a PIN (recommended), a password, or an unlock pattern.
  • Repeat your selection twice to check that you remember how to unlock the device and accept.

Wear OS will lock the screen when it detects that you are not wearing the watch on your wrist. It will also block access to Google Pay: in both cases you will have to enter your unlocking method to continue using the device .

Install the applications from your mobile

Wear Os tricks

Google recently activated the installation of apps from your mobile, you no longer have to look for them on the clock. For it:

  • Open the store on your phone.
  • Access the Wear OS section.
  • Locate the app you want and look at the arrow that appears to the right of the “Install” button. Click there.
  • Choose if you want to install the application on the mobile and on the watch or only on your Wear OS.
  • Click on “Install” and it will download to your smartwatch .

How to uninstall the apps

Wear Os Uninstall

All the applications you have downloaded (and some pre-installed by the manufacturer) can be deleted from the watch . The process is simple, you just have to do the following steps:

  • Enter the Google Play application on your watch.
  • Scroll down to “My apps”.
  • Tap on the app you want to remove.
  • Scroll down to the “Uninstall” option and click there. The application will be removed from your smartwatch .

With this method you can only remove user applications, those that you have installed (and some not essential for the clock). You can remove the rest of the apps with great caution, access trick number 19.

Steps to take screenshots in Wear OS

Take a screenshot

Sometimes it is more practical to capture the watch screen than to take a photo of it with your phone. Google offers this functionality in smartwatches , for this you must do the following:

  • Open the Wear OS application on your mobile.
  • Click on the three menu points and select ” Capture the clock screen “.
  • The system will capture the image and display a notification on the phone.
  • Click on the notification and choose where in

    Odd Browser for Wear OS 🌎: Fast, Private & Secure

    Odd Browser for Wear OS 🌎: Fast, Private & Secure

    • Developer: Nasai
    • Download it at: Google Play
    • Price: Free
    • Category: Tools

    That your watch is a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4? Well, the manufacturer has adapted its Internet browser to Wear OS watches.

    Install your Spotify playlists on the clock

    Download Spotify Watch Wear Os

    If you have Spotify Premium, you don’t need to carry your mobile to listen to music since you can use the Wear OS app to store the songs on the watch. The process is the following:

    • Install the Spotify app on your Wear OS.
    • Open the list of applications on your watch and access the Spotify app.
    • Once you are at the beginning (where the playback controls) scroll to the screen on the right, the one that offers access to your user’s playlists.
    • Choose the list you want to download and enter it, always from the clock .
    • You will see that the message ” Download on Watchappears below the play icon . Click there to start the download.
    • The process can take longer if the playlist is very long, you must take that into account.
    • In the event that Spotify refuses to download the charts, make sure the watch is connected to a WiFi network. Then, disconnect the phone’s Bluetooth to force the smartwatch to download over said WiFi .

    Once you have the list (or lists) on the smartwatch, connect your Bluetooth headphones to the watch and you can take the music anywhere without having to carry like the mobile.

    Create your own “watchfaces”

    Watchfaces Wear Os

    Wear OS has a huge number of watch faces in the Google Play store. However, there is the possibility of creating your own: this way you will personalize your watch to the maximum .

    You can create your spheres with various apps, below we show you the best ones.

    Facer: wallpapers

    Facer: wallpapers

    • Developer: Little Labs, Inc.
    • Download it at: Google Play
    • Price: Free
    • Category: Personalization

    Watch Faces - WatchMaker 100,000 Faces

    Watch Faces – WatchMaker 100,000 Faces

    • Developer: androidslide
    • Download it at: Google Play
    • Price: Free
    • Category: Personalization

    Watch Face Designer - Pujie Black - Wear OS

    Watch Face Designer – Pujie Black – Wear OS

    • Developer: Pujie
    • Download it at: Google Play
    • Price: 1.99 euros
    • Category: Personalization

    Watch Face - Minimal & Elegant for Android Wear OS

    Watch Face – Minimal & Elegant for Android Wear OS

    • Developer: Studio eXtreme
    • Download it at: Google Play
    • Price: 1.99 euros
    • Category: Personalization

    Samsung offers a tool for PC and Mac with which to create “watchfaces” from the computer. It is aimed at the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, but you can export the APK to install the spheres created in other Wear OS watches.

    Turn off (or turn on) Google Assistant voice control

    Google Assistant Wear Os

    Not that the wizard works very well on Wear OS as Google hasn’t finished fixing the “Ok Google” recognition bug . So it is best to disable it:

    • Go to Wear OS settings.
    • Go to “Personalization”.
    • Scroll down to the “Ok, Google” command menu and disable it.
    • In the event that you do not have it active, you can turn it on from that same button. Although it probably still won’t work for you.

    How to completely erase your Wear OS watch

    Wear Os Reset

    Do you want to delete everything on your watch? Because you want to change your phone, start over or simply because you want to sell it. Well, to format it or restore it to the factory, you just have to follow the following steps:

    • Access the clock settings.
    • Go to “System”. In the Galaxy Watch 4 you must go to “General”.
    • Click on “Reset”. On some watches the message may vary (“Disconnect and reset”, “Unpair from phone” …).

    Important: remember that all the content of your watch will be erased . Make sure you made a backup from the phone app before.

