Send a message to wearable from BroadcastReceiver in handheld app

Question

I want to show a notification only in the wearable app at some time specified by the user.

For testing, I have a BroadcastReceiver in the handheld app that starts a service and shows a notification at that time in both handheld and wearable. I also have a Message Api communication established between handheld and wearable modules. These two parts work fine.

So I don't know if I can send a message via the Message Api when the BroadcastReceiver gets triggered in order to show a notification in the wearable device only. Should I start the GoogleApiClient in the onReceive() method? Or is there any other way to do what I want?

This is my BroadcastReceiver, but I want to change its code:

public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {

        Intent service = new Intent(context, AlarmService.class);
        service.putExtra(AlarmService.INTENT_NOTIFY, true);
        service.putExtra("alarmID", intent.getIntExtra("alarmID", 0));
        context.startService(service);
    }
}

Thanks!

Answer 1

I'd recommend against starting the GoogleApiClient inside of onReceive - onReceive is executed on the UI thread, and sending the message to the wearable could be too time-consuming for this to be a good idea.

It sounds like once you have the target time from the user, the handheld doesn't need to be involved at all any more, is that correct? Only the wearable does anything at the target time, correct?

If so, I'd recommend the following:

1. Once the handheld user specifies the target time, use the Messaging API to send that value to the wearable
2. When the wearable app receives the target timestamp, then the wearable app uses the AlarmManager to trigger a broadcast at that time
3. Set up a BroadcastReceiver in the wearable app to receive the AlarmManger's broadcast
4. In the BroadcastReceiver (in the wearable app), generate a notification directly on the wearable