“Hey Google” hotword isn’t working on Wear OS, but Google says it’s working on a fix

On Wednesday, a report from 9to5Google brought attention to a feature on Wear OS that hasn’t been working for months, according to a thread on Google’s Issue Tracker. Google has now responded that it is “aware of the issues some users have been encountering”. Google has also noted that it will “address these and improve the overall experience” with its partner OEMs.

Using the “Hey Google” hotword should summon Google Assistant on a Wear OS smartwatch while the screen is active. However, despite the feature toggled on in the Assistant’s settings, it won’t respond for a command. You can still summon Google Assistant by long-pressing the watch’s button, but Wear OS is intended to be able to give Assistant a command with the wake word as well.

Wear OS has so much potential and there are dozens of attractive smartwatches that launch every year that sport the platform. It seems that these OEMs are at the mercy of Google to really put effort behind the wearable operating system.

Wear OS’s latest update H MR1 is based on Android 9 Pie, but Google is expected to release a new update based on Android 11 sometime this year. With Google’s completed acquisition of Fitbit from a few weeks ago, the company may be crunching to incorporate its new assets into the next Wear OS update.

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