Chapter 22
Wear OS Watch and Automation
Your station on your wrist, and in your own automations.
The app has a companion for Wear OS watches. It shows what the phone app has, and sends through it: the phone does the radio and APRS-IS work, the watch is a remote for it.
#Installing
With the phone app installed from Google Play, open the Play Store on the watch and install G7JJF APRS (or choose the watch in the phone's Play Store listing). The watch must be paired with the phone through the watch maker's app (Galaxy Wearable, Pixel Watch, Wear OS). Nothing needs setting up: the watch finds the phone app by itself.
The phone app also offers it: when a Wear OS watch is connected that does not have the watch app, the app asks once (a few seconds after it starts) whether to install it, and Open on watch opens the watch app's Play Store page on the watch — tap Install there. Android does not let one app install another on a watch, so that last tap is yours. Each watch is asked once; Menu → Tools → Install on Watch offers it again, or tells you the watch app is already installed.
#Screens
| Screen | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Home | Your callsign, the connection status line from the phone's notification and when it was last updated; Beacon now, Messages, Nearby, Status, Emergency and About. |
| Beacon now | Sends a position beacon from the phone at once — GPS if it has a fix, otherwise the QTH — exactly like the Beacon Quick Settings tile. |
| Messages | Conversations, newest first, with the latest message. New message asks for a callsign. |
| Conversation | The last ten messages (✓ acknowledged, ✗ failed, … waiting; a multi-part reply shows as one), quick replies (OK, Thanks, QSL, 73, Yes, No, On my way, Call me) and a text box — the watch keyboard offers typing and voice. |
| Nearby | The ten nearest stations with a position heard in the last hour: arrow, distance, direction and how long ago (🌤 marks a weather station). Tap one for its details — what it is, speed, heading and altitude when moving, its comment, whether it was heard on radio or via the internet — and its latest weather (temperature, wind, gust, humidity, pressure, rain) in your units. Message starts a conversation with it; Find opens the compass below. |
| Find | A large arrow that keeps pointing at the station as you turn — using the watch's compass, corrected for magnetic variation — with the distance and bearing. While it is open the phone sends positions every 5 seconds and the screen stays on; leaving it stops both. |
| Status | Send a status report from the phone: QRV, QRT, Mobile, Portable, On summit, Back home, or your own (typed or spoken). |
| Emergency | Starts the phone's emergency beacon (chapter 17) — hold the red button for two seconds, so it can't be set off by accident; the watch buzzes when it starts. While it runs, home shows EMERGENCY ON — stop, which opens Stop emergency. |
| About | The watch app's version and build, the phone app's version (when connected) and your station — useful when reporting a problem. |
Swipe right, or tap the title (shown with ‹), to go back a screen; swipe right on the home screen to close the app. Incoming messages also appear as phone notifications on the watch, with the watch's own Reply button, whether or not the watch app is installed.
#Watch tile
The watch app also has a tile — swipe from the watch face to reach it. To add it, long-press the watch face (or swipe to the end of your tiles and tap +) and choose G7JJF APRS.
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Callsign and status | Your station and the phone's connection status line. |
| Beacon now | Sends a beacon from the phone at once and shows "Beacon sent" — one tap, one beacon. |
| ✉ line | The latest incoming message, with the number of new ones since you last looked at messages on the watch. Tap to open Messages. |
| ↗ line | The nearest station: arrow, callsign, distance and direction. Tap to open Nearby. |
| updated … | How old the information is. |
While the tile is on screen it asks the phone for fresh information and redraws when it arrives, usually within a second or two. When you swipe away, the phone stops sending — like the app, the tile costs no battery in the background. "Open the phone app" means the watch has had nothing from the phone yet.
#Watch-face complication
Watch faces with complication slots can show G7JJF APRS: long-press the watch face, choose Customise (or Edit), pick a slot and choose G7JJF APRS. A short slot shows ✉ and the number of new messages; a long slot adds the nearest station and its distance. Tap it to open the watch app — at Messages when there are new ones.
The complication never polls. The phone sends the watch one update when a new message arrives — even with the watch app closed, so the count is right — and otherwise only while the app or tile is shown.
#Automation (Tasker and similar apps)
With Settings → Station → Automation → Allow automation apps on, other apps can control the app with broadcast intents, and receive its events. In Tasker, use Send Intent (Target: Broadcast Receiver) for commands and the Intent Received event for events; extras become %variables.
| Command (action) | Extras | Does |
|---|---|---|
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.action.BEACON | — | Send a position beacon now. |
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.action.SEND_MESSAGE | to, text | Send an APRS message (to: up to 9 characters; text: up to 67, { | ~ removed). |
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.action.SEND_STATUS | text | Send a status report to APRS-IS. |
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.action.CONNECT | — | Connect to APRS-IS. |
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.action.DISCONNECT | — | Disconnect from APRS-IS. |
| Event (action) | Extras | When |
|---|---|---|
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.event.MESSAGE_RECEIVED | from, text | A message addressed to you arrives. |
| com.g7jjf.aprsclient.event.STATION_NEARBY | call, text | A proximity alert fires (Settings → Proximity Alert); text is for example 2.3 km NE of you. |
Commands work while the app's background service is running; Android does not let another app's broadcast start it. Ignored commands are noted in the app's log with the reason.