How to get the Galaxy Gear running proper Android apps

How to get the Galaxy Gear running proper Android apps
More apps with a cheeky hack

Smartwatches are slowly coming to the fore and while many have limited app offerings, the Samsung Galaxy Gear is capable of more.

The folk over at Ars Technica have found out how to get the likes of Candy Crush onto your Gear. First up you'll need to head into settings and check the "USB debug" box.

Pop the Galaxy Gear in its charging cradle, hook it up to your PC with the USB cable and download the Android Debug Bridge (or ADB) software on your machine to sideload apps.

Selective

Not everything will work, and those more labour intensive offerings (Angry Birds included) will simply refuse to play ball. Remember the Galaxy Gear only sports a 528MHz processor and 192MB of RAM.

It's worth noting that you won't be able to get any of the Google Apps running on the Gear, so if you were hoping for some YouTube hijinks or Maps madness then you're plum out of luck.

You can get video players onto it though, so if you simply can't tear yourself away from the final episode of Breaking Bad then you can always watch it on your watch - although the tiny 1.6-inch display makes it pretty pointless.

Got a Galaxy Gear? Got a computer? Let us know what apps you get running on it!

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.