The developer implemented a custom bridge to update Wear OS applications via Bluetooth, bypassing the need for adb over Wi-Fi. The system uses a foreground service on both the phone and the watch, utilizing the Bluetooth RFCOMM protocol to transmit APK files. This approach addresses connectivity issues where Wi-Fi debugging on TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro devices becomes unstable when the watch is not being worn.
The architecture consists of a monorepo with four independent applications, including a custom link transport and a dedicated installation service. The process involves pushing the APK to the phone's internal storage via adb and then transmitting it to the watch. The entire deployment cycle, managed by a PowerShell script, takes approximately 2.5 minutes for a 26 MB file.
The project encountered several limitations related to Android 12–14 background execution policies. To ensure reliability, the developer implemented explicit acknowledgments (ack) for socket transfers and status reporting. Because the application is non-system, a manual confirmation tap is required on the watch during the installation process.
The solution relies on the BluetoothLinkServerService to maintain the connection. If the process is terminated, the system falls back to the Wearable Data Layer. The developer notes that debugging these issues was challenging due to silent failures in the Android background execution environment, which often provided no logs or crash reports.
