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Just wanted to start a list of the best apps that we think are available for the S2

Calculator Plus+ is a good one, it's what you'd think, a calculator, and it works. It is optimized for a round screen. So crazy that Sammy never added a calculator as a stock app.
Sent from my SM-N920P using XDA Free mobile app

That's a problem... The list is quite empty. I am returning this thing because of that and also because of:
I owned first Gear as well as Gear S in the past and quite frankly Samsung is going backwards with their watches.
There is one Pro in this one - it is good looking, I like the design.
Well - 1/2 point for the rotating bezel. It is kind of cool but I am so used to the touch controls that barely used it.
The rest of review is pretty much all Cons:
1. Lack of speaker - ok, some say it looks silly to talk to the wrist but sometimes it was useful. Why removed if all previous watches hat one?
2. Lack of apps - seriously, there is NO useful app available for this watch. I had plenty of apps on Gear S and none of them is re-written for the round watch.
3. Vibrations are barely sensed - I had it set to strong and long and miss half of the notifications
4. Screen decides on its own if it wants to light up when the notification comes. Not reliable at all
5. Previous models had option to come back to the last used app after the screen turns off, very useful for timer, stopwatch, music control. This cames back to the watch screen always. Try to skip the tracks from the watch when you have to turn the dial to the music app every time.....
6. No auto brightness. Seriously? Go out - make the screen brighter by hand. Come back, dim it by hand...
7. Straps.... out of 4 halves I found in the box (2 to make a long strap and 2 to make a short one) I was able to attach 3 of them, the 4th would not fit. And I guarantee you that after couple replacements the mount will break....
8. No sleep patterns tracking on the watch
9. Battery - that's another screw up. Samsung advertises 2-3 days... Right...I liek to have the watch set to always on. Gear S had about 40% left at the end of the day. This garbage had 18% at 11pm last night....
10. No integration with Google Now - no cards, no reminders to be set... I thought Samsung finally understood that S-Voice cannot compete with any assistant available... I guess they are too stupid to get that
11. No integration with Google Maps - Here maps are great but on the watch it is a disaster, completely useless, slow, chews through the battery.
12. No way to choose if one wears it on the left or right wrist hence when you wear it on the right the buttons are above the watch and you cover the face of it while pressing.
13. no night clock mode while charging - all you see while being charged is a blackscreen.
There is probably more flaws but I either did not discover them or do not remember. Generally the watch is going back to Best Buy and I will wait for Moto 360 Sport or LG Urbane 2
And with Samsung phones going backwards as well (S6, Note 5) Samsung lost a customer (I own Note 4 now and I had Note 1, 2 and 3 in the past)

Wow, so that last post was mostly off-topic lol. Interesting points...just not relevant for this specific thread. Better to post that in a gear s vs gear s2 thread or something like that

sefrcoko said:
Wow, so that last post was mostly off-topic lol. Interesting points...just not relevant for this specific thread. Better to post that in a gear s vs gear s2 thread or something like that
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Haha. I've seen his post there also. I guess he REALLY wants people to know how he feels!

Wow..clearly he felt his review thread wasn't enough but now he has to post his review everywhere. Move along... .
Well back on topic... A fun little app to play with is Xenozu. It's a YouTube app that let's you search and watch videos. You do have to have a Bluetooth headset attached but it works when linked to wifi. It's more novelty then anything but fun nonetheless.

Wow can we boot that guy for hating so much, it may not be the best compared to a phone, but that's because it's a watch....plus my gear s2 does have a daylight mode, I walk out side and it will adjust itself. Also, am able to use my watch with the face always on and have about 45% by end of day, I have to constantly play with it for it to die.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using XDA Free mobile app

