Use Samsung Wearable with /e/OS phone

Using /e/OS Applications
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Hi all,

I have been running /e/OS on my Moto Edge 2021 (berlna) for awhile now and most regular android apps work great. So, I figured it should also be fine when I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Fit3 watch. This is not a WearOS device, so my issue is not (I think) the same as other posters’. The Fit3 needs to be paired to the phone directly in Samsung’s ‘Wearables’ app, which I downloaded from the Murena App Lounge. In that app, I press START and it discovers my Fit3. I select it and my phone identifies the device type. I then have a numeric code appear on the watch and phone and need to confirm they are the same. I do so and so far so good. Then, the Wearables app informs me that it needs to install the plugin for the fit3. I press OK and it then opens the App Lounge, only to fail with a message ‘no such app found’ (pictured below). I figured out this plugin is available as another app, which I guess the Wearables app was trying to download from the Play Store (not present on my phone). I downloaded it manually from the Lounge and figured that would solve the problem, but this has not changed the Wearables app’s behaviour. I have been through the process many times, restarted both devices, etc. I’m pretty sure the issue lies in something that’s different between /e/OS and stock android but I’m really not sure where to go from there. I feel the trick is to get the Wearables app to recognise that its needed plugin is already installed but I don’t know how to accomplish this.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Thank you!

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Hmm, that makes me curious if this “plugin” is a stand-alone application which is only offered for specific device identifiers - or if it is only offerer in the Samsung standard app store due to modifications (different sources) for their own applications in this one.

Some people had the problem with not available applications in the app lounge due to a device identifier which resulted in the not successful search result, showing that specific applications were not available.

This was fixed with a work-around by setting the device identifier to a Nexus 6 if I recall correctly, but in your case it might be more productive to set it to a Samsung device identifier (if those applications are only available on Samsung phones in the app store).

I don’t own a Samsung phone or smart watch, so I can’t analyze the corresponding applications unfortunately. But that’s my idea of how to do an easy check if it is linked to the app store due to device identifier and not a really missing application.

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Thanks for the reply, Fox!

The Wearables app and the plugin are both available on the Google Play store and are supposed to work for any android phone. I don’t have the play store on my phone of course, so I downloaded from the Lounge. I don’t know for a fact where the Lounge apk versions are pulled from, but I assumed Google Play.

That said, maybe there is a difference between the version of the(se) apps on Google Play and those that may be available on the Galaxy store. If Lounge pulled from the latter, that could be my issue I suppose. Would this identifier discrepancy block me from downloading or using an app? I was able to download both and they both seem (looking at their listings in settings>apps) to be properly installed.

If you think this could be the issue, I’m more than happy to try it! How would I go about changing the device identifier?

Thank you very much for your response, I appreciate the help.

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Yes, most of those proprietary packages are mostly available over the google play store servers as “official source”, not open source alternatives like F-Droid.

With Aurora store (another app store application which accesses Googles play store servers) you can define the identifier of the version you want to download - of an app - but I don’t think that this is the reason for your problematic “app not found” result.

The Galaxy store could - I don’t know if they do, never used it - host applications on Samsung own servers, but if the same Samsung applications are available in the official Google play store, that would be quite unnecessary.

App lounge downloads from either the Google play store servers (for most proprietary applications) or the F-Droid servers / lists (for some / many open source softwares).

It as well had an information somewhere regarding downloads from other open source servers (for specific applications), but for applications like your “Wearables app”, they almost guaranteed use the Google play store servers for download.

Surprising that the Wearables application doesn’t recognize the already installed plugin application, if you manually installed that one. I’ll try to find an information about this problem, there should be a lot of “Wearables” app users running LineageOS or comparable on their Samsung or third party phones.

It is a more “universal” problem with the App Lounge, not linked to the Samsung applications. Some users had the problem that applications were not “found” or not “installable” on their /e/ OS, but this changed after they changed their device identifier (probably over the microG settings) to Nexus 6, falsifying their devices identifier.

In your case it wouldn’t change much, as you manually set up the plugin and if this didn’t work, then the automatic installation over App Lounge probably wouldn’t make Wearables App recognize the plugin, as well…
(Could be worth a try, tho.)

Edit: What you could try: uninstall the Wearables application, the plugin application including their user data, then first install the plugin app, afterwards the Wearables application, then start it.
Or do an enforced kill of the Wearables application, then restart it - sometimes applications need a “clean” restart to actually recognize something in terms of plugins has changed.

