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Control your smart home with Android Wear

Published Jul 4th, 2014 12:00PM EDT
Android Wear Home Automation

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If the existence of smartwatches is predicated on convenience — they need to be significantly more accessible than our phones. That’s why Android Wear’s out-of-the-box compatibility with AutoApps is a great sign for the future of wearable tech. Spending some time with Android Wear before it launched, developer Doug Gregory managed to adapt his home automation system to work with his brand new Gear Live smartwatch.

Gregory had to gain root access in order to enable voice commands, but he’s confident developers will find alternative methods shortly after Google officially launches Android Wear.

In the video demonstration, we can see how seamlessly the Android-based AutoApps translate to Android Wear. Gregory is able to turn individual lights in his living room on and off with the tap of a button. Another button press opens and closes his garage door. The apps work remotely as well, swapping between photos Gregory had stored on his device to indicate whether the lights were on or the garage door was closed.

If you have a home automation system of your own you’d like to pair with your Android Wear device, Gregory conveniently listed the hardware and software he used for his set up:

Hardware:
DKC AutoVera Starter Pack with Vera Lite and 2 Z-Wave Modules, 5 NFC Tags and $10 Play Store Gift Card-http://www.dkcautomation.com/products…
HTC One
Samsung Gear Live w/Android Wear

Software:
Tasker – https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
AutoVera – https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
AutoNotification – https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
AutoVoice – https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…
Xposed with Google Search API (latest version from XDA-http://forum.xda-developers.com/xpose…)

Check out the video of AutoApps running on Android Wear below:

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.