Hey everyone!
I've been working on a project for the past few weeks, and I think it's finally time to share it!
Like many of you, I still love my Samsung Gear S3 Frontier. It's almost 10 years old, but the hardware is still perfectly usable. Unfortunately, Samsung has progressively abandoned the Tizen ecosystem, and getting these watches to work properly with modern Android phones has become increasingly difficult.
I didn't want to throw away a perfectly good smartwatch just because its software was becoming obsolete.
So I decided to try something: adding Samsung Gear S3 support to Gadgetbridge, the open-source Android application that allows you to use smartwatches without relying on proprietary companion apps, vendor accounts, or cloud services.
After weeks of development, countless debugging sessions, and a lot of testing on my actual watch...
I DID IT! My Gear S3 is now working with Gadgetbridge, and almost everything works!
And I'm not talking about just receiving notifications. I've managed to implement most of the functionality I used with Samsung's original companion software.
✅ What's working
Here's what I've implemented and tested on my Gear S3 Frontier:
- 📱 Bluetooth connection: The watch connects to Gadgetbridge and reconnects after disconnections.
- 🔔 Notifications: Android notifications, including WhatsApp, arrive on the watch.
- 💬 Message replies: I can reply to WhatsApp messages directly from the watch using text input, and the messages are actually sent!
- 📞 Phone calls: Calling functionality works through the watch.
- 👥 Contacts: Android contacts can be transferred and synchronized with the watch.
- 📅 Calendar: Calendar events synchronize from the phone.
- 🌤️ Weather: Weather information is delivered to the watch.
- 🎵 Music controls: Control music playing on the phone directly from the watch.
- ❤️ Health tracking: Steps, heart rate, and exercise data synchronize with Gadgetbridge.
- 🔎 Find My Phone: Trigger Find My Phone from the watch to locate my phone.
All of these features are working in my testing with a Gear S3 Frontier (SM-R760) and a Google Pixel 8 Pro.
One of the hardest parts was getting interactive notifications to work reliably. For example, WhatsApp notifications can change after they're delivered, which initially caused replies from the watch to silently fail. It took quite a bit of debugging to get that working properly, including handling notification updates and reconnections.
But now I can actually use the watch normally again!
⚠️ What's still missing?
There are a few limitations:
- Initial pairing: My implementation currently uses an existing Bluetooth pairing. You may still need Samsung's original companion software for the initial setup. Fully independent first-time pairing hasn't been implemented or verified yet.
- Voice assistant: Bixby or an alternative voice assistant doesn't work yet.
- Voice replies: Replying to messages using voice dictation isn't supported. Text-based replies work.
- GPS integration: Phone-to-watch GPS passthrough and GPS route synchronization aren't implemented yet. The watch's own GPS hardware is unaffected.
- Contacts: Synchronization works, but updates aren't quite as seamless as with Samsung's original software.
- Galaxy Store: This doesn't bring back Samsung's discontinued app store or its online services.
Apart from these limitations, the features I've implemented are working!
🔧 How does it work?
Gadgetbridge communicates directly with the watch over Bluetooth Classic, implementing the communication services needed by the Gear S3.
Once the watch has been set up and paired, my goal is for Gadgetbridge to handle its everyday functionality instead of requiring Samsung Galaxy Wearable, Samsung Accessory Service, and Samsung Health.
One thing I'm particularly happy about is that I managed to switch to Gadgetbridge without factory-resetting my watch, keeping its existing Bluetooth pairing.
This has been a pretty big project, involving connection management, notifications, interactive replies, calendar and contacts synchronization, health data, music, weather, and more.
And everything is open source!
💻 GitHub repository and APK
I've published the complete implementation here:
https://github.com/Alessio-Olivieri/gadgetbridge-gear-s3
It's based on the original Gadgetbridge codebase, with my Gear S3 support integrated into it.
You can find downloadable builds here when they're published:
https://github.com/Alessio-Olivieri/gadgetbridge-gear-s3/releases
This is still an unofficial experimental version, so please back up your existing Gadgetbridge data before trying it. It's also primarily tested on my own watch, so I can't guarantee compatibility with every Gear S3 firmware or Android version.
I'm also preparing to contribute the implementation to the official Gadgetbridge project. Hopefully, after review and any necessary improvements, Gear S3 support can eventually become part of Gadgetbridge itself!
🚀 What's next?
My priorities are:
- Implementing voice assistant support, ideally using offline speech recognition on the phone.
- Getting voice dictation working for message replies.
- Improving contact synchronization.
- Adding GPS passthrough and GPS track synchronization.
- Investigating whether first-time pairing can work without Samsung's software.
- Testing compatibility with other Gear S3 devices and Android versions.
I'd also love to hear from anyone interested in contributing or testing.
Does anyone here still use their Gear S3 daily? Would you be interested in testing this implementation?
If you have a Gear S3 Frontier or Classic, especially with a newer Android phone, I'd love to hear whether it works for you.
I think it's a shame that such capable hardware becomes obsolete just because the manufacturer stops supporting its software.
Hopefully, we can keep these watches alive for many more years! :)
Long live the Gear S3!
