Pixel Watch and GrapheneOS

Kamaehuakanaloa

mylesofsmiles Appreciate the link. I will like experiment with this on my sandbox Pixel 7 Pro.

BalooRJ

Saw in another thread that there are plans to put GrapheneOS on the Pixel tablet. Any plans for the Pixel Watch as well?

Kamaehuakanaloa

BalooRJ I don't have any inside knowledge, but would venture to say that GOS on a Pixel watch would be significantly more challenging than GOS on a Pixel tablet. The native tablet is already running Android, whereas the I am pretty sure the Pixel watch is natively running wearos. But anyone please feel free to correct me if I am incorrect.

newbie24689

Kamaehuakanaloa

My suspicion as well.
And as you mentioned earlier, ISTM that the wearos watch - given its dependency on Google stuff on the phone, and especially in LTE version - would serve to increase the attack surface of your P6/7.
For me, a smart watch is very important (presently have an Apple watch), and FWIW am looking at Zepp/amazfit watches running gadgetbridge as a possibility; don't have a P7 yet.

Duct9143

mylesofsmiles do you know which permissions the watch needs exactly? And does it need them permanently or just for the initial setup?

mylesofsmiles

Duct9143 Initially when I was setting it up I couldn't pair the watch until it had enough permissions to connect to my phone and Google Play Services. The watch app is using the following permissions: Calendar, Call logs, Contacts, Nearby devices, Phone and SMS. All are relatively harmless from my perspective compared to the additional utility they provide but everyone has a different threat model. Could you get away with fewer permissions? Possibly? I am not the one who is going to try it though because everything works great as it is!

Fhggyy5767

mylesofsmiles How's the watch working out for you on GOS? Do you get security updates? I'm also curious if the step counter is accurate. Battery life?

Kamaehuakanaloa

mylesofsmiles I too would like to know how your experience has been. Did you find any permissions that you were able to delete post installation? Also, is your watch bluetooth only, or does it have LTE, and if so, were you successful in getting the LTE activated on your carrier?

mylesofsmiles

Fhggyy5767 Yep, it works great. It does everything I allow it to without any issues. I have the LTE version and can easily get the 24 hours they claim. I could technically go longer but I charge it nightly to have enough battery for sleep tracking. I did turn off always on display, tilt to wake and always on Google Assistant which definitely help extend battery life.

mylesofsmiles

Kamaehuakanaloa It has been nearly perfect. I have the LTE version and I haven't bothered playing around with permissions because I granted each one as I went along to use features as needed. I mentioned it earlier but I will write it again: you can't activate LTE service from GrapheneOS. You have to use another device with your SIM card if T-Mobile (US) is your carrier.

mylesofsmiles

I was finally able to get a chance to test out GPay today on the Pixel Watch and I am pleased to report it works flawlessly!

Fhggyy5767

mylesofsmiles Hello. I'm glad you replied. My Galaxy 46 stopped tracking sleep about a week ago. I was hoping you didn't get burned out on your watch and vanish. lol. I'm excited about picking one up again.

Fhggyy5767

mylesofsmiles I remember you saying that you had to activate on another device to get the LTE running. Can you please post the settings you had to permit to get the watch up and running again or point me to the post you made with the settings? After I get it up and running I'll experiment with revoking as many permissions as possible while keeping everything running and post those settings back on this thread.

Fhggyy5767

mylesofsmiles Actually if you already know the minimum amount of permissions needed I'll follow your guide.

w9925

Can someone say wich permissions are needed for the following apps/services to run an Pixel Watch?
-Pixel Watch App
-Google Service Framework
-Google Play Services
-Google Play Store

It would be also nice to know if the permission is only requiriered during setup or also for daily usage.

w9925

Is it possilbe to get the App running in Work Profile?

joeth

Adding to this, I was able to get my watch paired successfully to my GrapheneOS phone, and google pay contactless appears to work too.

knirirr

joeth do you mind if I ask how you were able to add cards to Google Pay for use on the watch? I don't have an Android Wear device at present so I'm not able to try it out.

SinsErased

I'm glad I came across this thread. I just got the 7 Pro and a Pixel Watch. Saw a lot of other talks about how wearables didn't play well with GOS. Now that I know different and my watch is already set up, I know what I'm doing with my free time :)

free23

Slightly off topic but I have a Garmin instinct 2 solar with Garmin pay which meets the same need as the OP. I charge it about once a month. It does not have a microphone which is one thing I was looking for. The watch syncs perfectly with the Android app and I get notifications, Can use the watch to find my phone and also can set up a notification when the phone disconnects so I don't accidentally leave my phone behind. Once you set up your cards in Garmin pay on the watch technically you could disconnect it from the app so none of your data is going to Garmin, but having a look over the Garmin privacy policy it's definitely a lot friendlier than the Google privacy policy.

Vagabond8630

antsyboy

any better alternatives for more privacy-focused people

I don't have a Pixel watch (or even a Pixel for that matter but I'm here because I'm looking to switch to a Pixel 8 running GOS), but I would echo what free23 said - a Garmin fitness tracker would offer better privacy than a fully-fledged smart watch like a Pixel Watch.

I have both a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro and a Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, and I feel more at peace with my Garmin and its privacy policy. But I still use the Galaxy Watch as my main smart watch, because the Garmin doesn't support unicode (baffling...) and can't display notifications in non-Latin languages, so I can't use it to receive notifications, which is the biggest reason I use a smart watch.

The other reason is that I use the watch's NFC chip for my public transport card, which is not possible with my Garmin.

On the flip side, Garmin does have Garmin Pay, but I'm living in a country where Garmin Pay is unsupported, so that doesn't benefit me at all.

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