By will-buy
Google’s Wear OS will open the door to voice assistants besides Google Assistant for the first time, based on a tweet on a 9to5 Google story by prominent Google leaker Snoopytech. Samsung Bixby is going to be a choice around the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series included in the newly revamped Wear OS 3 and unified Google and Samsung wearables platform.
Wear Bixby
Google Assistant has been the exclusive Wear OS voice assistant up until now, having a long press around the crown of the watch activating it on smartwatches running it. That appears to be changing as Google and Samsung both prepare for generation x of smartwatches. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 will run the brand new Wear OS 3 together with Samsung's brand new one UI Watch design.
The watch will be the first example of a brand new shared platform from Google and Samsung able to running apps for either system, both from Google and third-party developers. The new platform can also be designed to improve the watch’s efficiency, making it run programs more quickly while extending life of the battery. The details of how the two voice assistants will share one watch haven’t been revealed, though it’s likely wearers will need to select one or the other and deliberately switch, instead of having both accessible at the same time.
Sharing Smart Devices
The shared smartwatch is really a logical extension of the deepening collaboration between Google and Samsung of later. Google Nest began integrating with Samsung SmartThings was this past year, shortly after Google Assistant became accessible on Samsung smart TVs and SmartThings added a Google Nest app because of its platform several months ago, giving extensive but incomplete control over Nest devices to SmartThings users. Nest can integrate devices certified in the Works With SmartThings (WWST) program. The certification also streamlines, ensuring the apps meet the tightened safety and quality standards Google introduced for voice-enabled apps in March.
Samsung has been inviting more than Google Assistant into its network. Though not as tightly linked, Alexa is available the very first time inside a Samsung smart fridge. Obviously, one question concerning the alternate assistant is if Bixby would be the only one to become listed on with time. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit came after Alexa was already available on a few of the fitness devices and smartwatches. Though Google has added Google Assistant as well as made it audible in the devices, the company leaves Alexa alone in it for the time being. Because of so many voice AI companies touting interoperability in one form or another, it will likely be worth watching to determine ust how interwoven the different voice assistants wind up becoming within the growing world of smart devices.