kufel said:
1. Lack of speaker - ok, some say it looks silly to talk to the wrist...
So, what's that little hole on the side between the buttons? The one you talk into for SVoice.
2. Lack of apps
It's brand spanking new... give it time
3. Vibrations are barely sensed
Subjective... I can feel it just fine on soft/weak/low, whatever
4. Screen decides on its own if it wants to light up when the notification comes.
o_0
5. Previous models had option to come back to the last used app after the screen turns off...
I'll skip this one because I have no clue what you're talking about
6. No auto brightness. Seriously?
Outdoor mode is automatic, you don't have to touch anything and it goes into auto brightness. Seriously
7. Straps
Mine come off and snap on just fine and are very solid. Perhaps you're doing it wrong?
8. No sleep patterns tracking on the watch
S-Health, oh and 24 hour activity tracking
9. Battery - that's another screw up. Samsung advertises 2-3 days...
Are you analyzing "day one" usage, straight OTB during fiddle and "hey look what I just got" time?
10. No integration with Google Now
It's Tizen, this has been known for quite some time now
11. No integration with Google Maps
Read comment for #10
12. No way to choose if one wears it on the left or right wrist...
WUT???
13. no night clock mode while charging
Big f*ing deal... you're wanting it to track your sleep patterns anyway right?
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Click to collapse
Jus' sayin

Jus' clarifyin'
1. That's a mic not a speaker. Speaker is on 3G version
5. Previous app should be an option when reactivating watch. Viable point imo
8. As it stands, there is no auto sleep log. Should be addressed by Samsung. S-health even tells you to add a wearable for the function to work??
10 & 11. Google needs to be adopted for the watch to succeed under android I feel
12. See the point, but analogs never adjusted to which arm the watch was worn on. The user needs to adapt
Sorry to be short, it's late ;b

I assumed he meant mic and not speaker since he describes "talking to the wrist"

bkai said:
I assumed he meant mic and not speaker since he describes "talking to the wrist"
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Click to collapse
My reply would be "Talk to the hand"

Back on topic: Parkmobile just appeared in the app store for the GS2, at least in the Netherlands. Great app for Parkmobile users.

Notifications for Gear s1 & 2
The app "notifications for gear s" is a must have. I am able to reply to facebook messenger and see my Google now cards. It's awesome.

I ony had my watch for less than a day, so obviously I'm still discovering new stuff, but so far I found:
- Calculator (free! and does the job) - this is a samsung app
- News Republic: I was pleasantly surprised to see they have a (free) companion app for the S2, this has been my main news app on my phone for ages (very customisable and looks nice, I love it)
- Gear Pong: just because why not
The Samsung Gear store is terrible by the way... Why with the stupid ugly watch faces flooding every category??? Do some clean up Samsung!

Protagoras said:
- Gear Pong: just because why not
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Click to collapse
Wow, have You actually won even once? I couldn't, haha. Better games imo are FireFly or Colora

OK. Whining aside is there a program that will allow me to get reminders? I use Touchdown as my regular calendar and I think I can use my Samsung calendar but can't get S Voice to work off the GS2.

rogerperk said:
OK. Whining aside is there a program that will allow me to get reminders? I use Touchdown as my regular calendar and I think I can use my Samsung calendar but can't get S Voice to work off the GS2.
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Click to collapse
Never mind! Reminders work you just have to set them on the phone. That works for me!

"I am Alive" by Kittikhun Yodrak is very useful. It's basically a toggle for screen always on. No idea why the app is so big though (7.5 MB)...

Cryps said:
Jus' clarifyin'
5. Previous app should be an option when reactivating watch. Viable point imo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, at least you can configure the menu button double-click to launch last opened app.

Metronome and Guitar Tuner pls
Anyone, please... Make Metronome app / Guitar Tuner app for Gear S2. Please.........

Getting a bit bored with my S3...

