[Other SmartWatches] she1don:
Minor status update:

TL; DR

Without out 4-pin usb cable, can’t really do anything.

The long and short of it all is

Pro

NOVA Launcher remains my adopted launcher in use for better UI experience.

Tasker proving to be a godsend for minor and custom tweaks e.g. changing wallpaper every hour, auto on & off of wifi.

Although I have a SIM card with FREE activate service, the free option does not allow much for data. So instead, I tether my watch wifi to my phone’s mobile hotspot. I tap Google Assistant on my watch to “give me 5 minutes” countdown, or look up something.

Near future project in wanting to streamline the Google Assistant usage, especially for reminders, I am creating a Tasker shortcut that will shunt whatever voice (memo) I babble and attach to a Google Keep entry and a default alarm to remind me when I am back home or later in the day. Suppose to solve those situations when wanting to note something for later but do not have the time, means, or hands to belabor with opening the app, typing an entry with enough to refresh my brain, and setting the specific time. (Google no longer supports alarm by location, BUT Bixby does and so does Tasker.)

Alas, not everything works.

Cons

The battery drains like crazy, BUT I can manage to get through most days (from ~0630 hr thru 1700 hr) without a midday recharging.

That is foregoing the screen on with raised wrist turned on. Seems every time I move, the watch registers a wrist movement and turns on the screen. I shorten the screen time-out to lowest setting but every time the screen is on, display drains the battery.

I had attempted replacing raised wrist activation, with a simple Tasker profile and task. Profile > Event > shake, Task > Action > display Turn On, Wait 5 seconds, display Turn Off. But works first and one time only after calibrating under Tasker Preferences.

Because of the battery drain, I am jealous of those, both Apple Watch and other smartwatch wearers how they are able having animated watch faces.

The charger cable the came with my watch has 2 pins sitting on a circular pad, with weak magnet. Once positioned, the watch charges fine.

I am jealous also of the wireless (pinless) magnetic circular charging pads most smart watches use.

The main and persistent problem is not having Notification Access. Any third party app cannot “read” notifications.

What about the watch itself? Answer: Turns out notifications do appear, when I opt having them show up on locked screen but only then do they appear. Once, unlocked, or even tapping the locked screen to unlock, gone are the notifications. And I can receive notifications from Discord, email, text messages, or self-initiated by app e.g. Tasker, I hear the notification chime.

Many expressed discontent and frustration having stripped down Android Go 8 (Oreo) that has no Notification Access.

https://android.stackexchange.com/q...ication-access-is-not-available-on-android-go

There are two suggested solutions.

1. Root the phone / watch

2. Without rooting, using a third party app to change a particular setting from ‘false’ to ‘true’.

OK, here is the problem.

Although existing rooting apps do run on the watch, and I tried all the four major ones Kingo, OneClick, Magisk, and RootMaster, my watch has a locked bootlauncher which renders them useless. In order to unlock the bootlauncher, I must connect my watch to a computer and use some software.

Fine. But I do not have the cable that I can connect my watch to a computer.

So I cannot root my watch without a preliminary step which requires having a 4-pin circular charger pad.

I have purchased three different such chargers for my watch, the one for Google Pixel 2, one for the Versa Fitbit band, and one for the Amazon Fitbit band, all of which “fitted” meaning the 4-pins aligned with the watch but none of them charged my watch let alone allowed me to connect my watch to the computer.

For the life or me, I cannot find the correct 4-pin circular charger pad that will connect my watch to a computer.

There is the suggestion that can change particular setting via adb which can be done wirelessly. . . . BUT

All the third party “Settings” apps allow me, at best, to turn on USB debugging mode. There is no wireless option to toggle on or off.

That is where adb comes in. The vague reference of possibility suggested by posting #106 does not give step-by-step instruction on how —without ever using a USB cable.

But here is the problem, in order to adb wireless, one must first . . . you guessed it, connect the watch to a computer. Once that is done, one can then adb wireless.

I am debating between trying with another watch e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Fitness-Exercise-Tracking-Resistant/dp/B0CP69XQDN/ with hope runs a stripped down Android Go that has notification access.

Or

Struggle without Notification access until I can find and get a hold of a fitting 4-pin circular charger pad that will connect my watch to a computer.