As the title has it, JorSay is a little free, and most importantly open source app that adds the missing functionality to your Android Wear watch. It makes your phone read the notifications aloud for you when you shake your wrist.

JorSay

Developer: Mocha17
Download from Google Play
Price: free, no ads, no IAPs

The app has a slew of customization options. You can set the shake sensitivity, choose which apps’ notifications you want JorSay to read for you. You can Snooze the read out loud function for different intervals.

By default, the app ignores the low priority level notifications, like the ones from weather apps, music player and such. You can also select the volume level for JorSay. Alternatively, you can set it to ignore the “shake to read” function and just read the notifications as they come.

Now the voice might not be the sweetest sound you’ll ever hear, but truth be told the app has a huge potential. Considering the developer is quick to respond to user feedback, collecting suggestions ad requests, we might see the app evolve into something outstanding.

Add in a Trigger support, a recognition of when Bluetooth peripherals or inside a car gets connected to activate the app automatically, add a way to skip reading some notifications and, most importantly, cancel.

That said, JorSay is a neat solution to the connectivity gap for those situations when you are on the go, especially when driving or cycling. I don’t think it’s a good idea to use it in public places, though. Moreover, when you are driving, you need both hands, right? So, it makes all the more sense for the app to trigger your phone to read the notifications out loud by just recognizing your wrist move. That way you don’t need that other hand to activate the function, and can focus on driving.

Even if it fails to register your wrist shake, you can still activate it manually by saying “Start notification reader” and tapping on the JorSay button on your watch. The app supports an Ambient mode that lets you activate the app even when the watch’s screen is off.

The app makes up for the missing speaker functionality in many Android Wear watches, and considering it’s free and open source, you risk nothing if you try it. All in all, it’s a very interesting concept with a lot of potential, and we’d like to see it grow, and implement the skip, cancel, Trigger support, Bluetooth recognition and activation support, and a better selection of voices. It also needs to expand its support of languages because now it works with English only.

Nonetheless, it works just fine the way it is now, and if you are an active Android Wear user, give it ago. Just remember not to use it for awfully private notifications when you’re around other people.