So, I have had this watch since late November, so, here's my honest opinion after ~7 weeks use. (I suspect I get unnecessarily flamed by Samsung Fans for this!!)
The Good
- The design, rotating bezel is the best attempt yet at a simple selection system for a smartwatch
- The battery life - I easily get 3 days
- The hardware - nice screen, snappy performance
- Answering/rejecting calls from the watch works very well and call quality is superb
- Notifications work well, but limited as to what one can do with them with non samsung phone
- Huge number of watch faces - but who needs more than one?
- When S-Voice is working (which is rarely) its handy for 'remind me to...', 'set alarm for...' requests.
- Controlling music player on phone works well enough
- Very few decent apps, but Remote Camera, Xenozu (Youtube), Gear Browser, Toggles, Flipboard work pretty well.
The Bad - (Warning - this is pretty scathing!)
- Only 1.4GB free on watch from the original 4GB
- Watch is full of junk that cannot be uninstalled (useless watch faces useless apps)
- Seriously compromised if not using with a Samsung phone (eg no email, limited sms messaging)
- No way to add SMS functionality via third party apps. Can send messages, but can not go back through old received messages.
- No Gmail/Email (pop3/imap) app, if you have a Samsung phone you get this feature, if not then tough. A stand alone imap-enabled client would have solved this.
- Often the only option in notifications is 'show on phone' eg from FB messenger/twitter notifications - where we are talking about just a few words, this defeats the purpose of the watch, I need to be able to read on watch and reply on watch. This limitation gets tiresome. 3rd parties EG FB/twitter could fix this with their own S3 app, or notifications that allow 'reply', but we all know they never will. Some other notifications (eg email are less limiting)
- Samsungs App store is god-awful - there are many poor quality, paid apps, and when one installs them and discovers they are rubbish there is NO WAY to get a refund (unlike the google play store). I have wasted £20 this way.
- Decent apps on the Samsung store are hard to come by. The (fairly pointless) Xenozu Youtube app, gear brower along with the widgets app (displays android widgets on yr watch) are about the only decent ones that exist. The latter eats battery on the phone though. One notable exception being the remote camera app which is good.
- Samsung pay still does not work in the UK, and no idea when or if it ever will.
- a good 80% of the 'apps' on the Samsung store are simply watch faces - I only need one watch face.
- What remains is an extremely poor collection of extremely buggy apps.
- The 'SMS Service is not available' response to S-Voice attempts to 'Send a text to xxx' requests is tedious. There was no need to screw the functionality up so much for non Samsung phone users.
- Very often S-Voice does not respond - just times out and gives a spoken error
- The remote connection (via wifi) when watch is not connected via bluetooth is unreliable. Its supposed to make a remote connection to phone and allow notifications/etc to still be sent to the watch. Most of the time, it does not work even where watch/phone are on same wifi network, I have never had it work when they are on different networks.
- The watch is fussy about wifi networks (it wont work at all in my workplace for instance). It connects, but no connectivity.
- S-Health is a pile of junk, it auto-detects cycling when I am doing 60MPH on the motorway for instance!!! Among many other issues. Where is the option to remove it and replace with Strava? S-Health on the phone also eats the phones battery in no time.
Samsung needs to up their game if they are serious about Tizen Smartwatches, supplying their own developers for free to the likes of facebook, twitter, whatsapp, hive, ifttt, Skitrax etc in order to ensure that apps for the watch get developed, or paying devs to develop for the platform. They also need to change their store to allow a refund window for rubbish apps.
Samsung could WRITE an IMAP app to fix the email hole on the watch (could be configured from phone, but then work without phone)
Nigel

I am a Samsung fan and I agree with a lot of your gripes, but with all Tech products the "honeymoon" period is pretty short, in other words the level of excitement wears off quickly.
But I agree, if they want Tizen to take off, they need to have major upgrades to the software side of the experience. Samsung is and always will be a great hardware manufacturer, but the software side is always a question-mark. This goes for the overloaded useless crap software on their galaxy phones to the poor software functionality of their smart tvs.
Google is releasing Android Wear upgrades so hopefully some competition outside of Apple will spruce things up, but I am not holding my breath.
BTW, I had to turn off S Voice as it would randomly turn on 2-3 times a day (I didn't even have voice recognition configured) when I was in meetings, very embarrassing. I should have the capability to uninstall it all together.
Also 100% agree on the refund period, like what the hell, in this day and age it should be an easy thing to do. Have bought so many faces and apps that look great and advertise great functionality to only be disappointed when seeing it work after installation. Money wasted.

