Must Have Apps For Wear 3.0 and Later

[bkdodger]

It's nice changing up the look on the watch .. I'm currently rocking with a Apple watch Ultra and I love changing up the faces..

 

[mountainbikermark]

It's nice changing up the look on the watch .. I'm currently rocking with a Apple watch Ultra and I love changing up the faces..

What I'm seeing on the latest side loaded faces is they are , for some unknown reason , using battery even when the watch face is asleep . Might be the complications I've got assigned to each but until I find out how to stop the battery drain I'm not using them .

Darth Mode 10+

 

[bkdodger]

What I'm seeing on the latest side loaded faces is they are , for some unknown reason , using battery even when the watch face is asleep . Might be the complications I've got assigned to each but until I find out how to stop the battery drain I'm not using them .

Darth Mode 10+

That's a possibility depending what they pulling on the watch ...maybe start by process of elimination

 

[mountainbikermark]

With the limited knowledge I have of how to search as well as limited options for telling me what's being used on the watch it's going to be a hit or miss proposal .
I look on what's using battery and none of the complications I have set are showing as battery users at all . I don't know of a gsam or Watch Dog type app for Wear that'll tell me what's keeping the watchs' CPU from sleeping .

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

Not a must have but none the less one many might find useful .
Looking For Twitter .
Your feed , ability to tweet and other options are available on this app for those that use the app and would like to be able to use your watch instead without using the watchs' browser . You can use the speak to text option or keyboard .
Here's a test tweet I sent . Also included is a screen shot of the app and developer on the Play Store
It's free with no ads on the watch is and once installed on the watch and you're signed in you can delete the companion app from your phone .
I might actually learn how to use Twitter now that I can do so on my watch

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

There it is on the big feed so at least I got that one correct

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

We're kinda used to multi tasking on our phones with their powerful processing power but how about the smartwatch . Today I figured I'd attempt an experiment . How many can I run at 1 time ?
A count down timer , music player playing via Bluetooth , tracking a bike ride with Samsung Health , standalone GPS , and just for grins Alexa app to turn on my vaporizer via voice command . The watch didn't hiccup and I couldn't think of anything else to have running in the background while I piddled with the screen .
I remember my Gear S1 could run music , GPS and a health session but I could also watch the battery drop to nothing in a matter of minutes .

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

Amazon Music. I already have Prime and have been collecting songs for about a decade . When I order a package often it'll offer a $1 bonus toward digital media , be it a Kindle book or Amazon music to own the song . Over the years I've saved quite a bit of money that way and own a bunch of music . Anyway .
Recently Amazon has released an app for Wear to take advantage of the Amazon music media , be it personal playlists , random songs from playlists longer Spotify , and Pandora . There's a standalone app for the watch or you can marry your phone app and watch app to get a LOT more choices and speed and battery life on the watch because your watch is basically a butler for the phone music player .
If you use Amazon music at all you'll probably enjoy this app after a learning curve of how to use the darn thing . On the phone it's pretty intuitive but on the watch (as a standalone ) it's kind of a mess to navigate until you get used to it . One example is if using the player standalone on the watch it won't play until your watch is connected via Bluetooth to some form of speaker , be it a speaker or headphones . Even though the watch has a speaker it won't play through it , unlike the Samsung built in music player on the watch .
I've included some screen shots of the watch player .

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

Hopefully I haven't confused anyone with my convoluted description of the watch player . It's not bad , much better than Spotify app ,imo, and when using your phone as the workhouse it really is a pretty good combo .
Here's some screen shots of the phone player , including a way to upgrade my free subscription to allow me to download any Amazon music content as part of the subscription . The only caveat with that is 1 it costs monthly and 2 the only way to play on my normal music player is to pirate the files , sort of like DRM stripping . I've got unlimited data so I'll just continue to own what I own and stream what I don't for free .

Darth Mode 10+

 

[bkdodger]

Excellent thank you for sharing all this good information.. Happy New Year my friend

 

[mountainbikermark]

Excellent thank you for sharing all this good information.. Happy New Year my friend

Thank you very much
Happy New Year to you as well

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

I wouldn't call this a must have app as much as a glad I have app
Watch Reminder.
Though I found it on my phone and not watch it isn't compatible with my phone . It is a true stand alone for Android Wear .
If you , like me , want a daily pill reminder this is a way to unplug from your phone in yet another way . It can be used for any type of reminder but I choose to use mine to remind me to take my meds each morning . You'd think after years it'd be automatic but in my case it still hasn't become automatic .
The free version doesn't allow multi day timers ($1.99 1 time for premium upgrade) but for 1 time or just to try before buy you'll be able to explore the app to see if it's for you .
There's not a bunch of bells and whistles to setting things up , no special notification ability but what it does it does well on my Galaxy Watch 4.
Sliding left, right , up , down is how you navigate and tapping the back button on your watch is how you escape after naming the reminder .
Time will tell if it's a battery hog and I'll post back if it is one .
Here's some screen shots .

Darth Mode 10+

 

[mountainbikermark]

Stopped working.
Abandoned by developer.
Don't waste your money or time on Watch Reminder

Darth Mode 10+

 

[bkdodger]

Stopped working.
Abandoned by developer.
Don't waste your money or time on Watch Reminder

Darth Mode 10+

Thanks for sharing

 

[mountainbikermark]

Last year I wrote about Next texting app and its benefits on a watch . Their latest update is supposed to make it so you can use it when away from Bluetooth (Wi-Fi or LTE) but there's a bug in it where you must sync the app before using EVERY time when away from Bluetooth then back on Bluetooth then off again (etc) . Over Wi-Fi it's a very minimal annoyance but on LTE it takes minutes to sync because it has to go through the Google cloud ( for supposed security reasons ) and by then I'm usually back on Bluetooth . This gets into some bugs with the Galaxy watches and LTE that have never been addressed since day 1 and Samsung still refuses to even admit exist .
Because of that I'm going to write about the stock messaging app after the latest Galaxy Watch 4&5 updates in my next reply for those of us using the LTE model or those who use Wi-Fi on their watches as needed .

Darth Mode 10+