4 ms·

And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge (https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/

by haskman 8mo ago

And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge (https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/) I run a Thinkpad with NixOS and KDE, a Pixel 9 with GrapheneOS, and an Amazfit watch paired with GadgetBridge on my phone. It's a testament to the hard work of the FOSS maintainers of these projects, and the spirit of open source, that everything works flawlessly together without any cloud service sucking up my data. For example, I can control youtube and music playback on my laptop with my watch because KDE Connect syncs my laptop and my phone, and gadgetbridge syncs the phone and the watch. The breezy weather app on my phone can automatically push its data to gadgetbridge which in turn pushes the data to the watch. And so on. So many little things, developed independently, working like a single well oiled machine.

BLKNSLVR 8mo ago
I didn't need anything more on my to-do list, but this is intriguing.
- haskman 8mo ago
  Setting up GadgetBridge is very easy since it's just an android app. No flashing firmware etc. However, not all gadgets are equally supported, and you should check the support status of your device - https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ (I bought my watch only after checking that page for compatibility).
p-e-w 8mo ago
> And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge Then switch back to Google/Apple after half a year when you discover that you can’t run - your banking app - any government app - the app required to access large sports events - the pandemic tracking app without which you can’t enter an airport - various other random apps because they ALL detect that you’re running on a phone with an unlocked bootloader and will flat out refuse to start. And for many of those, there is no legal alternative. (The extent of this varies depending on where you live, of course.)
- haskman 8mo ago
  YMMV. I run sandboxed Google Play Services on GrapheneOS so almost every app works. My digital payments app works, and the same with most government apps I have tried. My private bank's app doesn't work, but I just use their website for the handful of times a year I need to access it.
  - PenguinCoder 8mo ago
    Does NFC work with those digital payment apps on Graphene?
    - haskman 8mo ago
      In India we use QR codes for payments. NFC in general does work (for example, I use a yubikey for 2FA).
- jhasse 8mo ago
  You can lock the bootloader again with GrapheneOS and many banking apps work.
  - Mindwipe 8mo ago
    You won't pass Google Play hardware attestation that way, and you won't find a bank in Europe or the UK that doesn't require that to log on to their website within five years.
    - microtonal 8mo ago
      My bank works fine after relocking (in NL, Europe). And last time I checked all Dutch banks work. My VISA credit card app (from ICS) also works. Same for the government identification app, the government message app, our insurance app. In fact, I haven't encountered anything outside of Google Pay that didn't work. (I don't deny that there are apps that won't work. Best to check before switching full-time.)
    - 8mo ago
k4rli 8mo ago
Garmin watches seem quite open even without that. I have all my data syncing to influxdb every 15min for a Grafana dashboard and it works great. In background I also have Withings scale sync the measurements a couple of times a day to Garmin.
- haskman 8mo ago
  Probably the reason why Garmin watches are well supported by GadgetBridge
- pscanf 8mo ago
  How do you sync the data out of Garmin? Something like https://github.com/matin/garth https://github.com/matin/garth, or syncing directly from the watch?
rcMgD2BwE72F 8mo ago
I tried GadgetBridge because it cannot sync the activity files (.fit and/or .gpx) so I still had to plug the watch into a computer to keep the actual data. So I ended installing ActivityLog2[0] to do something with the files I had to have on desktop and GadgetBridge was of little use because relying on GadgetBridge without actually syncing the files might make me forget about doing the backup to a device I control (GrapheneOS or a computer). As soon as GadgetBridge support syncing the files from the watch to the app (or any local folder on Android), I'll install it again and stop doing the manual backups over USB. Syncthing will do it automatically. [0] https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2 https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2
- no-reply 8mo ago
  Under settings->automations->auto export, you have "Auto export zip" where you can specify export interval. The zip file includes all the data (personally, I only see .fit files) from your app. For sync, you might have to use something like syncthing.
fsflover 8mo ago
Alternatively, consider PineTime, which even offers a choice of the OS it runs: https://pine64.org/documentation/PineTime/ https://pine64.org/documentation/PineTime/
- haskman 8mo ago
  Also there's AsteroidOS which is a wrist sized linux for your watch, and looks fantastic! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FiQz0yACc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FiQz0yACc
  - fsflover 8mo ago
    Related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051852

by haskman 8mo ago

BLKNSLVR 8mo ago

I didn't need anything more on my to-do list, but this is intriguing.

