Have you ever wanted to point your finger at a screen and have the cursor follow your hand? If you own a Galaxy Watch—or any Wear OS watch, for that matter—you can actually do that right now. I just turned my Galaxy Watch 8 Classic into a gesture-controlled mouse for my Windows PC, and it took about two minutes to set up.
Meet WearMouse
Turn your smartwatch into an input device for your PC
Credit: Dibakar Ghosh | How-To Geek
WearMouse is a free app you can grab from the Google Play Store on your Galaxy Watch. Once installed, it essentially turns your smartwatch into a gyro mouse. You move your hand, and the cursor on your computer moves along with it. It’s actually a pretty fun way to navigate a PC and a cool party trick.
My only gripe with the experience is that it doesn’t support gesture clicking. Your Galaxy Watch already supports gestures like pinching your fingers or making a fist to trigger actions. Ideally, I would’ve liked it if the developers had configured pinching to trigger a left click and a fist to trigger a right click—but that’s not supported. Instead, in gyro mode, you get left- and right-click buttons on the watch display, and you have to tap them to register a click. I personally find it a bit unergonomic.
For instance, let’s imagine you’ve extended your left arm toward the upper-left corner of the screen to reach a folder on your system. Now, to click that folder icon, you’ll have to reach out with your other hand and tap the watch face. Whereas, if you pull your watch arm back instead, that movement can nudge the cursor off target.
As such, while having a gyro mouse strapped to your wrist is undoubtedly really cool, at the time of writing, it’s not the most well-implemented feature in WearMouse.
That’s exactly why I ended up preferring the touchpad mode, which turns the watch screen into a little trackpad. You can slide your finger around the display to move the cursor, tap to click, and basically exercise the same muscle memory you already have from a laptop touchpad. It’s far more reliable and a more pragmatic way to use the thing.
Beyond gyro and touchpad, there’s also a cursor keys mode that turns your watch into a D-pad, and keyboard input, which lets you use the Samsung keyboard on your watch as a virtual keyboard for your PC.
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Disclaimer: Remote keyboard is buggy
In my experience, keyboard input was hit or miss. Sometimes, while using the watch keyboard, it would disconnect from my PC. I tried both the on-screen keyboard and voice typing, and the problem persisted in both instances. This might be a current bug that gets patched in a future update, but as of now, it’s not a reliable form of remote typing.
It’s a shame, because voice typing with the Samsung keyboard on the Galaxy Watch is actually quite accurate. Being able to dictate text to my PC from my wrist would have been a genuinely useful feature.
WearMouse isn’t perfect. However, while there are other “turn watch into mouse” apps on the Google Play Store, I actually found it to be the most reliable.
How to set up WearMouse
The setup is shorter than this explanation of the setup
Credit: Dibakar Ghosh | How-To Geek
Setting up WearMouse is about as simple as it gets. Install the app on your watch, open it, and you’ll land on a Bluetooth pairing screen. Turn on Bluetooth on your Windows 11 PC, pair it with the watch, and that’s it. Your watch is now a remote mouse for your computer.
The nice part is that WearMouse presents itself to your PC as a regular Bluetooth input device. You don’t need to install a client app on your computer, which is such a relief and reduces unnecessary bloat on your system. Once paired, you’ll see a screen on the watch listing the different input modes: gyro mouse, touchpad, cursor keys, and keyboard. Pick whichever option you prefer, and you’re good to go.
I should also mention that you’re not limited to pairing it with a Windows PC. The app is cross-platform and will work with all major platforms, including Linux, macOS, other Android devices, and even ChromeOS.
What it’s like to use a smartwatch as a PC mouse
It’s certainly useful—but probably not in the way you think
The first thing that might come to your mind when thinking about a gesture-controlled mouse or a touchpad strapped to your wrist is probably remotely controlling your PC from afar. That’s exactly what I thought as well, and I can tell you from personal experience that it’s a horrible idea.
The problem is that the mouse cursor is tiny, and from a few meters away, you can barely see where it is. So, to actually use it, you need to be close to the screen, and at that point, you’re near your desk anyway and your actual mouse or your laptop’s trackpad is right there.
That said, in my time using WearMouse, I did find it particularly useful as a secondary mouse.
Say someone else is sitting at your computer, maybe your partner, your kid, or a friend, and you’re trying to walk them through something. Normally, this would mean both users are awkwardly reaching for the same mouse. However, with WearMouse, they can keep the real mouse, and you can use your Galaxy Watch in touchpad mode. Whenever you need to point at something on screen, you just do it from your wrist.
I’ve found this to be the most compelling use case for the app.
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Get more out of your smartwatch
Your smartwatch is more comparable to a smartphone than a traditional mechanical watch. Over the years, it’s only going to depreciate—both in terms of resale value and functionality. As such, if you own an expensive Galaxy Watch, it only makes sense to squeeze as much use out of it as you can while it’s still relevant.
Now, turning your smartwatch into a secondary mouse is one legitimate use for that hardware. Whether you want it as a party trick with the gyro controls or as a plain, practical touchpad—which is the mode I’d actually recommend—that’s up to you. Either way, it’s a real use case, and WearMouse makes it super easy to set up.