protonsavy
Newbie
I have recently bought 360 sport and the apps seem like small extensions of phone apps, and many times all they do is show notifications only... any useful apps out there?
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Favorite watch face apps?
- Thread starter protonsavy
- Start date
Outatime
Android Expert
Hello!!
My #1 must have is WatchMaker Pro. I have tried and bought a LOT of faces and this one wins hands down at both customization power and battery longevity. It is really good.
Beyond that I'm pretty light on apps, outside of what's automatically installed. I find PixtoCam useful from time to time.
My #1 must have is WatchMaker Pro. I have tried and bought a LOT of faces and this one wins hands down at both customization power and battery longevity. It is really good.
Beyond that I'm pretty light on apps, outside of what's automatically installed. I find PixtoCam useful from time to time.
electricpete
Android Expert
+1 watchmaker.
+1 PixtoCam - looking around behind things to take a photo is good. Picture trying to find a link under the sink.
From the makers of PixtoCam is a very similar app - "Look Behind". It has one capability that PixtoCam doesn't have: you can have the phone camera light on continuously to light things up while you are viewing the phone camera feed on your watch. It's like having your own boroscope... very handy when poking around in a dark place. Unfortunately Look Behind can't take photos so I use both depending on my purpose (look behind for looking and PixtoCam if I need a photo).
Flashlight app is handy and has earned a shortcut on my homescreen. Fumbling for the keys? Wake watch, tap and it's bright. Well not superbright but better than nothing in a pinch.
"Do Button" app by IFTTT can be a trigger for a whole slew of things if you have an IFTTT account (which is free). Note this does NOT require you to have IFTTT app installed on your phone.. that thing has way too many permissions for me and IFTTT account can still do a whole lot without IFTTT app.
Lightr - can change the timeout for screen-off (I use it when I want to temporarily alter the setting I put into watchmaker)
There are a variety of ways to get weather: built in weather app; you can put it on your watchface with Watchmaker, but I like Aeris weather app... the amount of info displayed is just right and well formatted for easy viewing on a watchface.
If you end up with a lot of apps you may want an "app launcher" to help find them. Many people use Wear Launcher. I like Apollo Launcher better myself.. there's a thread on it in the Android Wear forum.
You mentioned a lot of watch apps are just an extension of phone apps, but that can be extremely useful:
+1 PixtoCam - looking around behind things to take a photo is good. Picture trying to find a link under the sink.
From the makers of PixtoCam is a very similar app - "Look Behind". It has one capability that PixtoCam doesn't have: you can have the phone camera light on continuously to light things up while you are viewing the phone camera feed on your watch. It's like having your own boroscope... very handy when poking around in a dark place. Unfortunately Look Behind can't take photos so I use both depending on my purpose (look behind for looking and PixtoCam if I need a photo).
Flashlight app is handy and has earned a shortcut on my homescreen. Fumbling for the keys? Wake watch, tap and it's bright. Well not superbright but better than nothing in a pinch.
"Do Button" app by IFTTT can be a trigger for a whole slew of things if you have an IFTTT account (which is free). Note this does NOT require you to have IFTTT app installed on your phone.. that thing has way too many permissions for me and IFTTT account can still do a whole lot without IFTTT app.
Lightr - can change the timeout for screen-off (I use it when I want to temporarily alter the setting I put into watchmaker)
There are a variety of ways to get weather: built in weather app; you can put it on your watchface with Watchmaker, but I like Aeris weather app... the amount of info displayed is just right and well formatted for easy viewing on a watchface.
If you end up with a lot of apps you may want an "app launcher" to help find them. Many people use Wear Launcher. I like Apollo Launcher better myself.. there's a thread on it in the Android Wear forum.
You mentioned a lot of watch apps are just an extension of phone apps, but that can be extremely useful:
Media control - start / stop / pause whatever is playing on your phone without taking out your phone. I listen to a lot of podcasts with beyondpod and the on-watch controls are great. A lot of apps also let me start/stop/pause when I am chromecasting from phone to tv.
sms messages - when I get an SMS (google messenger app), it pops up on my watchface, I can swipe over and "view conversation" and it gets marked as "read" (which turns off the repeating alert I have set up in tasker for unread sms). The bottom line I got the info and turned off the alert without taking phone out.
gmails - I can scan them as they come in and clear the notification or archive them as I see fit. That way when I get to my phone later there is not as many notifications to deal with.
To-do - I use gtasks to manage my life with list of many things to do every day. When one pops up I have three choices from the watch: snooze, mark done; dismiss notification (the last one takes it off of notification tray but doesn't remove it from chronological list of things due).
I also have a keyword that I put into certain gtasks reminders to signify high-priority items. When tasker sees that keyword in the resulting gtasks notification that pops up at the reminder time, then tasker sets an alarm labeled with contents of notification for one minute later (in case I don't notice the notification). The alarm is great for flawlessly getting my attention without disturbing others around me (starts very soft and very slowly increases volume, with vibration on both phone and watch the whole time). The watch displays there alarm and allows me to immediately snooze or silence it without even taking my phone out. It's bullet proof in that I cannot possibly miss an alarm. When the scenario repeats many times a day, it's a great convenience and makes the whole setup work better (so I am not frantically digging for my phone to stop the sound from disturbing people around me). I have a whole thread on this I can dig up if you have tasker and are more interested in this approach.
sms messages - when I get an SMS (google messenger app), it pops up on my watchface, I can swipe over and "view conversation" and it gets marked as "read" (which turns off the repeating alert I have set up in tasker for unread sms). The bottom line I got the info and turned off the alert without taking phone out.
gmails - I can scan them as they come in and clear the notification or archive them as I see fit. That way when I get to my phone later there is not as many notifications to deal with.
To-do - I use gtasks to manage my life with list of many things to do every day. When one pops up I have three choices from the watch: snooze, mark done; dismiss notification (the last one takes it off of notification tray but doesn't remove it from chronological list of things due).
I also have a keyword that I put into certain gtasks reminders to signify high-priority items. When tasker sees that keyword in the resulting gtasks notification that pops up at the reminder time, then tasker sets an alarm labeled with contents of notification for one minute later (in case I don't notice the notification). The alarm is great for flawlessly getting my attention without disturbing others around me (starts very soft and very slowly increases volume, with vibration on both phone and watch the whole time). The watch displays there alarm and allows me to immediately snooze or silence it without even taking my phone out. It's bullet proof in that I cannot possibly miss an alarm. When the scenario repeats many times a day, it's a great convenience and makes the whole setup work better (so I am not frantically digging for my phone to stop the sound from disturbing people around me). I have a whole thread on this I can dig up if you have tasker and are more interested in this approach.
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watchamaker premium is free in amazon underground apps.
If you are a musician, there are several tuner apps.