Connecting Galaxy Watch to Watch Face Studio over Wi-Fi
Shamima Nasrin
Engineer, Samsung Developer Program
Watch Face Studio (WFS) is a powerful watch face design tool for Wear OS-based smartwatches that allows you to test watch faces within the tool. However, since most designers prefer testing their watch faces on real devices, WFS also provides the "Run on Device" feature that deploys watch face projects directly to real devices.
The connectivity policies have changed in Wear OS 4. This article describes how to connect a Galaxy Watch running Wear OS powered by Samsung (running Wear OS 4 or later) to WFS over Wi-Fi both through the WFS interface and through the command line interface.
Prerequisites
Prepare the Galaxy Watch for connecting to WFS over Wi-Fi:
- Disable Bluetooth on the watch.
Enable Wi-Fi on the watch and connect it to the same network as your computer. The wireless network can be through a router or a mobile hotspot.
To connect to a Wi-Fi network, go to Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi, check that Wi-Fi is enabled, and select the network to join.
Figure 1: Wi-Fi enabled on watch
If you have not already enabled Developer mode on the watch, enable it.
Go to Settings > About watch > Software information and tap the Software version item 5 times.
Figure 2: Software version item
You receive a toast notification when Developer mode is enabled. The “Developer options” menu item now can be found below “About watch” on the “Settings” menu.
Figure 3: “Developer options” item in “Settings” menu
Enable ADB debugging.
In the “Developer options” menu, toggle the ADB debugging switch on.
Figure 4: ADB debugging enabled
Enable wireless debugging.
In the “Developer options” menu, toggle the Wireless debugging switch on.
Figure 5: Wireless debugging enabled
Retrieve the connection IP address and port.
When Wireless debugging is enabled, a menu item appears with the watch’s IP address and port. Make a note of this information, as it is needed to connect the watch to WFS.
Figure 6: Connection IP address and port
Retrieve the pairing code, IP address, and port.
In the “Wireless debugging” menu, select Pair new device and note the pairing code and port number. You need this information to pair the watch with your computer.
Figure 7: Pairing information
You are now ready to connect the watch to the computer over Wi-Fi.
- Although the connection and pairing IP addresses are the same, the port numbers are different.
- The pairing code and port number can change each time you connect the watch to your computer.
Use the Watch Face Studio UI
To connect your watch to WFS for deploying and testing your watch face:
- In the top right corner of your project in Watch Face Studio, click Run on Device
Figure 8: “Run on Device” in WFS
- In the “Connected Devices” dialog, to add a new device, click the + button.
Figure 9: Adding a device
- Enter the connection and pairing information that you retrieved from the Galaxy Watch into the appropriate fields.
Figure 10: Connecting Galaxy Watch using WFS
Click OK.
The watch is added to the list of connected devices and your project can be launched on the watch.
Figure 11: Watch connected to WFS
Use the command line
You can also connect the watch to your Watch Face Studio on your computer through the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) command line tool. ADB is integrated into WFS, so a separate installation is not needed.
To pair and connect the watch and computer over Wi-Fi using ADB shell commands:
- Open the command prompt or terminal on your computer.
NoteIf you are using a Windows computer and have not set the ADB path environment variable, you must open the command prompt from within the following folder: “<Your WFS installation folder>\tools\window.” Navigate to the folder in Windows Explorer, right-click the window, and select Open PowerShell window here.
- To pair the watch and computer, run the following command with the pairing IP address and port that you retrieved from the watch:
adb pair <IP address:port> - When prompted, enter the Wi-Fi pairing code.
- To connect the watch, run the following command in the terminal with the connection IP address and port that you retrieved from the watch:
adb connect <IP address:port>
Figure 12: Pairing and connection through command line
In your WFS project, click Run on Device.
The watch is in the list of connected devices and your project can be launched on the watch.
Summary
This article has described how you can pair and connect Galaxy Watch running Wear OS 4 or later to Watch Face Studio on your computer wirelessly through Wi-Fi. After connecting your watch, you can deploy and test your WFS project on the watch.
If you have questions about or need help with the information in this article, you can share your queries on the Samsung Developers Forum. For more specialized support, you can contact us through Developer Support.
