How To Install Apps On Moto 360 1st Gen

Revive your Moto 360 Gen 1: Step-by-step guide for 2020

Few would disagree that when the Moto 360 (Gen 1) arrived back in 2014, it was an absolute beauty! With its signature brushed steel finish, elegant yet practical watch faces, comfortable stone-gray leather straps and a heart rate sensor, this timepiece was ahead of its time, ushering the arrival of wearables.

Fast forward to 2020. Despite the glut o f smartwatches flooding the market ever since, the Moto 360 still looks remarkable. Sadly though, I had shelved the Moto for over a year. The battery was shot and the watch wouldn't hold charge for more than 5 minutes.

I finally set forth to revive it, but the road was far from smooth. Not only was the watch decommissioned by Motorola, an old version of Android Wear (now Wear OS) meant that most app developers had jettisoned this watch as well. While the battery change was tedious, a factory reset of the watch takes one back in 2016, with Android Wear 1.4 and Google Play Services version 6.

And that means none of the default apps on the watch will sync, since Google Play Services — the core framework that allows the apps to upload and sync data, was too outdated. After wrangling through the hoops, I finally got my Moto 360 up to date. The apps now sync in a jiffy and the battery lasts almost a day with regular use.

If your Moto 360 is laying low in your shelf or you're afraid that it is little more than a fancy paperweight and you wish to revive it, here's all you need to know to bring your Moto 360 back to life!

Step 1: Order the replacement battery

I ordered this Moto 360 replacement battery (supposedly OEM) and kit on eBay, which surprisingly arrived in under a month despite the pandemic.

Step 2: Change the battery on the Moto 360

I followed this excellent YouTube tutorial on replacing the Moto 360 Gen 1 battery. Quite honestly, the tools that arrived with the battery were quite useless and I had to dig up a few shelves to create a firm but flexible plastic wedge, which allowed dislodging the clips that bind the back to the watch.

Be extremely cautious as you do so, since the watch back is delicate and the Internet is rife with folks having broken it during an attempted battery replacement.

Step 3: Reset your watch

You might end up resetting your Moto 360, if you're pairing it with a new phone. Once repaired, your watch will reset and any previous data and apps will be wiped out and you'll be greeted by Android Wear 1.4 running Google Play Services version 6 on Android 6.0. You'll quickly realize that none of your apps really sync with your phone.

But worry not! Let's move on to the next step.

Step 4: Download APKs

Given the Google Play Services version, your apps will neither sync nor update. So you'll first need to update Google Play Services and other optional apps you'd like. Apkmirror.com is your go to for getting the APK files that will eventually upgrade the software on your Moto 360. Here are the ones I picked:

Google Play Services 20.21.17 (mandatory)
Google Fit 2.10.36 (includes automatic activity tracking, breathing, relaxation etc.)
Shazam

You can also download Google Maps and more. Sadly, there are few apps now left that still serve the Android 6.0 OS.

Note: When downloading APKs, ensure the "Min Support" is Android 6.0. You can select the "nodpi" version on the "armeabi-v7a" architecture, if those options are available.

Step 5: Enable debugging and work your magic

You'll first need to install ADB (Android Debug Bridge). Note: You don't need the entire Android Studio, especially if you're running Linux. Here are easy setup instructions for Linux users. For other operating system users, Google is your friend.

Once set up, go ahead and enable debugging on your Moto 360 and then connect your watch to your computer and begin updating the APKs once by one, as per the detailed instructions here.

If all goes well, the software version on your Moto 360 should resemble this:

Congratulations — you can now strut around your Moto 360 with pomp!

I took mine on a spin for a workout and the Google Fit activity detection did surprisingly well with detecting the various exercises. The heart rate monitor remains flaky but hey, take heart — you just revived your Moto 360 from the dead!