Rumors that Samsung can potentially get rid of Tizen, its proprietary wearable operating system, for Google’s Wear OS, has recently flown. It’s a disconcerting idea, considering that Samsung smartwatches are the best Android-compatible smartwatches at the moment, and Wear OS is a smelly mess.
Case in point: 9 to 5Google reports that the phrases “Ok Google” or “Hey Google” to trigger Google Wear OS Watch Assistant has been broken for months. Google also confirmed for The Verge who 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 pressing and holding the buttons (which is actually my preferred method of activating the Assistant on Wear OS), this indicates that Google has known about the problem for a long time and has not yet fixed it.
Wear OS has been one of Google’s most neglected projects, but this is a new low point. The main reason for choosing a Wear OS watch instead of a Fitbit or Samsung smartwatch is the native integration with Google Assistant and Google Pay. If you don’t have to worry about quickly fixing one of the main selling points of your wearable platform, then I’m not sure I can safely say that Wear OS will be available for a long time. And this is not the only instance. In October, even Google put Wear OS in second choosing to launch a YouTube Music app for the Apple Watch first. Worse, the latest Google updates for Wear OS have been miserable at best, with slightly better application load times and a climate tile While the marquee resources.
That was all Wear OS had to offer in 2020. Compare that to Samsung’s successful year, where we absolutely hit out of the park with the Galaxy Watch 3. At the moment, the Galaxy Watch 3 is the only other flagship smartwatch that can go hand-in-hand with the Apple Watch on almost every feature. Of course It is not perfect. Some features, like your FDA approved electrocardiogram app currently only available for Samsung smartphone owners. However, there is really no competition between the Galaxy Watch 3 and even the best of the best Wear OS watches I’ve tested.
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To be fair, Samsung once used Wear OS – then Android Wear – in its smartwatches. But in 2014, he switched to Tizen with Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, probably for the same reasons that almost all smartwatch makers other than Fossil at the time did: Clumsy UI, low adoption rate and the outdated Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip.
Then why, why Would Samsung return to a platform that still needs to compose itself? I can think of some reasons, but none of them are particularly good. For starters, Tizen doesn’t have a large ecosystem of third-party apps, and switching to Wear OS can open it up to more apps. But to be quite honest, Wear OS apps don’t get a lot of developers love, even if there is are more of them. For example, Spotify for Wear OS is a glorified remote control, while Spotify for Tizen allows you to use playlists offline. Google’s native Wear OS apps are, at best, OK, and frankly, it’s bizarre that the built-in Google Fit workout app is now divided into several different versions. Google Fit, even with last updatesis also no better than Samsung Health, and having both installed on the watch is, again, tedious.
The other reason I could see Samsung making the switch it would be to bring the Google Assistant and Google Pay option for Samsung watches. And that would be incredible, Why Samsung Pay is more restrictive to use than Google Pay, and who the hell really likes Bixby? But Samsung need bet everything on Wear OS to incorporate the Assistant and Google Pay? Fitbit can have Google Assistant working on Fitbit OS, why not let Samsung do the same? (Granted, Fitbit probably has an Assistant because Google now owns the company.)
There is a distinct chance that a Samsung Wear OS watch would suck less than any other Wear OS watch. But that’s mainly because Samsung could use its proprietary Exynos SoC instead of relying on Qualcomm, which is doing the bare minimum. Also, while I’m sure that Samsung’s rotary panel navigation could be switched to a Wear OS watch, it wouldn’t be so good unless Google allowed Samsung to run a Wear OS skin (which is what Oppo did with his Wear OS Watch). It is telling that Wear OS was really decent in Oppo Watch because it didn’t look or work like Wear OS. And at that point, what is the reason for changing Tizen again?
Of course, Google takes more advantage of Samsung using Wear OS than vice versa. Samsung bringing its smartwatch innovations to this platform would suddenly make it relevant again– as long as all Samsung applications, including those that need FDA approval, can make the leap smoothly.
Except that wouldn’t do Wear OS as a whole. For that to happen, other watchmakers would have to figure out how to make the best use of Wear OS. Google would have to update the damn platform consistently with Good resources, not incrementals that are just a point on the radar. Qualcomm would have to figure out how to update its wearable SoC to current process technology and do this more than once every two years. And that if Google doesn’t decide to increaseend the whole thing now that she owns Fitbit for do something totally different.
Android users – and not just those using Samsung smartphones – deserve an excellent smartwatch. This just doesn’t seem like the best way to get one.