When the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 range was released last year, there was one conspicuous omission: Google Assistant.
When it comes to a release date, Google and Samsung have been tight-lipped, although there was reason to believe the digital assistant will arrive sooner than planned.
Google had arrived in an update earlier today, according to Verizon update records for both the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Google, on the other hand, has confirmed to The Verge that this is not the case.
“To confirm, Assistant is not coming to the Galaxy Watch 4, and we don’t have an update on when it will be available,” Google spokesperson Ivy Hunt said in an email.
The Verizon update records, discovered by 9to5Google, pertain to a software upgrade that was released today. “If you have Google Assistant downloaded, it will show up in the settings menu under ‘Google Accounts,'” according to the logs.
There’s also a grainy screenshot showing that you can access the toggles for the wake phrase and speech output by going to Settings > Google > Google Assistant.
Despite the story, The Verge was unable to independently verify the update. No Google Assistant update had arrived on our Bluetooth and Wi-Fi review units.
We also went to the Google Play Store to see what was available. There was nothing there, either. Given Google’s response, it looks that the whole affair was a big old mistake.
We contacted Verizon and Samsung for more information, but did not receive a response right away.
When Google and Samsung announced their Wear OS cooperation last year, one of the big highlights was the option to pick between apps. Samsung’s proprietary Tizen operating system powered previous iterations of the Galaxy Watch.
Users were forced to use Samsung-specific services like as Samsung Pay and Bixby as a result of this. Samsung’s move to Wear OS was intended to improve access to third-party apps, which had previously been a key flaw in its Tizen smartwatches.
For example, users of the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic who prefer Google Pay over Samsung Pay can now do so.
To read our blog on “Google Pixel Watch is expected to be released soon with Wear OS 3.1,” click here.