    So you can find your lost watch

    In general, the watch does not usually get lost: having it anchored to the wrist prevents this. Still, you may have taken it off to shower and don’t know where you left it . Or worse, maybe it was taken from you.

    In both cases it is possible to find a lost Wear OS, although the second possibility is much more doubtful (unfortunately). For both options we will use Google’s “Find my device” service.

    • Enter the Google website and log in with your account.
    • Choose your Wear OS from the list.
    • If you know that the clock is at home, click on ” Play sound ” and sharpen your ears until you discover where the smartwatch is, guided by its beeps.
    • In the event that you no longer have your Wear OS because it was removed or lost, take a look at where it is on the map. If you are lucky it will still be there : go find it as soon as possible.

    Save battery with saving mode

    Wear Os battery

    Wear OS watches include a battery saving mode that can be activated from the settings. Generally, you should do the following steps:

    • Access your watch settings and go to the “System” options.
    • Enter “Battery” and activate the saving mode. In addition, you can make Wear OS save extra power when the battery reaches 10% if you activate that setting.
    • In the event that saving mode does not appear on your watch, you can search for it in the developer settings . Activate this menu with trick 12 and activate the battery saver from the development options.

    Unfortunately, not all manufacturers offer battery saver mode for their watches . If you can’t find it from the battery settings or from the developer options, it probably can’t be activated.

    How to enable developer settings in Wear OS

    As with Android phones, Wear OS also has advanced configuration options. These options are intended for developers, but there are certain settings that are very useful for other users.

    Do you want to enable developer settings on your Wear OS? Let’s see the steps.

    • Access the settings of your Wear OS smartwatch and scroll down to “System”.
    • Go to “Information”.
    • Find the ” Build Number ” and press several times until the developer options are activated. If the build number does not appear, press repeatedly on ” Software version ” or similar message.
    • Go back to the settings and you will see that the new developer menu has appeared.

    Speed ​​up your Wear OS watch

    Wear Os animations

    Since you’ve turned on developer settings, why not take advantage of it? One of the most useful tricks is to disable Wear OS animations. This way you will make your watch faster by saving, bouncing, some battery.

    • Access the developer settings in the Wear OS settings menu.
    • Find the three scale settings: “Window Animation Scale,” “Transition-Animation Scale,” and “Animation Duration Scale.”
    • Enter the menu of each scale and set it to ” Animation off “.

    Uninstall the apps that cannot be removed (carefully)

    Wear OS is still an Android adapted to wrist devices. And, thanks to ADB, it also allows you to remove system applications that insist on draining the battery or malfunctioning. As usual, you must be extremely careful with what you remove . If you make a mistake, your Wear OS may stop working.

    • You need to have ADB active on your computer. In case you haven’t installed it, start with this step.
    • Make sure both the watch and the computer are connected to the same WiFi network .
    • Access the Watch 4 settings, enter “Connections”, go to “Wi-Fi”, enter the network where you have connected and write down the IP address of your watch.
    Electrocardiogram Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
    • Go into the developer options and activate ADB debugging and “Debug with WiFi”.
    • Open a terminal window on your computer, go to the folder where you have installed ADB (“Platform-Tools”) and type “adb kill-server” (without the quotes) to stop the process. To start it again, and make sure there is no other device using the connection, type “adb start-server”. Daemon should start normally. Note that if you use a macOS or Linux computer, you must write “./” in front of each ADB instruction . The above would look like this: “./adb start-server” (without the quotes).
    • Turn to connect by wireless ADB to your Wear OS: write “adb connect xx.xxx.xx.xx” changing the X’s for the IP address you had pointed out. Accept debug on the clock: terminal should reflect successful connection.
    Electrocardiogram Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
    • When you are correctly connected to the clock, type “adb devices” and check that it is detected.
    • Activate the shell in the command window by typing “adb shell”.
    • Turn to get the full list of apps that are installed on the watch. Type “pm list packages -s”.
    • Locate the app you want to remove and note its package name.
    • Type “pm uninstall -k –user 0 xxx” changing the xxx to the name of the package you want to uninstall . Press intro.
    • If the terminal shows a “Success”, the application has been successfully removed. Type “exit” to exit the shell and disconnect the ADB from the developer options of your watch .

    How to install APKs on your Wear OS watch

    Electrocardiogram Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

    The “Success” notice alerts that the app was installed using wireless ADB

    As with an Android mobile, Wear OS also supports the installation of applications in APK format (no downloads from Google Play). Of course, the step is a bit more cumbersome since you have to use wireless ADB.

    • As with uninstalling apps, make sure that ADB works on your computer and that you have ADB activated over WiFi on your Wear OS watch. Both devices must be on the same network .
    • Check that the clock is connected correctly by typing “adb devices” in the terminal window. Remember that if you have a macOS computer you must write “./” in front of each instruction.
    • Type “adb connect xx.xxx.xx.xx” changing the X’s to the IP address your Wear OS is connected to.
    • Move the APK of the application you want to install to the “platform-tools” folder, where you have the ADB software. Rename the APK to something you can easily write , like “shm.apk”.
    • Write “adb -s xx.xxx.xx.xx install shm.apk” changing the X’s for the IP of the clock.
    • If a “Success” appears, the APK will have been installed correctly.

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