Can WearAuthn stay connected to paired Bluetooth computers

[Jakdaw]

Great project!

Is there any way to have WearAuthn automatically connect & stay connected to any paired Bluetooth computers that are in range? So that any time the token is required it will pop up on the Watch to ask confirmation; rather than having to manually open the app and trigger the connection from there?

[fmeum]

Thanks for your interest!

Two things are currently possible: If you download the WearAuthn app on your phone, you can unlock a watchface shortcut for connecting to a chosen paired device with a single tap. I also know that Windows tends to reconnect to WearAuthn automatically when it is needed, even if the app is not running anymore.

If none of this currently works as conveniently as you would like, I would ask you to provide a few more details of what you are looking for. I have already thought about adding a feature similar to what you are describing, but would want to collect some more input from users, hence a few questions. It would be great if you could answer at least some of them:

• Which operating systems are you using WearAuthn with?

• Do you frequently switch between multiple devices and would like WearAuthn to stay connected to more than one at the same time?

• If staying connected in the background would mean faster battery drain, what level would you tolerate?

• If WearAuthn needs to get your confirmation while it is in the background and you are using a different app on your watch, would you prefer it 1) to show a full screen dialog as it does now or 2) to show a (less intrusive) notification instead?

[Jakdaw]

Ah interesting statement about Windows - I wonder whether I can persuade Linux to do similar; sounds like you're saying it should be possible.

In answer to your questions:

• Linux
• Yes, often switching between desktop and laptop. Similarly be great if I could just go from home to work and it seamlessly work.
• "Some"... sorry not sure here.
• I don't think the screen is big enough for less intrusive notifications nor that I'd be using the watch whilst trying to perform a login on another device; so 1).

[fmeum]

I have looked into this and learned that multiple concurrent connections are unfortunately not supported by Wear OS (or Android in general), which leaves the following options:

• The best solution is probably to understand how Windows manages the automatic connections and replicate this on Linux. Since this would mean that all of the work would take place off the watch, this approach would not affect battery life and (hopefully) be quite reliable. I will look into this when I have time, but it will probably be rather difficult.

• One could think about adding a mode that switches between a set of paired devices. But this would probably be quite heavy on the battery as well as increasing the latency with which requests are handled by the watch.

• By making WearAuthn remain connected in the background, coupled with the watchface shortcut, one could get the required effort for changing devices down to a single tap.

• Although I do not have any experience with it, Tasker integration may help with this.

Do you know which of these approaches you would prefer?

[Tiebe]

I'm not OP, but I would prefer 1)