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The app Galaxy Wearable aka Wear requires a lot of permissions according to https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.samsung.android.app.watchmanager/latest/. Smart watches are notorious for their ability to “phone home” with unknown content, an “unknown” added plugin (perhaps you can look up the privacy score of the “plugin app”) is unlikely to be helpful for privacy.

Edit 2. Is your plugin named Galaxy Watch PlugIn? https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/413663/ says it requires 217 permissions. Also available from Aurora store.

Fails to install for me (without a connected device ofc and without original app granted all permissions) with

INSTALL_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR: INSTALL_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR: Session files in use

This use of a plugin imho does allow a great deal of intrusion to the device. Speculation install of the plugin might enforce granting of all “main app” permissions.

Edit 3. Session files in use is recorded as a known Aurora store error; may be related in a case like this to allow more time between each stage.

Agreed. If I were choosing a Smart watch to work with /e/OS and respect my privacy I would check first https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/wearables/. Gadget Bridge primarily allows one to avoid your gadget’s own proprietary app. Samsung Smart watches do not appear as supported devices. Sorry not to be of help with the difficulties you are experiencing.

Edit as mentioned by @Fox there may be unusual and device related “complications” with app-lounge currently as https://community.e.foundation/t/app-lounge-hangs-on-many-common-apps/70392.

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Forgot to answer this:

Settings → System → microG → Google device registration → not “native”, but Google Nexus 5X or whatever is there as a choice.

That should work as well for the identification of App Lounge.

And you might try another aspect under:
Settings → System → microG → Play-Store-Services

There’s “Google Play Asset Delivery”, those two (Enable on-demand asset delivery and Enable device information sync) settings could be activated to probably allow the App Lounge-installed “Wearables” app to find and download the assets necessary.

At least that’s my understanding of how those features work with the “original” Google applications. But I’m no android programmer, so it might be a misinterpretation.

That’s definitely a good recommendation - and the reason why I don’t use Samsung smartwatches at all, they demand too much proprietary bloatware for their quite simple functions (which are mostly even supported by Android natively - so there shouldn’t be a need for the Wearables application…).

For any more open source-tilted OS or ROM (de-googled like /e/ or LineageOS microG) it is definitely recommended to use devices (including smart watch) which allow to skip the proprietary baggage. Sure, there are a few unique and nice functions coming with the proprietary stuff, but if one doesn’t need this, ways better for ones private data. :+1:

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Thanks for all the feedback!

Good recommendation on gadgetbridge, @aibd . I only found out this existed while researching my present issue. My original plan was to make a fake Samsung account with a burner email address (check), set up the watch (not check), and then use /e/OS’s better privacy controls to cut internet access for both Wear and the plugin. No reason Samsung needs to know my heart rate and position in real time.

One way forward for me is to sell this watch and buy something supported by GadgetBridge. My main issues are (1) it’s unclear how good of a fitness app GadgetBridge is in its own right (can I easily see my workout history and all data, including a gpx map? Does it allow goal tracking? I can’t find any reviews of it being used as a dedicated fitness app and it doesn’t seem geared that way) and integration with stuff like openTracks seems very clunky still; and (2) I’m trying to boycott US and Chinese products at the moment and that’s why I saw my options for purchase previously limited to Samsung. I haven’t checked them all, but all GadgetBridge supported brands I’ve looked into are either out of my price range or covered by my personal boycott (Any recommendations of alternate devices are very welcome, though).

So, if I stay with this device, I’ll start by following @Fox 's suggestions. First off,

Thanks for this. I haven’t had much luck myself but you likely know better where to look.

I appreciate the suggestion. Is uninstalling by pressing and holding their icons and then pressing the ‘-’ enough? Or do I need to do something else for the user data to die as well? As of rn, I have tried just deleting Wear and reinstalling to see of it recognises the plugin - no change. How do you do a hard reset of an app?

Back to @aibd for a second though, as I haven’t answered everything.

No, what I downloaded is called ‘Galaxy Fit3 Plugin’. I should note that I am only assuming based on the name that this is what Wear was trying and failing to download originally.

A big thanks to both of you for your time and effort in trying to help me. Any more advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit: @aibd I have checked on a regular Samsung phone (I have paired my watch to my gf’s phone for now) and this is indeed the name of the plugin application it downloads.

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I find available in Aurora store.
This fails to install with

Could not get files

(with all the previous provisos)

The “two phone solution” (or three) is quite a good way to combat snoopers … if this phone is not online with other data you would prefer to keep to yourself.

When someone on the forum asked about CMF Watch Pro, I found that looked a good fit with gadget bridge; ofc as you say you still have to find a nice way to consume the readouts … I guess yet another app type to research.

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