The Saga of the Gear and modified Note 3 software

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greyhulk

Senior Member
Jan 14, 2009
1,314
299
I had my Note 3 long before I picked up my Gear, and as with all things, I made some adjustments to my Note 3 software experience to improve it for my use. This has had some undesirable effects on the Gear and I just want to list out what I have done and what effects it had on my Gear for awareness so those of you who plan to make changes to your Note will know what you're getting into.

I have made the following changes to my Note 3:

  1. Rooted
  2. Frozen all Knox apps/services
  3. Frozen some other misc bloat
  4. Nova Launcher set as default Launcher
  5. S for Switch Voice installed (overrides S Voice with Google Now and gives you a Moto X - like Touchless control)
  6. Dynamic notifications set as default lock screen
  7. Adway blocking ads
  8. Samsung TTS frozen (to fix the Accessibility bug for Pebble)

I usually don't modify my devices too heavily, but I really felt like my Note needed some of this and some features (such as Dynamic Notifications and S for Switch Voice) give me a Moto X type experience that I miss when using the Note. Below are the effects I have noticed this having on my Gear:

  • No voice feedback for S Voice on Gear (probably due to S for Switch Voice or Samsung TTS being disabled)
  • Notifications delay - Because of Dynamic Notifications, if my phone is face up out of my pocket, my watch will not receive a notification until the screen turns off. This is because the display is effectively on. This isn't a huge issue because if my phone is face up and I can see it, I'm not going to read the notification on my watch anyway. Most of the time, it's when it's in my pocket that I need the Gear to step in and in those cases, the notifications are instantaneous.
  • Occasional network errors when using S Voice - May be due to adblock (which I will not give up).

This is all I have really noticed so far. I will update this post if I discover anything else. I hope this helps anyone considering getting a gear and/or making any of these modifications on their Note 3. Happy Gearing.
 
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Reactions: koiulpoi

koiulpoi

Senior Member
Mar 24, 2012
55
12
I thanked your post for showing me that "S for Switch Voice" exists. Now, if we can just get a way to stream Google Now + Audio to the watch, we'd be golden.
 

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    I had my Note 3 long before I picked up my Gear, and as with all things, I made some adjustments to my Note 3 software experience to improve it for my use. This has had some undesirable effects on the Gear and I just want to list out what I have done and what effects it had on my Gear for awareness so those of you who plan to make changes to your Note will know what you're getting into.

    I have made the following changes to my Note 3:

    1. Rooted
    2. Frozen all Knox apps/services
    3. Frozen some other misc bloat
    4. Nova Launcher set as default Launcher
    5. S for Switch Voice installed (overrides S Voice with Google Now and gives you a Moto X - like Touchless control)
    6. Dynamic notifications set as default lock screen
    7. Adway blocking ads
    8. Samsung TTS frozen (to fix the Accessibility bug for Pebble)

    I usually don't modify my devices too heavily, but I really felt like my Note needed some of this and some features (such as Dynamic Notifications and S for Switch Voice) give me a Moto X type experience that I miss when using the Note. Below are the effects I have noticed this having on my Gear:

    • No voice feedback for S Voice on Gear (probably due to S for Switch Voice or Samsung TTS being disabled)
    • Notifications delay - Because of Dynamic Notifications, if my phone is face up out of my pocket, my watch will not receive a notification until the screen turns off. This is because the display is effectively on. This isn't a huge issue because if my phone is face up and I can see it, I'm not going to read the notification on my watch anyway. Most of the time, it's when it's in my pocket that I need the Gear to step in and in those cases, the notifications are instantaneous.
    • Occasional network errors when using S Voice - May be due to adblock (which I will not give up).

    This is all I have really noticed so far. I will update this post if I discover anything else. I hope this helps anyone considering getting a gear and/or making any of these modifications on their Note 3. Happy Gearing.