The only reason I dont have a Samsung phone is the software. Hardware great, but why oh why do they have to mess with stock android so much!?
Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

I bought the frontier to try out Tizen. The other reasons were Samsung Pay, GPS (coming from Huawei Watch) and IP68 certification. I was hoping there would be great apps to support it along the way. The watch build (minus the rotating bezel) is fantastic but Tizen and the current Gear apps are just not exciting enough and hence my feelings are similar to the OP. Maybe my expectations for a wearable are too much. However, I'm looking forward to what Under Armour has to offer since I like to track my runs. Still keeping my Huawei with latest Wear developer preview installed which I actually prefer over Tizen for its clean UI, Google search and wrist gestures. I hardly touch the Frontier's rattling bezel for the fear of it breaking loose. I wish I could tap the screen to turn on the display as with the Huawei. These are just my preferences but its good that I can have the same notifications on both watches at the same time using one phone and therefore be able to switch between the two.

I agree with the OP post plus I'm fed up with the bugs and crap altitude and barometer. Maybe I'll switch to the Fenix 5 when it's released.

I also own a Lg G watch r, and the thing i miss on Gear s3 are the lack of google`s software integration. Would like to use "ok google", by far superior to S-voice. Also google maps, with turn by turn navigation on my wrist.
The selection of watchfaces are awful on gear, and many of them does not look nice on the watch. Missing Watchmaker app, awesome selection of quality watchfaces created by users.
Like mentioned in OP, the notifications are not rich enough.. the idea of the watch making it easier is not working good enough. BUT im hoping there will be changes coming, because it an nice looking and powerful watch.

blackspp said:
I agree with the OP post plus I'm fed up with the bugs and crap altitude and barometer. Maybe I'll switch to the Fenix 5 when it's released.
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Click to collapse
Fully agree with you. There is no apps and Samsung does not bring much to the table. It should be improving the experience, but in place they just rotate few features between models. They don't add new features, but only remove some to replace them with others. Then next models, swap them again (e.g. IR remote).
Progress will be to keep the existing and ADD something!
The only thing I enjoy with the Gear S3 is the look. I felt an improvement in quality, but nothing else. Hope that new intersting apps will get on board soon and that firmware update will be able to correct irrealistic figures from all sensors in that watch.

I fully agree with all of you.
I can use Google maps now with Directions, but even that one I have to start manually.
Toggles was new for me. (Thanks)
But still a lot of handy things as in the first part of Nigel's story.
Quick read my mail, etc etc, coming from a ,not too bad, Sony Smartwatch, its great.
And we have this beautiful KLM airline app.
S-Voice is a drama. (no Dutch)
But this is the Tizen choice. We knew it... lets face it.
Huib

Does anyone know if android wear 2.0 will support android pay on rooted phones? The only reason I'm keeping my Gear S3 is for samsung pay. The rest is too buggy as mentioned here. The other reason is spotify, which rarely works well for me anymore.

soundneedle said:
Does anyone know if android wear 2.0 will support android pay on rooted phones? The only reason I'm keeping my Gear S3 is for samsung pay. The rest is too buggy as mentioned here. The other reason is spotify, which rarely works well for me anymore.
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There first has to be a watch that supports Android pay with nfc. Right now there isn't any and idk looks like they might not let root users unless they make a separate app for Android pay for watches like Samsung did for Samsung pay for the gear s3 on how it is separate from the Samsung pay phone version. We should know hopefully soon.

Geez!
I was tempted by the Amoled screen vs the LCD of the Moto 360 v2, but as I am an HTC phones user the limitations will be bad.
Though I see there are some custom roms, I wonder if they can fix most of the listed problems?

Samsung Pay with MST keeps me around. Truly groundbreaking on a watch. If you're not using that, then yeah I can see how you'd throw in the towel.

I'm mystified by the lack of app developers as well as Samsung's poor app offerings! I want to be able to read all Flipboard posts! I want better functionality from the calendar. I want Facebook, a better browser and a swyping keyboard! And I want them to fix the WiFi so you can connect to password protected networks!
Sent from my SM-N930T using Tapatalk

kronium said:
Samsung Pay with MST keeps me around. Truly groundbreaking on a watch. If you're not using that, then yeah I can see how you'd throw in the towel.
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Click to collapse
Likewise, first impression was "Wow great watch" but after a month with it, it got bland fast so I sold my Canadian version (which didn't have Samsung Pay on it). I found out through the forum that the American versions have Samsung Pay which would work in Canada and that Watchmaker could trigger Tasker so I decided to buy another one. Honestly love the watch now! Samsung Pay IS really groundbreaking and makes this watch totally worth it. (blah blah blah I know, spending money so that you can pay for more stuff you don't need...)
I use tasker to control my home automation so that's a plus too.

