ile Android ar shows some flashes of brilliance in delivering actionable notifications to your wrist, the OS is still pretty rough around the edges.
Ideally, will get around to adding features fixing questionable design decisions in the coming months years. But in the meantime, a hful of third-party tweaks can make Android ar just a bit better. Here’s what we’d ultimately like to see from ‘s wearable OS, along with some improvements you can make today:
Get alerts when you forget your phone
Find My one helps prevent the awkwardness of leaving the house with your watch on your wrist, but your phone on the table.
For anyone who tends to forget his or her phone while running out the door, the smartwatch can be a lifesaver by sending an alert when the phone drops out of Bluetooth range.
at you can do: Several third-party apps provide this feature already, including Find My one. For added security, this one from Vimo bs takes the extra step of locking your phone when it loses the Bluetooth signal.
at should do: Building this functionality into Android ar would be better than making users sift through a half-dozen similar apps, could even go a step further by caching the phone’s last known coordinates on the watch.
ways answer calls on loudspeaker
ar Speaker turns on your phone’s speaker phone function.
Android ar isn’t doing you any favors by letting you answer phone calls from your wrist. th no speaker on the watch, no way to turn on your phone’s speaker remotely, you might as well just pick up the phone yourself.
at you can do: th ar Speaker, you can have your phone’s speaker switch on automatically whenever you answer a call from the smartwatch. It’s helpful if your hs aren’t free, or your phone is just out of reach.
at should do: Having a speakerphone button built directly into the call dialog would be nice, but adding call functionality to the watch itself would be even better.
event truncated notifications
arNotification Improver lets you exp notifications in apps that haven’t already been optimized for longer text blocks.
In a perfect world, all app notifications would work flawlessly on Android ar out of the box. But until more developers optimize their code, some apps will give you truncated messages. (‘re looking at you, HipChat.)
at you can do: An app called arNotification Improver can whitelist unsupported apps, letting you exp each notification to show more information. It’s not as good as full-blown ar support, but it’ll do.
at should do: If it’s already possible to make notifications look better out of the box, why doesn’t Android ar do so on its own? rhaps wants to encourage stronger developer support, but at some point it might make sense to improve the baseline experience for unsupported apps.
Remotely toggle the phone’s ringer
Notification Toggle gives you greater control over phone muting.
ile Android ar lets you “mute” watch notifications by swiping down on the screen, this doesn’t actually mute your phone. You’ll still get plenty of buzzing beeping unless you take your phone out put it on silent.
at you can do: Install Notification Toggle, set up the sound/vibration toggle (along with any others you might want to trigger remotely). The “Start toggles” voice comm will give you quick access, or you can choose “ways show” from the “More Options” section of the app.
at should do: Instead of just muting watch notifications, a downward swipe ought to mute the phone as well. It’s unclear why you’d want one of these functions without the other.
Turn off the watch’s screen at night
Slumber sets everything to black when you’re topping off your battery.
ile it’s nice that the Moto X other Android ar watches can double as clocks for your nightst, not everyone wants another light shining in their faces when they’re trying to sleep. Yet strangely, there’s no way to turn off the screen without shutting down the device itself.
at you can do: A third-party app called Slumber lets you turn the screen to black whenever the device is charging. st be aware that the app won’t work unless you’ve launched it at least once.
at should do: A black screen isn’t as good as a screen that’s completely off. How about letting us turn off the display by hitting the power button while the device is charging?
Connect to more than one device
Beenk lets you pair with a second device for more control over music playback (among other things).
One of Android ar’s smartest features is its ability to recognize when you’re playing music or Chromecasting, put the controls on your wrist. But if you’re doing so from a tablet instead of your phone, the watch won’t recognize it.
at you can do: th Beenk, you can pair an Android ar watch to more than one Android device. It’s not as seamless as it could be—to connect with a second device, you must sever the connection on the first device—but it shows a glimpse of what’s possible.
at should do: t Android ar pair with more than one device at a time, or at least allow certain types of uses—such as music video controls—from the secondary device.
Change the volume of music playback
ar Volume Control fulfills the promise of its name.
Android ar already lets you pause, rewind fast forward from the watch, but you still need to pull out your phone to adjust the volume.
at you can do: st install ar Volume Control, you’ll get a notification whenever your phone starts playing music. Tapping on it brings up a ring-shaped slider to change your phone’s volume.
at should do: Instead of creating a separate notification, Android ar’s existing music controls should have a volume button built in.
ck the screen when you’re swimming
Showear blocks unwanted touch triggers, like water droplets.
l current Android ar watches are water resistant, but that doesn’t stop them from acting strangely when you’re out for a swim. Too often, water droplets register as touches on the screen, triggering the voice comm prompt engaging with notifications at rom.
at you can do: A third-party app called Showear lets you temporarily block unwanted screen touches by setting up a lock screen pattern of your choice.
at should do: It’d be nice of Android ar could detect water-like touches on its own, or at least build in a temporary screen lock option. ‘re thinking some kind of water icon or overlay that comes up automatically, is “dried” away with a few quick shakes of the wrist.
