Maps Notification Forwarder for Wearable Devices 🌉

An Android app to relay Google Maps navigation notifications to smartwatches and other wearables that don't receive them natively. This is a fork that fixes the app and add several quaily of life improvements to the notification relaying experience... or so i hope :)

The Problem

Many Smartwatches and fitness trackers, especially those not running Wear OS (such as Samsung Fit 3, etc.), have basic notification support. They can show you incoming calls and text messages, but they often fail to display complex or persistent notifications from third-party apps like Google Maps.

This means that while you're driving, cycling, or walking, you can't get those crucial turn-by-turn directions with a quick glance at your wrist. You're forced to look at your phone, which can be inconvenient.

The Solution

This App solves the problem by acting as a middle-man. It runs a lightweight, reliable service on your phone that:

1. Listens specifically for notifications generated by Google Maps during active navigation.
2. Extracts the vital information: the direction (e.g., "Turn right on Main St") and the distance/time.
3. Creates a brand new, clean, and simple notification containing this information.

Because this new notification is a standard Android notification, almost any smartwatch's companion app (like Samsung Galaxy Wearable, etc) can easily pick it up and push it to your wrist, just like a text message.

Key Features

• Real-time Relaying: Get navigation updates on your watch instantly.
• Broad Compatibility: Works with any wearable that can receive standard app notifications.
• Efficient: Uses a Foreground Service to run reliably in the background without draining your battery.
• Simple UI: A single button to start and stop the monitoring service.
• Privacy-Focused: The app only reads notifications from Google Maps and does not store or transmit any data.
• Free & Open Source: No ads, no tracking.

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Setup & Usage (For Users)

Follow these steps to get the Android App running on your phone.

1. Install the App

• Go to the Releases page of this repository.
• Download the latest .apk file.
• Open the file on your Android device and install it. You may need to grant permission to "Install from unknown sources".

2. Grant Necessary Permissions

The app needs three permissions to function correctly. It will guide you through enabling them.

• ① Notification Access:

  • Why? This is required to read the notifications posted by Google Maps.
  • How? Tap "Enable Notification Access". This will open your phone's settings. Find our App in the list and toggle it on.

• ② Post Notifications (Android 13+):

  • Why? This is needed to create and show the new notification that gets sent to your watch.
  • How? The app will show a standard permission pop-up. Tap "Allow".

3. Start Navigating!

1. Open Google Maps and start a new trip.
2. Open the app (let it run in background).
3. Lock your phone and enjoy getting directions on your wrist!

Technical Overview

• NotificationListenerService: The core of the app. MapsNotificationListener.kt extends this service to gain access to the notification stream and filter for Google Maps updates.
• Foreground Service: To ensure the NotificationListenerService is not killed by the Android system when the app is in the background, it promotes itself to a foreground service, displaying a persistent notification.
• BroadcastReceiver: The service communicates with the MainActivity (the UI) by sending broadcasts. This allows the UI to display logs of the notifications being relayed.

Note

• Tested on Android Emulator running Android 14
• Tested on Xiaomi POCO F6 with Advan On Posh wearable using the default watch app.
• This build is hugely helped by AI (Gemini Agent)

Things to do

• Change application name
• Add application logo
• Add feature to customize the relayed message
• Add relaying behavior customizer
• Add app skin