Rumors that Samsung may possibly Tizen closed, the native operating system for wearables, for Google’s Wear OS, has been flying latelyIt’s a baffling ideaas Samsung smartwatches are the best Android-friendly smartwatches right now, and Wear OS is a stinky hot mess.
Example: 9 to 5Google reports that the phrases “OK Google” or “Hey Google” to activate Google Assistant on Wear OS watches have been broken for monthsGoogle also confirmed that T.he Verge that it was aware of this bug, which has been plaguing users since at least November 2020, and is working on a fix. While you can still use the Assistant by long-pressing on buttons (which is actually my preferred method of bringing up Assistant on Wear OS), it says Google has been aware of the problem for so long and it still does has not resolved.
Wear OS has long been one of Google’s most neglected projects, but this is a new low. The main reason for choosing a Wear OS watch over a Fitbit or Samsung smartwatch is native integration with Google Assistant and Google Pay. If you don’t care to quickly fix one of the main selling points of your wearables platform, then I’m not sure I can say with confidence that Wear OS will be there for the long haul. And this is not the only case. Even Google in October puts Wear OS in second place by choosing to release a YouTube Music app for the Apple Watch first. Even worse, Google’s most recent updates to Wear OS were lousy at best, with slightly better app loading times and a tile again as the marquee features.
This was all Wear OS had to offer in 2020. Compare that with Samsung’s blockbuster year, in which it absolutely knocked it out of the park with the Galaxy Watch 3Right now, the Galaxy Watch 3 is the only other flagship smartwatch that can play on almost every function with the Apple Watch. Of course I doit’s not perfect. Some features, such as the FDA-approved electrocardiogram app are currently only available for Samsung smartphone ownersHowever, there is really no competition between the Galaxy Watch 3 even the best of the best Wear OS watches I’ve tested.
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To be fair, Samsung once used Wear OS – and then Android Wear – on its smartwatches. But in 2014 it made the switch to Tizen with the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, probably for the same reasons almost every other smartwatch maker did then except Fossil: Google’s clunky UI, low adoption rate and the outdated Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip.
So why, why would Samsung go back to a platform that has yet to take care of its shit? I can think of a few reasons, but none of them are particularly good. For starters, Tizen doesn’t have a great ecosystem of third-party apps, and switching to Wear OS will allow you to open more apps. But to be fair, Wear OS apps don’t get much developer love, even if there are there more. Spotify for Wear OS, for example, is a refined remote control, while Spotify for Tizen allows you to use offline playlists. Google’s native Wear OS apps are okay at best, and frankly it is bizarre that the built-in Google Fit workout app is now actually split into multiple different versions. Google Fit, even with newer updates, isn’t better than Samsung Health either, and it’s again a pain to have both installed on your watch.
The other reason I saw Samsung make the switch would be to bring the option of Google Assistant and Google Pay to Samsung watches. And that would be great because Samsung Pay is more restrictive to use than Google Pay, and who actually loves Bixby? But does Samsung need going all-in on Wear OS to integrate Assistant and Google Pay? Fitbit manages to have google assistant work on Fitbit OS, why not let Samsung do the same? (Granted, Fitbit probably has an Assistant because Google now owns the business.)
There’s a good chance that a Samsung Wear OS watch sucks less than any other Wear OS watch. But that’s mainly because Samsung could use its own Exynos SoC instead of relying on Qualcomm’s, which does the bare minimumAnd while I’m sure Samsung’s rotating bezel navigation can be ported to a Wear OS watch, it just wouldn’t be as good if Google allowed Samsung to use a Wear OS skin (which what Oppo did with its Wear OS watch)Tellingly, Wear OS was actually pretty good on the Oppo Watch because it didn’t look or function like Wear OS. And what is even the reason to switch from Tizen at that point?
It is clear that Google gets more out of Samsung with Wear OS than the other way around. If Samsung brought its smartwatch innovations to that platform, it would suddenly become relevant again– provided that all of Samsung’s apps, including those requiring FDA approval, could seamlessly make the leap.
Except Wear OS as a whole wouldn’t be good. For that to happen, other watchmakers would have to figure out how best to use Wear OS. Google should actually update the damn platform consistently good functions, not incremental functions that are hardly a blip on the radarQualcomm should figure out how to update its portable SoC to Topical process technology and do it more than once every two years. And that’s if Google doesn’t decide toend the whole thing now that it owns it Fitbit to make something completely different.
Android users – and not just those who use Samsung smartphones – deserve an excellent smartwatch. This just doesn’t seem like the best way to get one.