Apple Watch pairing on Android is real but far from ready

Someone has finally managed to get an Apple Watch properly paired and activated from an Android phone, with no iPhone needed for the initial setup.

The Apple Watch Companion project popped up on GitHub on October 9, and it goes much further than just piping a few Android notifications to the watch. The software recreates enough of Apple’s own pairing system to find the watch, pair it, activate it, reconnect later and control parts of it from Android.

The missing iPhone is the important part

Apple’s official setup instructions still begin by telling users to pair their Apple Watch with an iPhone. Even Apple Watch models with cellular connectivity need an iPhone during the initial setup, so Android users cannot normally take a new or reset watch out of the box and activate it.

We have already seen phone makers chip away at that restriction. Xiaomi now lets an Apple Watch work with its Android phones, bringing calls, messages, notifications and some health data into HyperOS 4. The rather large catch is that an iPhone is still needed to set up and activate the watch before Xiaomi takes over.

The Apple Watch Companion goes further because it attempts to handle the original pairing and activation process itself. In the developer’s test, the Apple Watch was set up directly from Android without an iPhone acting as the middleman.

This is nowhere near a normal Android app

Before anyone gets too excited, the current setup is about as far from plug and play as it gets. The Android version requires a rooted phone and a Magisk module that interacts with the phone’s Bluetooth hardware. If the phrase “Magisk module” means nothing to you, this is not something you should be installing yet.

The project documentation says the Android hardware layer currently accepts only the OnePlus CPH2653, better known as the OnePlus 13. Testing has been carried out with an Apple Watch Ultra 2 running watchOS 26.2 build 23S303. That is a very specific combination.

A code update published on October 13 removed some of the hard-coded Apple Watch Ultra 2 restrictions. That should make it easier to add other models, but it does not mean those watches have suddenly been tested or confirmed to work. T

Some of the basics already work. You can see watch information, change a few settings and mess around with native watch faces. Getting an Apple Watch paired, activated and reconnecting securely to Android is the clever bit, but that does not suddenly turn it into a fully working Android smartwatch.

There are still plenty of gaps. Health and activity syncing is unfinished, calls and audio are not properly working yet, and notifications are still a work in progress. So yes, you can get past the Apple pairing setup without an iPhone, but you are still a long way from replacing Apple’s Watch app.

It is still worth noting

People have been trying to get Apple Watch working properly with Android for years, but it has always been far too messy for normal use. This project is not ready for everyday users either, but it does show that an Android phone can pair and activate the watch without an iPhone.

Making it genuinely useful will be much harder. Notifications, calls, health syncing and software updates all need to work reliably, while support would also have to expand to many more phones and Apple Watch models.

So no, this is not a reason to buy an Apple Watch for your Android phone just yet. It is still an early project for people who are happy rooting phones and dealing with unfinished software, but proving that an iPhone is not essential during pairing makes it worth watching.