Google’s Wear OS has long been able to control smart home devices thanks to Google Assistant, but it’s never had a touch-based method of doing so. This week, the popular open-source smart home client “Home Assistant” has debuted a full Wear OS app with smart home controls.
Home Assistant is an open-source client for smart home automation. Different from the smart home apps such as Google Home and Apple’s “Home” app on iOS, this app is meant for DIY users and offers more complex controls over various types of smart home gear, but it also requires a lot more work to get things up and running. Still, it’s a useful tool for many that can do a lot.
Yesterday, the team behind Home Assistant announced in a blog post that it is releasing an official Wear OS app for Home Assistant, bringing controls for devices and other “entities” to your wrist. On top of the app itself, there’s also a Tile provided by Home Assistant which allows even quicker access to certain devices and automation.
Notably, this app is currently only available in beta form for now, but the developers felt it was ready for users to start taking advantage of.
As of today you can login to the app using either the watch or you can open up the phone app and head over to App Configuration and login using the new Wear OS settings section! Once you are logged in you will see a brief loading screen while we get your entities ready.
The Wear OS app also offers a tile for even faster access to execute or toggle your devices without needing to open the app. You can select up to 7 entities to toggle or execute inside the settings portion of the app.
Notably, and impressively, Home Assistant is already using some elements of the stock design of Wear OS 3 in its app, before the platform has even extended beyond the Galaxy Watch 4 series. However, the app does work on Wear OS 2 (as the developer shows it on a Fossil Julianna HR.
More on Wear OS:
- Google releases a new Wear OS 3 preview, offering a better look at the design outside of Samsung
- Fossil cancels unannounced Diesel-branded Gen 6 Wear OS watch
- Wear OS gets redesigned ‘System updates’ screen that explicitly mentions the ‘Android version’
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