WearBridge

Mirror iPhone notifications to Wear OS watches over Bluetooth Low Energy using Apple's ANCS (Apple Notification Center Service) protocol. Fully local — no cloud relay, no companion phone app required.

iPhone (iOS 26)                       Wear OS Watch
┌─────────────────────┐               ┌──────────────────────────┐
│                     │               │                          │
│  System ANCS        │◄──BLE bond──►│  BLE Central / GATT      │
│  (built-in)         │               │  ANCS Protocol Parser    │
│                     │               │  Notification Manager    │
│                     │               │  Foreground Service      │
│                     │               │                          │
└─────────────────────┘               └──────────────────────────┘

Features

• Real-time notification mirroring — messages, emails, calls, calendar alerts, and more
• 75+ app icon mappings — WhatsApp, Slack, Gmail, Instagram, Telegram, Discord, and many more show their own icons (Material Design, 25% padded for Wear OS)
• Incoming call overlay — integrated with Android Telecom framework (ConnectionService) for system-level call UI that shows over charging screen and lock screen, with Answer, Decline, and Quick Reply
• WhatsApp/FaceTime call detection — detects VoIP calls via message content heuristics
• Smart notification filtering — skips pre-existing notifications on reconnect, 60-second grace period to avoid vibration storms
• Heads-up overlays — PRIORITY_HIGH + IMPORTANCE_HIGH channels for reliable notification popups
• Auto-reconnection — exponential backoff with autoConnect for bonded devices
• Boot persistence — service auto-starts on watch reboot
• Haptic feedback — category-aware vibration patterns via direct Vibrator API (50ms for messages, double-tap for calls)
• No cloud dependency — everything runs over local BLE
• iOS companion app — single-screen status UI with auto-detection of connected watches, "How it Works" explainer, and iOS 26 icon theming

Tested Hardware

Device	Role
iPhone 17 Pro Max (iOS 26)	Notification source
Google Pixel Watch 2 (Wear OS 5)	Primary watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch (Wear OS)	Secondary — same APK

How It Works

ANCS is a system-level BLE service built into iOS. Any bonded BLE accessory can subscribe to iPhone notifications without needing an iOS app. The watch acts as a BLE central device and GATT client:

1. Watch scans and bonds with iPhone
2. Subscribes to ANCS characteristics (Data Source, then Notification Source)
3. Receives 8-byte notification events in real-time
4. Fetches notification attributes (title, message, app ID) via Control Point
5. Reassembles fragmented responses and posts native Android notifications

Project Structure

├── wearos-app/          # Wear OS app (Kotlin, Jetpack Compose)
│   └── app/src/main/java/com/wearos/ancsbridge/
│       ├── ble/         # BLE scanning, connection, GATT callbacks
│       ├── ancs/        # ANCS protocol, service, Telecom ConnectionService
│       ├── model/       # Data classes
│       ├── ui/          # Compose UI + Material Icons (main, call screen)
│       └── viewmodel/   # ViewModel
│
├── ios-app/             # iOS companion app (Swift, optional)
│   └── AncsBridge/
│       ├── BLE/         # Peripheral + Central manager, watch detection
│       ├── Views/       # Single-screen status UI, How it Works
│       └── ViewModels/  # BLE view model
│
└── master-docs/         # Research notes and ANCS spec references

Build

Wear OS App

cd wearos-app
./gradlew assembleDebug

Install on watch via ADB:

adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

iOS Companion App (Optional)

Open ios-app/AncsBridge.xcodeproj in Xcode and build. The companion app provides pairing status UI but is not required — ANCS works without it once the watch is bonded.

Setup

1. Install the APK on your Wear OS watch
2. Open the app and tap Scan
3. Select your iPhone from the device list
4. Accept the Bluetooth pairing dialog on the iPhone
5. Notifications will start mirroring automatically

Supported Apps

75+ iOS apps are mapped with custom icons, including:

WhatsApp, iMessage, Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Signal, Instagram, Threads, Facebook Messenger, Google Maps, Apple Music, YouTube, Uber, Uber Eats, Notion, GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Apple Calendar, Apple Reminders, Apple Wallet, and many more.

Unknown apps fall back to category-based icons (phone for calls, envelope for email, etc.).

Roadmap

• Incoming Call Overlay — Telecom ConnectionService integration for system-level call UI
• Quick Reply UI — 3 preset messages on decline (UI ready, BLE transport pending)
• Vibration Tuning — Category-aware haptics via direct Vibrator API (50ms messages, double-tap calls)
• Notification Icons — 37 padded Material Design icons + Lucide call icons
• WhatsApp Call Detection — Heuristic detection of VoIP calls from WhatsApp/FaceTime
• Quick Reply BLE Transport — Wire decline-with-message text to iOS companion app via custom BLE characteristic
• App Icon Support — Expand to full-color Play Store PNGs as largeIcon
• Multi-Device Pairing — Support switching between multiple Wear OS watches
• Health Data Bridge — Transfer Wear OS health/fitness data to iPhone via BLE + HealthKit

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.