haskman 8mo ago
Setting up GadgetBridge is very easy since it's just an android app. No flashing firmware etc. However, not all gadgets are equally supported, and you should check the support status of your device - https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ (I bought my watch only after checking that page for compatibility).

p-e-w 8mo ago

> And once you are on GrapheneOS, break free from your proprietary watch ecosystem and switch to GadgetBridge Then switch back to Google/Apple after half a year when you discover that you can’t run - your banking app - any government app - the app required to access large sports events - the pandemic tracking app without which you can’t enter an airport - various other random apps because they ALL detect that you’re running on a phone with an unlocked bootloader and will flat out refuse to start. And for many of those, there is no legal alternative. (The extent of this varies depending on where you live, of course.)

haskman 8mo ago
YMMV. I run sandboxed Google Play Services on GrapheneOS so almost every app works. My digital payments app works, and the same with most government apps I have tried. My private bank's app doesn't work, but I just use their website for the handful of times a year I need to access it.
- PenguinCoder 8mo ago
  Does NFC work with those digital payment apps on Graphene?
  - haskman 8mo ago
    In India we use QR codes for payments. NFC in general does work (for example, I use a yubikey for 2FA).
jhasse 8mo ago
You can lock the bootloader again with GrapheneOS and many banking apps work.
- Mindwipe 8mo ago
  You won't pass Google Play hardware attestation that way, and you won't find a bank in Europe or the UK that doesn't require that to log on to their website within five years.
  - microtonal 8mo ago
    My bank works fine after relocking (in NL, Europe). And last time I checked all Dutch banks work. My VISA credit card app (from ICS) also works. Same for the government identification app, the government message app, our insurance app. In fact, I haven't encountered anything outside of Google Pay that didn't work. (I don't deny that there are apps that won't work. Best to check before switching full-time.)
  - 8mo ago

k4rli 8mo ago

Garmin watches seem quite open even without that. I have all my data syncing to influxdb every 15min for a Grafana dashboard and it works great. In background I also have Withings scale sync the measurements a couple of times a day to Garmin.

haskman 8mo ago
Probably the reason why Garmin watches are well supported by GadgetBridge
pscanf 8mo ago
How do you sync the data out of Garmin? Something like https://github.com/matin/garth https://github.com/matin/garth, or syncing directly from the watch?

rcMgD2BwE72F 8mo ago

I tried GadgetBridge because it cannot sync the activity files (.fit and/or .gpx) so I still had to plug the watch into a computer to keep the actual data. So I ended installing ActivityLog2[0] to do something with the files I had to have on desktop and GadgetBridge was of little use because relying on GadgetBridge without actually syncing the files might make me forget about doing the backup to a device I control (GrapheneOS or a computer). As soon as GadgetBridge support syncing the files from the watch to the app (or any local folder on Android), I'll install it again and stop doing the manual backups over USB. Syncthing will do it automatically. [0] https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2 https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2

no-reply 8mo ago
Under settings->automations->auto export, you have "Auto export zip" where you can specify export interval. The zip file includes all the data (personally, I only see .fit files) from your app. For sync, you might have to use something like syncthing.

fsflover 8mo ago

Alternatively, consider PineTime, which even offers a choice of the OS it runs: https://pine64.org/documentation/PineTime/ https://pine64.org/documentation/PineTime/

haskman 8mo ago
Also there's AsteroidOS which is a wrist sized linux for your watch, and looks fantastic! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FiQz0yACc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FiQz0yACc
- fsflover 8mo ago
  Related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051852