This is the last version you'll ever have to sideload by hand. 🎉
Updates without a cable
- Update notifications on the phone: Svartifoss now checks its GitHub releases about once a day (whenever music plays or the app is opened) and posts a notification when a newer version is out. Configurable in Settings under the new Updates section, including an opt-in to also be notified about pre-releases. No account, no extra permissions — a single small anonymous request to the GitHub API, with an off switch.
- Update the watch from the phone, over Bluetooth
Beta: the new update screen (tap the notification, or Settings → Check for updates now) has an Update watch button that downloads the new watch APK and streams it straight to the watch — a notification appears on the wrist, one tap opens the system install prompt, done. No more ADB or Wear Installer for updates. First time only: allow install unknown apps for Svartifoss in the watch settings when prompted. - The update screen shows the installed phone and watch versions side by side (the watch now reports its version to the phone), so it knows when only the watch is still behind.
Note: the self-update flow needs both apps on 2.2+ — this jump onto 2.2 is the one that still goes through the old sideload route below.
Fixes
- Fixed a crash when opening the Watch tab on recent Android versions (
BadParcelableExceptionin the mini-button preview, reported on Android 15). Saved button configs are raw Android parcels, whose format isn't stable across Android versions — a config seeded or imported from a backup made on a different version could blow up the Watch tab on every open. All config reads are now hardened: an unreadable config is quarantined and the app falls back to defaults instead of crashing, config imports are validated up front so an incompatible backup is rejected with an error instead of silently planting a broken file, and config writes are atomic so a mid-write kill can no longer corrupt them. - Fixed the watch app closing right after launch (and refusing to open) on some watches: the startup "is the phone app installed?" check could crash the app when Play Services threw, or silently close it into the install notice on a flaky first lookup. The check no longer takes the app down — only a confirmed "phone app missing" answer shows the notice.
Installing
Grab mobile-release.apk for the phone and wear-release.apk for the watch (easiest with Wear Installer). Both apps must be updated together. From here on, updates arrive on their own.
Full changelog: https://github.com/gabrielluizone/Svartifoss/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md