Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 still gets Google Assistant support

After a years-long exit from Google’s ‘Wear OS’ operating system, Samsung is returning to the Google ecosystem with the Galaxy Watch 4. Still, the Google apps aren’t fully established on the Watch 4 yet – Google Assistant, for example, isn’t available (yet). Friday was the promise that this will change; until then, Bixby will be present.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

Samsung has had success for years with its Tizen platform, on which previous Galaxy watches were based. Quite unexpectedly, rumors appeared earlier this year that Samsung would switch to Wear OS, making Tizen ‘a thing of the past’. That has now become reality, and the first Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic watches with Wear OS 3 will be available in stores from August 27. After setting, you will still be greeted by Samsung’s Bixby assistant for the time being.

With Wear OS, Google’s own operating system for smartwatches, you would expect Google’s digital Assistant to at least be present. However, Samsung does not seem to care much about that expectation and is supplying the Watch 4 with Bixby for the time being, Samsung confirmed to 9to5Google. Future owners of the Galaxy Watch 4 did know that the “coming of Google Assistant” is on Samsung’s to-do list and that it is working with “Google to bring more services to the Galaxy Watch 4 watches”.

Problems with Google Pay

That the Google Assistant is on its way to Galaxy Watch 4 comes as no surprise. A tab is visible in the settings to select the desired digital assistant. For now, only Bixby can be selected, but that should change after an update. How Samsung will roll out the Assistant integration to its Galaxy Watch 4 watches is not yet known. Those using Google Pay will also have to wait for an update to the Google app.

Google Pay does not seem to work on the Galaxy Watch 4. After the installation of Pay, users are unable to set up the Google app. Here too, Samsung says ‘to work closely with Google’ to bring the application to the Galaxy Watch 4 (Classic). Details about the rollout of an update that should fix the problems are also not given for Pay. That Google Pay is coming to the Watch 4 is certain. In a post on Google’s Wear OS support forum, the arrival of Pay to the Galaxy Watch 4 series is outlined.

Wear OS and Samsung

For now, Samsung seems to be focusing on transferring the Samsung ecosystem from Tizen to Wear OS. For example, although the watches run on Wear OS, the installation process of the Galaxy Watch 4 is still via the Samsung Wearables app.

In addition, Samsung seems to reserve certain hardware functions to Samsung phones. It is unknown to what extent Samsung plans to further open its watches to other Android phones.

Do you hope Google Assistant comes to the Galaxy Watch 4 (Classic) soon? Do you ever use the Google Assistant or another (digital) assistant on your smartwatch? Let us know below this article.