_SMART WATCHES_
Six annoyances Google needs to fix with Wear OS 4
It's high time that Android s
Android smartwatches had noticeably started to stagnate, but a couple years back, Google's partnership with Samsung on Wear OS 3 helped really turned the page, and was key to the platform's resurgence. Thanks to the continued efforts of both parties and some great Android smartwatches, the Wear OS ecosystem is now thriving. But Wear OS 3 is far from perfect, and there are still are a lot of puzzling restrictions and unexplained regressions compared to previous iterations of the platform.
With Google teasing the arrival of Android 13-based Wear OS 4 later this year at I/O 2023, we're thinking about what needs to change to keep this Android smartwatch renaissance going. Here's a look at some Wear OS annoyances the company needs to fix in the OS's next release.
2. Limited Google Assistant availability
The Google Assistant experience on Wear OS 3 is a confusing mess. Even this far along, the voice assistant is still only available on a handful of Wear OS watches. Besides the Pixel Watch, you can get Assistant on Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 series. While Fossil updated many of its smartwatches to Wear OS 3, those do not have access to the voice assistant.
Even if you're lucky enough to have it, functionality is limited. You can ask Google Assistant on your wrist about the weather, score for the latest games, set an alarm or timer, add stuff to your shopping list, and even control your smart home lights and other accessories. But there's not yet support for Routines. So if you use Google Assistant Routines to automate several actions, you can't trigger them from your watch.
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