Developer Makes Galaxy Gear Work With Nexus 5

Samsung released its highly anticipated smartwatch last year. The Galaxy Gear was unveiled alongside the Galaxy Note 3, at first the phablet was the only Samsung device compatible with the smartwatch. Over time, Samsung has added support to a plethora of its existing devices, though the fact remains that Galaxy Gear can only function with Samsung devices, at least officially though. A developer has found a way to make Galaxy Gear work with Nexus 5, despite the fact that the smartwatch does not officially support this smartphone.

There are some limitations, apart from them, the smartwatch does everything when paired to a Nexus 5 that it does with a Samsung device. The obvious limitation includes unavailability of S Voice and Weather, all other functions appear to work just fine. Those who are willing to try this out on their own would need to first install the Gear Manager app on their Nexus 5, and then install a few other APKs which are needed for this hack to function.

It is not known at this point in time if this hack can make the Galaxy Gear work with other Nexus devices, such as the Nexus 4 or the Nexus 7 tablet. This hack really only helps someone who already has a Galaxy Gear, people using it on a daily basis are bound to have a compatible Samsung smartphone as well. If you use a Nexus 5 and are able to borrow a Galaxy Gear from someone just for the heck of it, then you can follow the installation instructions given here.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: galaxy gear, lg nexus 5, Samsung