I am fully aware that the Gear S3 is a smartwatch first and sport tracker second. But Samsung come on, at least have Strava come -on-board with a native app, S-Health sucks big time.

Yup. It seems to work okay with cycling. Just okay.
S Health is a humongous battery hog.
And how about a Pandora native app also.

I use the watch daily. I can see my notifications (text and Gmail) on the watch without looking at my phone. I also use Samsung Pay almost daily. I have the LTE version, so it it nice to be able to have a stand-alone device if needed. There are many, many reasons I like this watch. However, I think it is obvious that there is a huge lack of usable apps for this watch. Clearly, this is mostly because of Tizen, but Samsung is to blame for that. They have taken little initiative to get real app development. They could at least create a bridge that would allow some Android apps to function on Tizen. They are very hoggish and want to control all aspects of the watch for themselves but aren't moving fast to do so. They offer a BMW app for the watch, but how many people drive a BMW? Why not offer a Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge app, etc...? The list is way too long to mention here of usable apps that need to be available for this watch. So, as I have mentioned in other threads, the watch is great...it just severely lacks app development and Samsung's weak attempts (****ty contests) to inspire development is falling way short. I can only hope they change this very soon. Google should be releasing a pretty awesome watch very soon and I'm not sure if Samsung Pay is going to be enough to keep me with the S3. Especially since I can just use my phone for the same thing.

scott14719 said:
I use the watch daily. I can see my notifications (text and Gmail) on the watch without looking at my phone. I also use Samsung Pay almost daily. I have the LTE version, so it it nice to be able to have a stand-alone device if needed. There are many, many reasons I like this watch. However, I think it is obvious that there is a huge lack of usable apps for this watch. Clearly, this is mostly because of Tizen, but Samsung is to blame for that. They have taken little initiative to get real app development. They could at least create a bridge that would allow some Android apps to function on Tizen. They are very hoggish and want to control all aspects of the watch for themselves but aren't moving fast to do so. They offer a BMW app for the watch, but how many people drive a BMW? Why not offer a Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge app, etc...? The list is way too long to mention here of usable apps that need to be available for this watch. So, as I have mentioned in other threads, the watch is great...it just severely lacks app development and Samsung's weak attempts (****ty contests) to inspire development is falling way short. I can only hope they change this very soon. Google should be releasing a pretty awesome watch very soon and I'm not sure if Samsung Pay is going to be enough to keep me with the S3. Especially since I can just use my phone for the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with everything you say except SPay! Amen!
Sent from my SM-N930T using Tapatalk

Ditto the two above posts...

I bought the watch 2 weeks ago and I love the way it functions personally. S health got a major upgrade 2 weeks ago, and to get the most of it you need to check off the activities that you like in the S gear app. So far I have just run and walked using this app. and it gives heart rate, and let's you know your pace and calories burned. I have yet to track weight training, and such. The Under Armor apps are there, but I seem to get and invalid email error so far. One of the best keeps getting better since the last heart rate monitoring addition.

How Bixby gonna be useful

I was thinking about removing the hole bixby crap and use the Bixby button to do something else ? what do you think ?

Good ideea! How?

