Developer MohammadAG gets Android Wear to work with iPhones, sort of

Google has hinted that it could eventually make Android Wear work with iPhones, but as the wearables platform is getting close to its first birthday, we’re yet to see an official integration. The good news is, if you really want to use your Android Wear smartwatch with an iOS device, an unofficial solution may be coming.

Android developer Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh, widely known on XDA as MohammadAG, found a way to push notifications from iOS to AW. MohammadAG, who is known for his work developing Xposed Framework modules, used a feature called Apple Notification Center Service (ANSC) that was first introduced on iOS7. This is the same feature that allows Pebble to receive notifications from iPhones via Bluetooth. Because it’s built into the operating system, making use of ANSC doesn’t require a special app – notifications from any app can be pushed automatically to a connected smartwatch.

To enable the feature, MohammadAG created an .apk that needs to run on the smartwatch, and the developer said he’s considering open-sourcing it. You will still need an Android device to set up the smartwatch and get apps on it, but the good news is you can use any iOS7 or higher Apple device, no jailbreak required.

Now, the Android Wear experience is more than just notifications and MohammadAG admits that this ANSC-based implementation is limited. But if you just want simple notifications, this could do. We’ll keep an eye on this little project and let you know when, if ever, becomes available.