sideloading on a galaxy watch 7 (11/16/24)

i recently got this watch as a gift from someone and you know exactly what i'm gonna do with it.
technical time!!!
mine's the SM-L315F model, it has 32GB storage and 2GB of LPDDR5 RAM, quite impressive for something this small and circular...
for the hardware, the chip isn't set in stone. some sources say it's a exynos w1000 while others say it's a 5515! oh well fastfetch here

the feature set is astonishingly good IF you have a Samsung phone.. if you don't do not buy this if you want more info. some is.. you guessed it! samsung exclusive! more specifically heart related and sleep info. xda

Installing non-WearOS apps using ADB

as the chapter says, let's begin!

these are the requirements:

* ADB tools (platform-tools / adb-tools / android-tools / android-utils)

Wi-Fi or Bluetooth transceiver

basic understanding of how to use the command line

* note: platform independent: NT, Darwin and Linux supported officially

first, enable developer options and wireless debugging

(Settings - About watch - Software information - tap on model number until notif appears)

(Settings - Developer options - ADB debugging - turn on)

after this step, turn on Wireless debugging, scroll down and press Pair new device
open a terminal and type this command to pair, replacing the HOST:PORT with the one showed on your watch (e.g. 192.168.100.200:12345)

adb pair HOST:PORT

we're not done, connect to the watch with the command below, MAKE SURE TO QUIT PAIR NEW DEVICE.

adb connect HOST:PORT

you achieved a connection!

good job! sideload your apps, and scroll down to the next step if they use special permissions.

Granting the required permissions

from the shell on your terminal, type the command below, replacing PACKAGENAME and PERMISSION with the ones the app needs.
*note to self: package name can be found in the play store URL right after ?id=

adb shell appops set PACKAGENAME PERMISSION allow

the most common permissions are MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE for file managers like ZArchiver and REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES for APK installation without a computer

a full list of all possible perms (2017) can be found here

Quirks and caveats

the SoC is capable of 64bit ARM instructions, but the software is compiled for 32bit ARM. this breaks some app support and you have to look for a "universal" or "armeabi-v7a" variant of the app you desire. if there's none you're out of luck.

very agressive power saving, hence ADB disconnecting.

health-related features gatekeeped for non-Samsung users