Google’s platform for wearable devices, Android Wear, is only compatible with the company’s own mobile operating system. Android Wear watches need to be hooked up to a compatible Android device so that all of the features can be used. While Google has hinted in the past that iOS might be supported in the future it hasn’t done so up till now. However an independent developer has been able to get Android Wear working with his iPhone, which as you all know, runs iOS and not Android.
Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh, more commonly known in the Android developer community as MohammadAG, has posted a video online that shows his iPhone 6 pushing a notification to the Android Wear powered Moto 360 smartwatch.
The developer basically used the same method to get these two devices talking that a Pebble uses to communicate with an iPhone for notifications. It makes use of the Apple Notification Center Service or ANCS which is built into iOS 7 and later releases, which allows the smartphone to connect to other devices over Bluetooth for the purpose of pushing notifications.
So MohammadAG simply installed a small app on the iPhone 6 and got the smartphone to push notifications to the Moto 360. That’s all that can be done with this app for now, for other features like directions, email or even Google Now users still require a compatible Android device.
This is more of a proof of concept that Android Wear devices can communicate with an iOS device, it is not entirely impossible, the developer says that he might release this companion app online in the near future.
Filed in . Read more about Android Wear, iOS, iPhone and Wearable Tech.