It's entirely up to you. Everybody will have a different opinion and there will be plenty of people that will enjoy using Bixby. I'll probably use it sometimes.
Everybody has different needs. I for example, don't use my phone to purchase anything and I don't have a need for Samsung Pay or Android Pay. Never will and I'll never understand the point of it. That's useless bloatware for me. It's much quicker and easier to use my contactless debit card.
You'll have to decide if it's useful or not to you.

saifullah90 said:
I was thinking about removing the hole bixby crap and use the Bixby button to do something else ? what do you think ?
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Yup my thoughts exactly, ditch the crap and make use of the button for something that might actually be useful, although I am not yet sure what (if the virtual home button irritates me then perhaps use it as a home button, or maybe a recent apps button). Don't know if you can do that without a custom rom, I suspect not as Samsung probably wants to force it on people.

ewokuk said:
Yup my thoughts exactly, ditch the crap and make use of the button for something that might actually be useful, although I am not yet sure what (if the virtual home button irritates me then perhaps use it as a home button, or maybe a recent apps button). Don't know if you can do that without a custom rom, I suspect not as Samsung probably wants to force it on people.
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that the spirit we will probably find a good use out of it.

Its just samsung take on google. It will probably just be more straight forward. It does the same thing..google translate uses the camera to live translate words.
You can google voice to set alarms etc...
I might use it might not its stuff phones have been doing for a while.

Sounds good
saifullah90 said:
I was thinking about removing the hole bixby crap and use the Bixby button to do something else ? what do you think ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Assistant is already useful, bixby is just another waste of space imo

I just want to delete bixby and I don't even own one yet
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I'm sure it will be pretty useless for most of us, but I can see the thinking behind it. It'll be interesting to see if they improve it as time goes on.

Bixby can suck it! I'm going to deactivate that bloat asap.

It seems like voice assistance is being marketed as the future. Personally I don't see myself using it. I'm also wondering how many people actually use Google Assistant and Siri.
Edit: Rereading that last sentence, it seems like I'm questioning the numbers, but I really am interested to know how many people actually use it and for more complex things than checking the weather or asking funny questions.

Yeah I dont see it as a feature I would use. But my understanding is you cant remap the Bixby key to anything.

The main thing for me is the cards part of bixby. That's what actually launches when you press the button. I can put weather, reminders, calenders all right there so I can see it at a moment's notice. That way I don't have to put home screen widgets or ongoing notifications for those.

I think they want to make bixy like from iron man, where he talks to his ai, who is now an avenger. If bixy learns like they say i think itll be cool. Like bixy watch and learn me doing this, learning....then it can do what ever i show it

Dat Noob said:
It seems like voice assistance is being marketed as the future. Personally I don't see myself using it. I'm also wondering how many people actually use Google Assistant and Siri.
Edit: Rereading that last sentence, it seems like I'm questioning the numbers, but I really am interested to know how many people actually use it and for more complex things than checking the weather or asking funny questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I honestly didn't think I would use Google Assistant as much however was I wrong.... I'll try to explain how it's useful on the pixel.
1st... The assistant kind of works in the background through other apps like photos, I was rotating some old downloaded photos because they were sideways however I didn't finish, next day when I first went in my photos the assistant randomly notified me of all the pics that were sideways and asked did I want it to rotate them which I clicked yes. Also the google cards bring news, sports, stock etc based off things you normally search like if I've been googling Samsung S8, I will start to see news, info regarding the S8 each day on my daily feed/ cards (Hard to explain but it's very convenient because it will show whatever you've been interested in such as new games, cars you've look at etc).
2nd... There's actually using the assistant voice features which are absurdly accurate even when I misstate a word. The assistant learns who people are so I don't always have to say names instead I can say call my cousin, mom, wife etc at home, on speaker phone. I can also say go to bestbuy.com or any other website. Set my alarm for 10am, add bananas to my grocery list, remind me to take out the trash when I get home, play a specific song on YouTube or in music player. All of this is not only accurate but considerable faster than doing it manually. In addition you don't need a physical button to activate the assistant, you just say "ok Google" and it knows your voice even if your phone was locked so it's truly hands free. As I'm getting ready for work I ask "how is the traffic to work". A few minutes ago I was just streaming a movie from my phone to my tv and got up to get my clothes out the washer so I told the assistant to pause video, then resume when I sat back down.
3rd.... I honestly felt Bixby functioned a little slow in relation to Google Assistant/ Siri however it's still kind of beta until the phone is released. I can see where Samsung's is trying to bridge the gap while also trying to get their foot in the door but only time will tell if it will flop or stand however I can definitely see voice assistants becoming a bigger footprint in all phones.

