install google assistant on galaxy watch

Install google assistant on galaxy watch install#
Install google assistant on galaxy watch full#

It also won’t work with iPhones, by the way, something both Google and Samsung have dabbled with in the past. In short, if you’re not using a Samsung phone, I don’t think this is a good watch for you. It needs Samsung’s Wearable app to set up, a Samsung account to use Bixby, Samsung Pay to use payments, and Samsung Health for robust health tracking.

Install google assistant on galaxy watch full#

You can use the Galaxy Watch 4 with any Android phone, but doing so requires installing multiple Samsung apps to get the full experience. Some of these apps can be replaced, but many cannot. It is integrated with Samsung’s system for auto-switching Galaxy Buds headphones, and it’s designed to automatically copy over certain settings from Samsung phones. From Calendar to Calculator, Contacts to Weather, it’s clearly Samsung’s system. The vast majority of default apps on the Galaxy Watch 4 are Samsung apps. Bixby also is unaware that the watch now has Google Maps preinstalled: you can’t ask Bixby for directions. It’s somewhat responsive, mostly, though sometimes it will inexplicably take two or three seconds to start listening. It’s much better than its bottom of the barrel reputation, but it still can’t do basic things like set multiple alarms. The Galaxy Watch works with any Android phone, but really it’s meant for Samsung phones Most of the preinstalled apps on the Galaxy Watch 4 come from Samsung.įunctionally, Samsung Pay works fine. Each button also has a different, hard-coded function when you long-press it. The bottom brings up a view of recently used apps you can swipe through.

The top brings you home or can be double-clicked to quickly switch to the previously used app.

Install google assistant on galaxy watch install#

If you want, you can still install custom watchfaces from the Google Play Store or build your own with an app like Facer or Pujie Black.Įach watch has two buttons. There are a ton of them built in, and they’re much nicer than what I’ve seen on most Wear OS watches in the past couple years. There’s a good mix of fun (a bear that points to your notification indicator) and useful (complications that don’t overwhelm the screen but still give you a lot of information density). The default watchfaces are really good, too. It’s great, and if you like the styling of the Classic, it might be worth the extra hundred bucks all on its own. On the Watch 4 Classic, you get a physical bezel with a satisfying little click as you move through screens and lists. I found myself giving up on it and just swiped on the screen most of the time. On the regular Galaxy Watch 4, it’s a touch-sensitive area around the screen and it’s fairly fiddly. Samsung’s watches are known for having a rotating bezel which makes scrolling much faster. The regular Galaxy Watch 4 has a touch-sensitive bezel, which is fiddly. Tiles are essentially little information widgets you can quickly swipe through and they’re one of my favorite recent additions to Wear OS, because it means there’s less pressure to laden the main watchface with a kajillion complications. You swipe up for apps, right for notifications, down for quick settings, and left for Tiles. The core interface on these watches is a bit of Google’s Wear OS with a bit of Samsung’s Tizen-inspired One UI. You can step up to larger sizes or put in LTE for more money on both watches. The Watch 4 Classic with a rotating bezel and slightly chunkier, stainless steel build starts at $349.99 for a 42mm model. They also start at a very reasonable $249.99 for the 40mm regular aluminum Galaxy Watch. They’re not quite as well-built as an Apple Watch, but they’re close. They’re not ridiculously large and have a decent fit and finish. They both have circular OLED watchfaces you can set to be always on. The watch hardware on both models is very much in line with Samsung’s earlier smartwatches, and that’s largely a great thing.