How to take screenshots on a Wear OS smartwatch

Just as possible take screenshots on mobile, you can too take screenshots in Wear OS, the version of Android for smartwatch, although it is somewhat more complicated than pressing a combination of buttons.

Taking a screenshot on a Wear OS smartwatch is simple, as it can be done with the help of the official Wear OS app. Also, if you want to make an elongated capture, which includes the displacement, you can do it with the help of a tool and ADB.

With the Wear OS app: the easy option

If you want to take a screenshot of a Wear OS smartwatch and show what is seen on the screen at the time, then all you need is to use the official Wear OS app, which you may already have installed on your mobile, as you need it to configure the connection with the phone.

To be able to take screenshots with the Wear OS app, you must activate before Android development options, a process that we have already explained several times and that basically consists of pounding the debugging version in the system information section of the settings. You do not need to activate any specific option.

With everything ready, to take a screenshot of your watch from the Wear OS application, tap on the menu button ⋮ and choose the option Capture screen on clock, which is only displayed when developer options are active.

Once this is done, the mobile asks the watch to take a screenshot and send it back, a process that you can see in the mobile notifications. When the screenshot is ready, you get a notification that says You can now send a screenshot of the clock. Tapping on it opens the Android Share menu, and you can send the capture to any application that supports sending images.

This will capture the watch screen as shown. If you want to take an elongated screenshot with scrolling, then you need to use a special tool for it. The process, yes, is somewhat more complicated.

With ADB: for long shots

If you want to make a long capture, showing a conversation or a complete menu, you can do it with the help of ADB and a Python script. It is more complicated than taking a screenshot with the Wear OS app, since requires more steps and the use of a PC.

You will need to connect with ADB to the smartwatch, for which you first need turn on Bluetooth debugging on the watch. To do this, you must go to the configuration, in the information section, and touch Build number seven times. Yes, just like on the phone. You can then activate the debugging in Bluetooth and the ADB debugging.

The process continues in the Wear OS app. In it, tap on Advanced settings, and then activate the option Bluetooth debugging, which will allow you to use ADB on your smartwatch, through the phone.

However, one last detail is missing, which is to run two ADB commands to redirect debugging from one device to the other. The commands that you must execute are the following:

adb forward tcp:4444 localabstract:/adb-hub

adb connect localhost:4444

With this you already have one part completed, although the second is missing: the tool to make the elongated capture. It is a python script, so you will need to have Python installed on the PC (you can download it here). You will also need to download the script, from Github and install the Pillow library in Python, if you don’t already have it. After installing Python, you can install the library with the command pip install pillow.

It cost a little more than we would like, but everything is ready. The only thing missing is run the script to be able to take an elongated screenshot. To do this, run the following command (if your watch is square, change round by square):

python ./wearscreenshotstitch.py --round

If everything went well, the script will start taking screenshots while scrolling the smartwatch screen. When I have a few shots ready, unites them all in a final image which is an elongated image. The process may take a few minutes.

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How to take screenshots on a Wear OS smartwatch

was originally published in

Xataka Android

by
Ivan Ramirez

.