Google Assistant is one of those features that many of us rely on daily, even if it might seem thatAmazon is doing more to improve Alexa than Google is on its end. Regardless of your personal use for the digital assistant, users can find it accessible on a wide range of devices — from televisions and speakers to smartphones and wearables. It’s been that way for many years now, and the ubiquitous nature of Google Assistant is part of what makes it so helpful.
When I’m not at home — or sometimes, even when I am — one of my preferred ways to use the Google Assistant is on my wrist. This is usually for things like setting timers and reminders, as I don’t need to reach into my pocket to get my phone. It makes these actions quick and easy, so long as I’m using a modern smartwatch with at least 1GB of RAM — we don’t discuss the pre-gigabyte dark times. However, since the launch ofWear OS 3over two years ago, Assistant on smartwatches has become a messy affair, and I can’t figure out why Google is allowing it to happen.
The curious case of the missing Assistant
Even though Google Assistant was supported on older devices like theTicWatch S2 and E2, back then, 512MB (yes, I said meant megabyte) was the standard for thebest Wear OS smartwatches, and that spec made using the digital assistant painfully slow and inconsistent. When Google and/or OEMs realized that by bumping the RAM up to at least 1GB, the experience was greatly improved. As we reach the final quarter of 2023, with AI, machine learning, LLM, and all those fancy buzzwords that have seemingly become part of the general lexicon, Google Assistant has become less reliable and accessible on wearables.
Now, if you want to use Google Assistant on a Wear OS smartwatch, you’ll have to buy one from Samsung or Google, like the newGalaxy Watch 6or the just announcedPixel Watch 2. This is becauseGoogle has killed off Google Assistant on Wear OS 2 watches. In theory, Google and Samsung aren’t the only OEMs offering Wear OS 3 devices capable of running the voice assistant. Brands like Fossil and Mobvoi, with the powerfulTicWatch Pro 5, each offer devices with the proper operating system and specs to handle it.
Withholding Google Assistant from the Wear OS ecosystem keeps a fan-favorite feature out of user’s hands…er…wrists.
With Wear OS 3 passing the two-year make this past August, Google rolled outWear OS 4this fall, with Samsung debuting the wearable platform on its Galaxy Watch 6 series, with the Pixel Watch 2 being next in line. When the TicWatch Pro 5 arrived earlier this year, it was the first to run the new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 chipset — the same SoC found in Google’s new wearable — and the first watch from Mobvoi to get Wear OS 3. Naturally, fans of Android smartwatches were excited to see how Google Assistant might run with more horsepower behind it. Unfortunately, the only thing those users found was disappointment, as Google held Assistant back from the device altogether.
Close, but not quite the same
Aside from the strange case of what watches can and can’t access Assistant, there is also a lack of feature parity between the wearable version and every other point of access for the digital assistant. Android Police writer Rajesh Pandey accurately called outsix annoyances on Wear OS, one being the limitations of Google Assistant. Among these limitations, one of the glaring omissions in features allowed via your smartwatch isRoutines.
Google Assistant Routines are an excellent way toautomate day-to-day tasks in a variety of ways. Routines are a way for your phone, watch, smart home, or other devices that are connected to your Google Assistant to each take specific actions at the same time with a single command. For example, if you’re leaving your house to go to work, and you’ve set a Routine, you can have your door lock itself, turn off the lights, set your thermostat to a specific temperature, and start playing a podcast on your phone — all with one command.
Google Assistant Routines are processed in the cloud, so why can’t your Wear OS watch trigger one?
You could get deep in the weeds by creating a Routine using things like GPS location and such, but a common way is with a custom voice command to your Google Assistant. As this feature is one that requires access to the internet — all actions are handled via the cloud — it would make sense if your Wear OS watch could handle it for you. Should you forget to trigger the Routine as you walk out the door, you’d think you could ask your smartwatch to take care of it for you. But that isn’t the case, as Google Assistant on Wear OS doesn’t support Routines.Why?!
Now, this may have some kind of fix on the way, as it seems Google is working on anew Google Assistant tileon your watch to run custom commands. Whether it will include support for Routines is yet to be confirmed. Perhaps Google has been letting the dust settle on the expansion of itsdigital assistant because it has bigger plans in mindthat could replace the feature altogether on wearables. But who knows — wearable fans are completely left in the dark on what the future of the app looks like.
Looking for clarity on Assistant’s future
Google Assistant was once the platform on which the company could show off its big AI plans. Each year at Google I/O, it seemed the company had a handful of new and amazing features to show off (remember the first time you saw Duplex?). These days, many of those features, or even the platform as a whole, don’t make it to Wear OS devices. It’s understandable if there are some hardware limitations or other technical issues that would prevent certain tasks from being accessible on smartwatches, but that’s no longer the case
Features aside, it’s the lack of Assistant that remains both extremely frustrating and troubling. Not only is the platform missing from some devices, but Google has been tight-lipped as towhyit’s missing — and why we don’t have access to the voice assistant’s full capacity on devices that do offer Assistant support. I’m hoping the company has a plan to clean up its mess, because as it stands, some of its most die-hard supporters are being left in the dark on the future of Assistant on wearables.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is surely one of the best Android watches available, especially if you are already in the Samsung ecosystem. With a sapphire crystal display, Exynos W930 processor, 2GB of RAM, and up to a 425mAh battery, this watch is built to be a solid performer.
Google Pixel Watch 2
The Google Pixel Watch 2 is the sequel to Google’s first self-branded smartwatch. The second generation doesn’t reinvent the wheel, instead offering a handful of low-key improvements like a redesigned digital crown, Wear OS 4 out of the box, and a newer chipset that should offer better performance and battery life.
