One of the very real issues that any owner of an Android Wear device – that is, mostly Android-powered smartwatches to you who have been living under a rock – is the fact that their smartwatch is rendered practically useless if and when they decide to jump from an Android smartphone or tablet to another platform. In our case, the problem is jumping to iOS. Android Wear doesn’t play with iOS devices, until now, that is.
The foundation for this “hack” was set up by Pebble, that cute e-paper display smartwatch that plays well with both Android and iOS devices. For integrating its notifications with iOS, Pebble’s OS makes use of a feature in iOS 7 called the Apple Notification Center Service (ANCS), which basically allows Bluetooth devices to connect to the Apple device and show notifications.
Enter developer Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh, who has created an app that is installed on the Android Wear device to take advantage of this iOS feature. It jumps on the ANCS connection, and makes a legit connection with the iOS device in question. No jailbreaking required for this feature as well.
The caveat? (There always seems to be one.) The connection will not take advantage of all features of Android Wear like an Android device will. I guess this is understandable to a point. The ANCS connection will only allow for notifications to be displayed on your iOS device, since this is the only kind of data ANCS will let through. Still, that makes your Android Wear smartwatch go from useless to not-so-useless, if ever you want to jump platforms.
VIA: Betanews
