[Samsung Galaxy Gear] Dylan_x10:
Disa and the Galaxy Gear

So I have a Galaxy Gear and Note 3. If any of you out there own a Galaxy Gear you will know that you can only use the stock messaging app if you want the ability to reply to text messages directly from the watch, without rooting and using a custom rom. But now there is a new alternative to the hideous stock messaging app and that is Disa.im. Disa.im is a new messaging app that is currently in open beta phase.

Disa is based off the Hangouts design principles and is a very good looking messaging app. Disa is also absolutely unique in the fact that it allows for integration of messaging and WhatsApp messages within the one app. They are currently working on including other messengers as well including but potentially not limited to Facebook Messenger and Hangouts.

How does it work?

1.	What gives Disa.im the ability to allow for stock messaging notifications to be sent to the Gear is the option within the app to allow for SMS Fall Through. What this means is that all new received SMS will fall through to the stock app, triggering the stock notification hence sending that notification to the Gear. You can then reply to the messages from the Gear and the new message will be created and sent through the stock messaging app.

2.	Normally this would create an issue in the fact that the new SMS sent from the Gear through through the stock messaging app would not show within the new messaging app, Disa, which is the case with a number of other after market messaging apps. But the good news is, Disa has another option which allows for Syncing of SMS/MMS with the Android message database. This allows for the apps to work in ‘Hybrid Mode’, so any messages sent from stock app will be in Disa and vice versa.

3.	Having messages received by Disa, and falling through to the stock app, this would generate 2 notifications on the actual handset. If you turn off notifications within the stock messaging app, they won’t get generated and sent to the Gear, making this solution not really a solution at all. But… within Settings>General>Application Manager there is the option to turn off notifications for individual application. This seems to actually only turn off the visibility of the notification not the generation of the notification itself. So if we deactivate that for the stock messaging app, it still gets generated by the system and sent to the Gear, so when you get a text message, you only see the Disa notification on the phone and the stock messaging notification on the Gear.

4.	Within Gear Manager you will only have to have notifications for stock Messaging app turned on. If you have Disa notifications turned on also you will get 2 notifications of a message on the Gear

IMPORTANT: Please be aware that Disa was not designed this way specifically for the Galaxy Gear, this is just something I noticed and worked through to come up with this particular solution. Please do not ask the Disa developers for support with issues with notifications on your Galaxy Gear.

Limitations:

The above will work perfectly if you choose to just use Disa.im as a SMS replacement app. If you choose to use Disa.im to have What’sapp messages as well then a choice needs to be made. The options are as follows:

1.	Don’t turn on Disa.im notifications within Gear Manager. This will continue to work as mentioned above, but you wont get any notifications for What’sapp messages received through Disa.im

2.	Turn on Disa.im notifications within Gear Manager. This will allow you to get Disa.im What’sapp notifications on the Gear but will cause you to also get Disa.im SMS notifications as well as stock messaging notifications. So every SMS you receive will have 2 notifications on the Gear. A good thing is though, the stock messaging notification will show on the Gear before the Disa.im one, so the only time you know that Disa.im one is there is when you go to Notifications area. So in practice, its not too bad.

To get it working you need the following:

Samsung Device running 4.3 Touchwiz

Galaxy Gear

Galaxy Gear Manager 1.6

Disa.im - Disa is currently in Beta and can be downloaded through their Google+ Community https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/114009566886187417546

Google+ App

Steps to installation and Setup

When choosing which number to go down to, please see limitations above

Disa.im with text messages

1.	Ensure device meets the above requirements

2.	Go to Disa group above and apply for Beta Tester status and download the Disa app to your mobile device

3.	Once Disa.im is downloaded, open the app and go to Settings, and click on ‘Add Service’.

4.	Let the app find the relevant APN and then select ‘Sync SMS/MMS’ and ‘Fall Through’

5.	Close the app

6.	Open Android Settings, click General, Click Application Manager, swipe until you get to ‘All’ and find the Messages app in the list

7.	Click it, and then uncheck the ‘Show Notifications’ check box

8.	Open Gear Manager, select Notifications, ensure that Messages is ticked

9.	Send yourself a test text message. Remember that the Gear only receives notifications when the phones screen is off.

Disa.im with text and WhatsApp but no WhatsApp notification on Gear

10.	Do all of the steps above

11.	If you have WhatsApp currently installed, uninstall it

12.	Within the Google+ app, go to the Disa.im Community Group, click on Plugin Release (DO NOT POST) subsection

13.	Find the latest WhatsApp plugin release post, click on the link and download the plugin

14.	Once downloaded, Open Disa.im, go to Settings, and click on ‘Add Service’ and select WhatsApp

15.	Set up the service the same way you do in the standard WhatsApp

16.	Get a friend to send you a test WhatsApp

Disa.im with Text and WhatsApp and Notifications for both on Gear (double text message notif)

17.	Do all of the steps above

18.	Open Gear Manager, select Notifications, select More Notifications, ensure that Disa is ticked

19.	Get a friend to send you a test WhatsApp. Remember that the Gear only receives notifications when the phones screen is off

I hope the above helps anyone that is over the stock messaging apps but wants the extra functions on the Galaxy Gear.

Hit thanks if this helped

Regards,

Dylan