The Samsung Galaxy Watch comes with Bixby on board, which is Samsung’s own voice assistant. It works for the basics, but one of the first things you’ll want to change is the ability to speak to Google Assistant instead.
Since the Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung has switched to Wear OS, instead of Bixby. And that's the same on the all-new Galaxy Watch 6 models.
And the bonus of that is access to Google apps and services – with Assistant being one of the most popular. But Samsung loads its own voice assistant instead.
Follow our guide to ditching Bixby and putting Google Assistant back on your Galaxy Watch.
You’ll need:
- A Google account
- Galaxy Watch 4/5/6
Download Google Assistant
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To get going you’ll need a Google account and to have that signed into your phone. Given we’re heading to the Play Store as our first port of call, we suspect that most people will. Fire up the Play Store and then choose Google Assistant and download it.
Set up Assistant
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Stay on your smartphone for now. Fire up the app, and you’ll need to run through and agree to a bunch of permissions.
Voice match
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Part of this is Voice Match. Agree to this to have Google recognize your voice and provide personalized information. If that sounds like a dystopian hell (but you still want to use a voice assistant) you can opt out of this bit.
Once you’ve got through all the menus and finished the process, you can open the app on the Galaxy Watch and give it a try.
Make Google Assistant the default setting
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Now here comes the real magic. Head to Settings > Advanced features > Customize buttons. You should see that the home button (the top left key) is set to Bixby.
Tap this to change it, and you should see Assistant in the list of alternative options. Select it and you’ll be whisked back a menu.
Press to assist
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Come back and now press and hold the top left button. You’ll now see Google Assistant appear rather than the standard Bixby. From here you can ask for things such as the weather and timers – but because it’s Google Assistant – you can interact with your calendar, add or change appointments, or set reminders.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.