Samsung Galaxy Watch 4’s Long-Awaited Google Assistant Update Is Here

    
    The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is getting access to the Google Assistant.
    Scott Stein/CNET
    

    The Galaxy Watch 4 debuted the new Wear OS codeveloped by Samsung and Google last year, but the Google Assistant was nowhere to be found. That changes Monday, as the Galaxy Watch 4 is now getting access to the Google Assistant?through the Google Play Store.
    The update will allow the Google Assistant to live alongside Samsung’s Bixby assistant. The Google Assistant’s absence was considered a major omission when the watch launched. In my colleague Scott Stein’s?Galaxy Watch 4?review, he noted the Google Assistant’s absence and other tweaks gave the watch a distinctly Samsung feel even though it developed the software in partnership with Google.
    The Assistant’s arrival on the Galaxy Watch 4 comes after Google announced that its own Pixel Watch will be launching later this year. Even though Google’s Pixel Watch may compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 on the hardware side, the Wear OS operating system will continue to be developed by both companies.?
    This newer version of Wear OS is also expected to arrive to watches from Fossil, TicWatch and other smartwatch-makers later in 2022.?