Can you use an Apple Watch with an Android phone?

The Apple Watch is rightly praised for its wealth of advanced features, its stylish design, and the way it seamlessly integrates with the rest of the Apple ecosystem, giving you access to features such as Apple Fitness Plus, for example. Which makes sense; it’s an Apple product, designed to work effortlessly with other Apple products. 

The main reason you can’t make it work well with an Android device is that when first purchased, the Watch has to be set up with an iPhone. Nothing else – not an iPad or MacBook – can do it. 

There’s just no way of doing it without one. Additionally, you’ll need an iPhone to exchange any data, add or synchronise certain apps, and update software. 

You can’t even connect the two devices via Bluetooth. You could do it where you set up the Watch, add a data (LTE) connection to it, and then swap the SIM from the iPhone into an Android device. It’s extremely limiting in terms of functionality.  

At best, you may be able to make and receive calls on your Watch, and potentially use voice controls -some apps may update, but only for a short time. There’s a further issue that because you’ll only be using LTE to connect the two devices, your Apple Watch battery will drain much more rapidly.  

In summary, while this workaround exists, it’s probably not worth the effort.