Using the Apple Watch to play on Android isn’t a string of words I thought I’d ever type, but here we are. In this strange world of technological advancement, there are all kinds of crazy projects that people decide to do. Honestly, putting an Android on an Apple watch to play Android games might not be the weirdest way people have come up with to play games. In any case, this is certainly not a common method of gameplay, and that’s exactly what makes it so intriguing.
Posted on Reddit this week and spotted by Android Police and Wccftech, a user named u/R3V3RB_7 has created an unlikely portable gaming device. Apple Watch Ultra with Android and attached to a wireless Bluetooth controller. A knockoff DualSense controller is used for setup, and the watch is attached around the touchpad. So the clock screen ends up sitting right in the middle between the joystick, d-pad and action keys.
Judging by the video, it doesn’t seem like the most practical setup for a few reasons. First off, the display on the watch, while large compared to other smartwatches, is quite small for gaming. The watch case is also large enough to get in the way of the right joystick. This seems to push the joystick down to the right, which you’d think would interfere with gameplay. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, things seem to be working just fine. The D-pad is used for movement and the action buttons work perfectly. Therefore, it is possible that the joystick is disabled so as not to interfere with the experience.
Android games on Apple Watch, because you can
Most people who play games would probably agree that this doesn’t seem like a very suitable way to play games. However, the fact that you can set it up is nothing short of cool. In a video shared on Reddit, a user has downloaded a Game Boy Advance emulator and is playing GBA games like Castlevania Aria of Sorrow. And the nature of retro games is that they usually don’t have too many input actions, so the four action keys and the d-pad work just fine.
The controller is also used to navigate the user interface on the watch. So that’s it. It’s also worth noting that this doesn’t appear to be an actual Apple Watch. Android Police points out that it also appears to be a knockoff, with some different parts of the board, while the whole thing runs a stripped-down version of Android.
The user doesn’t mention anything about how this all came together or if it was meant to be anything more than a fun project. Still, this is a neat idea and it’s always nice to see unique creations like this.
Portable Emulation Console (?)
byu/R3V3RB_7 at AndroidGaming