Dat Noob said:
It seems like voice assistance is being marketed as the future. Personally I don't see myself using it. I'm also wondering how many people actually use Google Assistant and Siri.
Edit: Rereading that last sentence, it seems like I'm questioning the numbers, but I really am interested to know how many people actually use it and for more complex things than checking the weather or asking funny questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I wouldn't use it either but I'm warming up to it - primarily for replying to text's while driving, getting directions, finding restaurants, etc. Pretty handy in that respect and for me, it's more accurate than my typing on the screen keypad, which I find horrible to use (Samsung's keyboard).

But the point is google now/ assistant does this already. This video below is a perfect response to bixby.
By the way, you can disable bixby and you can reasssign google now or google assistant (or any other app you want) to the bixby button.
https://youtu.be/xfG15i_uQvc

Totally Agree, there was no point in Samsung spending time & resources on something that already exists and has since 2012 i believe.
But great that it can be remapped as now that button becomes useful.......[emoji3]
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Unfortunately from the hands on videos I've seen, you can't remap the button. Not sure if you would even be able to disable it in software without root.

Remap Bixby Button!
Use "All In One Gestures" App to remap the Bixby Button. Search YouTube!

Incoming texts and Google Assistant

I have Google Assistant, it responds to "Ok Google" even from a locked phone. I have 7.0, play services 11.0.55.
I want my incoming texts announced with voice when connected to Bluetooth, headset or my Cadillac Cue. Cue puts a written message up on my IP cluster allowing me to ignore or read it, my headset which I use much of the day only has a notification tone.
I cannot find where I could personalize the text tone so I can determine if I need to wash my hands and handle my phone to view an incoming text, like you can with a ringtone. I have no way to determine who the text is from apart from looking at the display, which is in my pocket.
I admit I came from Windows Mobile (reluctantly) because my job required I use an app that is not available on Windows (surprise). I prefer to not carry two phones, so I purchased a Huawei Mate 9, forward the calls from the work phone to mine, have the app on my phone too, and to be fair it is a great device.
What annoys me is Windows has had these features since Windows Phone 7.5. I have read where Allo is supposed to do this but so far no joy. I have Googled this a lot and as large a base as Android is there is not much in the lines of a comprehensive guide for how to use Google Assistant, and help here would be greatly appreciated.
If I get this working I might even sell my Windows Phones....LOL

Google Assistant is still fresh and can't really do much. I read somewhere that apple's shiri assistant can read you your messages including who are they from. If that is what you really nead you should look into it.

arminbih said:
Google Assistant is still fresh and can't really do much. I read somewhere that apple's shiri assistant can read you your messages including who are they from. If that is what you really nead you should look into it.
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Thanks,
I am unsure if Siri is able to that either, but thanks for the input. I expected the problem was my unfamiliarity with the Android OS, not it's lack of ability.

You can have a look at utter in the play store able to announce notifications

It's been nearly a year, still no improvement that I can see, any new info out there?

Question Any updates on Google Assistant?

I've heard from a birdie that Google Assistant is scrapped. Honestly, with the lack of information provided on the progress towards Google Assistant and the huge span of time that has elapsed from Galaxy Watch 4's release and the promise made to add Google Assistant, it is easy to believe that Google Assistant indeed is scrapped.
Does anybody have any information on the current state of Google Assistant? Is it even coming?

Nobody knows. Trust me

You can sideload Google Assistant GO which works very well.

bingblop said:
You can sideload Google Assistant GO which works very well.
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I wouldn't say it works "very well". Sometimes doesn't launch quickly, can't see the whole screen, limitaions on what actions it can do, and screensaver mode appearing while trying to use it.
At most, it sorta works... but the truly sad thing is, even THAT is better than Bixby.

crxssi said:
I wouldn't say it works "very well". Sometimes doesn't launch quickly, can't see the whole screen, limitaions on what actions it can do, and screensaver mode appearing while trying to use it.
At most, it sorta works... but the truly sad thing is, even THAT is better than Bixby.
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I mean ya it isn't seamless but it's likely the best we're gonna get. When Google releases Google assistant for OS 3.0 for non Samsung watches, we'll be able to snag it.

crxssi said:
I wouldn't say it works "very well". Sometimes doesn't launch quickly, can't see the whole screen, limitaions on what actions it can do, and screensaver mode appearing while trying to use it.
At most, it sorta works... but the truly sad thing is, even THAT is better than Bixby.
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You just described my whole experience in a nutshell LOL.

