Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 could be a peek at the future of Android smartwatches

The only assistant is Bixby

Hello, Bixby. I guess we meet again.

Samsung’s voice assistant returns, and it’s assigned to one of the Watch 4 buttons by default (the top one, a long press summons it). You can’t access Google Assistant as an option, which is something I was convinced would be on the Watch 4. I was wrong. (You can swap out Bixby with a Power Off shortcut, but that’s it for that long-press button reassigning.)

Plans may change; right now, Bixby is the only assistant. Again, the watch doesn’t arrive until the end of the month. It’s built on Wear OS, and Google’s apps can be downloaded onto the Watch 4. But I’m concerned about not having Google Assistant. Google Assistant is a big part of how a watch can be connected to a phone (or common Google apps), and it feels like a big loss not to have it right now. I actually use voice commands quite a bit on watches like the Apple Watch because they’re easier to pull off in a pinch, hands-free. It’s also particularly weird because Fitbit now has Google Assistant support on its voice-connected devices.

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