[Wear OS General] bernarbernuli:
Most common Wear OS issues and how to fix them (II)

Google Assistant in certain (too many) situations does not work properly.

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This bug has been known for at least 2 years (and unbelievably not fixed by Google). The fact of not having fixed this problem makes palpable the huge neglect in which Google has subjected Wear OS considering that the Google Assistant is one of the big claims (if not the biggest) when announcing the watches. One day you find yourself as a brand new owner of such a watch and you simply find that the Assistant does not work, it is very frustrating. Below I relate a few situations where the user experience is terrible when interacting with the Assistant:​

- "Call xxxxx" (from your phonebook) and it will say "Sorry , I can't do that anymore". Interestingly if you call a spelled out number (even if it is in the phonebook) it works correctly.​

- "Send text message to xxxxx Hi, how are you? " (from your phonebook or a spelled out number), it then asks for confirmation of what to send with the "cancel" or "send" buttons, I click "send" and screen is shown "Couldn't connect to your phone" .​

- "Send whatshap/telegram to xxxxx", It asks "to whom?", but never recognizes the contact, it always asks "to whom?".​

- "Play music", then says "here you go" (or something similar) and screen is displayed "Couldn't connect to your phone"​

- "Nearby restaurantss", and clicking on one of them displays the screen "Can't reach the phone at the moment" (can't reach the phone now). Any suggestions about places or businesses that you ask for and the assistant offers will do the same.​

- "When you open McDonals", if there are more than one it shows a list of locations, and when you click on one of them, it says "Can't reach the phone at the moment".​

- 'Browse to McDonals"​

If there is more than one destination, it shows you a list of locations, and when you click on one of them, it will return the error "Can't reach the phone at the moment"".

If there is only one location, it will say it understood but a black screen will be displayed and will not indicate anything.

- "View appointments from my calendar" (calendar).​

If there is more than one entry, it will describe the first entry and announce that you will see the remaining ones, finally it does not show them, just a black screen.

If there is one entry, it will describe the entry but you will not be able to see more details, just a black screen.

- "Search results for xxxxxxxx", it will say "this is the main result", but you will only see a black screen. This happens whenever the wizard needs to show you results from your request.​

- "Show pictures of 'Cats'" and it will respond "Showing your photos of cats". However, it will not show any pictures, you will only see a black screen.​

Google over the years has been tentatively fixing the interaction in some situations through Wear OS updates, for example, it has frequently been reported that reminders and notes could not be added through the assistant, currently those functions work correctly.​

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Google Issue Tracker: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/174344676 and https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/174594748 and https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/182882377.​

Who is affected? All Wear OS watches of any model.​

Solution: ​

There is currently no solution, however there are several indications that suggest that soon will be released an update to repair all these problems, these are:​

In March this year they finally fixed the bug where the assistant did not recognize the voice command 'OK Google'.

A few days ago they released the first app for Wear OS in years, the Gboard keyboard for WearOS.

This week, many users are receiving a notification via phone to take a Wear OS satisfaction survey.

And finally, at the annual Google I/O 2021 conference held in mid-May the partnership with Samsung was announced which could definitely boost the development of Wear OS, also rumored to launch before the end of the year Wear OS 3.0.

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Alternative Solution:​

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As I was saying there is no official solution to this by Google, but if an alternative solution for part of these problems, specifically when you want to:​

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"Call xxxxx" (from your address book).​

"Send text message to xxxxx Hi, how are you?" (from your contact book).​

"Send whatshapp message to xxxxx".​

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It is through Wear Text app (developer Malcolm Bryant). This app allows you to make phone calls or send a text message or WhatsApp using voice commands. This post explains about installation, configuration and use of Wear Text.​

In the same way, we can all push the solution through the internal bug tracking system that Google uses, Google Issue Tracker for Wear OS developers to listen to our complaints and prioritize solutions to this major bug. Enter the tab of this bug in the tracker and give it a vote by clicking on the star in order to give it notoriety, you can also give your opinion in the issue tab if you think you can contribute something new. I recommend that you enter the tracker, right now is the most direct way for us to be heard by the developers.​