For those 2 or 3 of you wondering if it's possible to use an AW with an Android phone, the answer is sort of. It seems that Apple has been continuously changing the AW's to be more and more independent of their mother phones. Anyway I'm a tinkerer at heart so I decided to give this a go with my AW 7 that's collecting dust since I switched to a Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. My AW7 does not have cellular service, but my AW Ultra that is on the UPS truck today does have cellular service, so I'll be able to report a bit more after that. If it's not clear, you are NOT connecting the AW to an Android phone in any way, shape, or form. You are simply using the AW standalone, but you will see it works *almost* as well as natively. Scroll down for more.
Caveats:
-You have to have an iPhone stashed in a drawer at home, both to setup the watch and also to function as a server the watch pulls from, but any old cheapie iPhone will do. I currently am using my old 13 pro max, but I also have a ip6 which cost $60 from Swappa.
-If you want to message with your phone number you will need a Mac computer as a server, but if you want to message with your email then you don't. The functionality for using your phone number comes from BlueBubbles which is an Android app that enables Apple Messages. There is a further caveat that you need to do some finagling with switching SIMs to make your home-stashed iPhone work if you want to user your phone number. It's not rocket science in the least, but there are some hoops to jump through.
-Can't make phone calls from the watch, I have to verify this when I receive my cellular Ultra today, but so far on wifi it's a no go. This is the major caveat, it doesn't bother me because I never use this functionality, but if you need it then this is a deal breaker. It may work because my new Ultra will be number matched by Verizon, where my current AW7 isn't, but I'm not sure what craziness will happen when I swap my SIM card.
What I can do:
-Messages work perfectly, I can use EVERY single feature messages has including tapbacks, read receipts, typing indicators, etc on the Android phone. On the AW I can use the messages app on the watch itself to receive and send messages natively, no issues works perfectly. With the Android app it makes it feel like its synced up with the AW even though it isn't. I get a new Apple message, my Android phone lights up at the same time as my AW with the notification and I can take action with either device.
-Google Voice: I use this a lot with my non family/friends connections and messaging seems to work perfectly. No phone calls yet, but I suspect that's because I don't have cellular. I can't access messages on the AW except when incoming, and then I can only do a canned response, but that's the same as if I was using it natively on an iPhone.
-Workouts: I use the FITIV pulse app for workouts, this works seamlessly on the AW with no iPhone needed, it also syncs my workouts to the FITIV app on the iPhone, which syncs it universally including my Android phone. Very slick and works perfectly. I haven't tried stock Apple workouts.
-Email: Works perfectly, no issues, I use the stock Apple mail app.
-Battery life: So far I haven't noticed any difference. Yesterday I ran it all day on wifi, so at home/work it was on wifi, but anytime in between it was searching. Even with the searching I still got home with about 40% left, which is about what I would have if I had my iPhone with me. I expect better battery life once I'm on cellular and it's not searching anymore.
-Other apps work perfectly right on the AW, for example Ring shows me someone ringing my doorbell, Schlage shows me my door has been locked/unlocked, even my home shortcuts like turning lights on/off work off my AW just fine.
-Reminders works perfectly, Samsung has a sync option to sync my reminders with my Microsoft account so these all come through on both devices.
-Calendar appointments are synced up through Microsoft, so they come through all devices.
-Autheticator apps works perfectly to sign into sites/apps, requests come through on my AW, I'm using Microsoft's authenticator.
-What else? I'll be playing around with this more today, and in particular when my Ultra arrives in the mail with Verizon number sharing and cellular network.
Edit: Phone works!! This is with the AW Ultra registered on Verizon with number synced to my cellular line and with my SIM in my Fold 4. The host iPhone does not have a SIM installed and is only on Wifi. So when I'm near the iPhone calls don't work, I'm assuming I just have to break the connection between the AW and iPhone locally via bluetooth but still have to play around with it. When I'm away from the iPhone calls work perfectly, I can make and receive calls and outgoing calls show up as my main phone number caller ID. Even Google Voice works perfectly as that's forwarded to my main number.
Caveats:
-You have to have an iPhone stashed in a drawer at home, both to setup the watch and also to function as a server the watch pulls from, but any old cheapie iPhone will do. I currently am using my old 13 pro max, but I also have a ip6 which cost $60 from Swappa.
-If you want to message with your phone number you will need a Mac computer as a server, but if you want to message with your email then you don't. The functionality for using your phone number comes from BlueBubbles which is an Android app that enables Apple Messages. There is a further caveat that you need to do some finagling with switching SIMs to make your home-stashed iPhone work if you want to user your phone number. It's not rocket science in the least, but there are some hoops to jump through.
-Can't make phone calls from the watch, I have to verify this when I receive my cellular Ultra today, but so far on wifi it's a no go. This is the major caveat, it doesn't bother me because I never use this functionality, but if you need it then this is a deal breaker. It may work because my new Ultra will be number matched by Verizon, where my current AW7 isn't, but I'm not sure what craziness will happen when I swap my SIM card.
What I can do:
-Messages work perfectly, I can use EVERY single feature messages has including tapbacks, read receipts, typing indicators, etc on the Android phone. On the AW I can use the messages app on the watch itself to receive and send messages natively, no issues works perfectly. With the Android app it makes it feel like its synced up with the AW even though it isn't. I get a new Apple message, my Android phone lights up at the same time as my AW with the notification and I can take action with either device.
-Google Voice: I use this a lot with my non family/friends connections and messaging seems to work perfectly. No phone calls yet, but I suspect that's because I don't have cellular. I can't access messages on the AW except when incoming, and then I can only do a canned response, but that's the same as if I was using it natively on an iPhone.
-Workouts: I use the FITIV pulse app for workouts, this works seamlessly on the AW with no iPhone needed, it also syncs my workouts to the FITIV app on the iPhone, which syncs it universally including my Android phone. Very slick and works perfectly. I haven't tried stock Apple workouts.
-Email: Works perfectly, no issues, I use the stock Apple mail app.
-Battery life: So far I haven't noticed any difference. Yesterday I ran it all day on wifi, so at home/work it was on wifi, but anytime in between it was searching. Even with the searching I still got home with about 40% left, which is about what I would have if I had my iPhone with me. I expect better battery life once I'm on cellular and it's not searching anymore.
-Other apps work perfectly right on the AW, for example Ring shows me someone ringing my doorbell, Schlage shows me my door has been locked/unlocked, even my home shortcuts like turning lights on/off work off my AW just fine.
-Reminders works perfectly, Samsung has a sync option to sync my reminders with my Microsoft account so these all come through on both devices.
-Calendar appointments are synced up through Microsoft, so they come through all devices.
-Autheticator apps works perfectly to sign into sites/apps, requests come through on my AW, I'm using Microsoft's authenticator.
-What else? I'll be playing around with this more today, and in particular when my Ultra arrives in the mail with Verizon number sharing and cellular network.
Edit: Phone works!! This is with the AW Ultra registered on Verizon with number synced to my cellular line and with my SIM in my Fold 4. The host iPhone does not have a SIM installed and is only on Wifi. So when I'm near the iPhone calls don't work, I'm assuming I just have to break the connection between the AW and iPhone locally via bluetooth but still have to play around with it. When I'm away from the iPhone calls work perfectly, I can make and receive calls and outgoing calls show up as my main phone number caller ID. Even Google Voice works perfectly as that's forwarded to my main number.
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