The open source AsteroidOS is a new alternative to Wear OS
AsteroidOS is a new Linux-based open source operating system that can be used as a replacement to Wear OS.
A small team of developers have been hard at work on the smartwatch platform for the last four years. As the culmination of their efforts, this week the first stable version was made available to the public. It plays nice with a few Wear OS-compatible smartwatches.
While still pretty basic, AsteroidOS 1.0 has most of the staples of a smartwatch. Apps for smartphone notifications, weather updates, calendar entries, alarm clock, chronograph and music playback are all included in the first release. The system is also fully translated in 20 languages.
If you want to test it out for yourself you’ll need a compatible smartwatch. The current version runs on the LG’s G Watch line, all of Asus’ Zenwatches, and Sony’s Smartwatch 3. The team plans to add support for more smartwatches in the future.
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The AsteroidOS website provides tutorials on how to port it to your device and you can even install it along with Wear OS as a dual-boot. There is also a Software Development Kit (SDK) which you can use to create your own custom applications and watchfaces.
The system relies on a stable system. The Qt 5.10 and QML are used for app development. OpenEmbedded provides a full GNU/Linux distribution and libhybris allows for easy porting to smartwatches.
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