Back Button Assist is an accessibility utility that lets you customise how your Wear OS watch's hardware back button works.
Using Android's Accessibility Service, the app listens for the back button long-press and performs your chosen action — opening a specific app, navigating Back, or returning to the watch face.
This is especially helpful for users who have difficulty distinguishing between short and long button presses. By mapping the long-press to perform the same Back action as a short press, both press types do the same thing — reducing frustration and making the watch easier to use.
Some apps use the back button long-press for their own controls — for example, Samsung Health uses it to pause and resume workouts. Back Button Assist intelligently bypasses these apps so their built-in behaviour is preserved. You can fully customise which apps are bypassed.
Features
• Choose any installed watch app to launch with a back button long-press
• Built-in Back action — long-press performs a standard back navigation, just like a short press
• Built-in Home action — long-press takes you straight to the watch face from anywhere
• Smart bypass — selected apps keep their own long-press behaviour (e.g. Samsung Health workout pause/resume)
• Short back-press is unaffected and works exactly as normal
• Bezel / crown scroll support in all menus
• Works on Samsung Galaxy Watch and other Wear OS watches
How to set up
1. Install the app and open it on your watch
2. Tap "Enable in Accessibility Settings"
3. Under Downloaded apps, enable "Back Button Assist"
4. Return to the app and tap "Change app" to pick what opens
5. Optionally tap "Bypass apps" to choose which apps keep their own long-press behaviour
6. Done — hold the back button to try it