Garoto1973 said:
You just described my whole experience in a nutshell LOL.
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If it isn't running in the background then it takes a few seconds to launch... That is common for most Assistants though. If it is running in the background then it launches to the foreground within a second... Faster than Bixby sometimes. It's really not much different overall.
The only real difference is it probably takes an extra second to launch if it's not already running in the background since it's not native to the watch.
Also, if you're downloading from APKmirror, I've found that one of the variants available launches faster than the other.

garailcat said:
I've heard from a birdie that Google Assistant is scrapped. Honestly, with the lack of information provided on the progress towards Google Assistant and the huge span of time that has elapsed from Galaxy Watch 4's release and the promise made to add Google Assistant, it is easy to believe that Google Assistant indeed is scrapped.
Does anybody have any information on the current state of Google Assistant? Is it even coming?
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Click to collapse
Is there any source? Samsung support reps recently switched from the vague "in progress, in the future" language to things like "almost complete, release in the next few months" publicly just in the last 2 weeks or so, so I'm more confidant than ever that it'll come out

Clearlynotstefan said:
Is there any source? Samsung support reps recently switched from the vague "in progress, in the future" language to things like "almost complete, release in the next few months" publicly just in the last 2 weeks or so, so I'm more confidant than ever that it'll come out
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The source is a few YouTubers the past 48 hours with speculation it won't be coming to GW4. Same types of the speculation we have been hearing since release.

MustangLife03 said:
The source is a few YouTubers the past 48 hours with speculation it won't be coming to GW4. Same types of the speculation we have been hearing since release.
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YouTubers must be legit then....

I tried this Google Assistant GO version and it works quite acceptable
Google Assistant Go 2.8.0.346747673.release (arm-v7a) (Android 8.0+) APK Download by Google LLC - APKMirror
Google Assistant Go 2.8.0.346747673.release (arm-v7a) (Android 8.0+) APK Download by Google LLC - APKMirror Free and safe Android APK downloads
www.apkmirror.com

bingblop said:
If it isn't running in the background then it takes a few seconds to launch... That is common for most Assistants though. If it is running in the background then it launches to the foreground within a second... Faster than Bixby sometimes. It's really not much different overall.
The only real difference is it probably takes an extra second to launch if it's not already running in the background since it's not native to the watch.
Also, if you're downloading from APKmirror, I've found that one of the variants available launches faster than the other.
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Click to collapse
Hi, What variants? v2.08? Thanks

I wonder what business holdups is delaying this. I see that the Pixel Watch probably will be released on May, so my hope is that it will be the only reason they are delaying the GS for other phones.
I mean, I have it on my 1st gen Huawei watch and the API is available for everyone and works flawlessly in the GW 4 if you want to go through the chore of doing all the needed steps in the Google developer web page.

Garoto1973 said:
The API is available for everyone and works flawlessly in the GW 4 if you want to go through the chore of doing all the needed steps in the Google developer web page
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Would not say it works flawlessly, maybe on your 1st Gen Huawei watch but not the GW4. I've got it on my GW4 and it works but not flawlessly.

samorgs said:
Would not say it works flawlessly, maybe on your 1st Gen Huawei watch but not the GW4. I've got it on my GW4 and it works but not flawlessly.
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Yes, maybe flawlessly was not the right word, but installing through api and using web development tools looks and feels better than installing the apk (looks native with the black background and color graphics vs the white text and blue bar of the apk).

Garoto1973 said:
Yes, maybe flawlessly was not the right word, but installing through api and using web development tools looks and feels better than installing the apk (looks native with the black background and color graphics vs the white text and blue bar of the apk).
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How do I install Google Assistant on GW4 through api and using web development tools like you mentioned? Could you please point me in the right direction?
Thanks