Bixby’s music recognition now available on Samsung Galaxy Watches

Users of the Galaxy Watch 4 and newer versions, users have been faced with a dilemma in choosing between Samsung’s Bixby Voice and Google Assistant. The watch allows users to customize hardware shortcuts to enable their preferred voice assistant. For those who opt for Bixby, Samsung is introducing a new feature through an update.

Bixby Voice version 3.0.09.12 now includes a new feature that allows the virtual assistant to identify audible music. By activating Bixby and asking, “What music is playing right now?”, the assistant will listen for any audible music with it’s microphones and display the track on the Galaxy Watch. It is worth noting that users are required to press and hold the Bixby button while making the request.

It appears that a similar function may have already been released to the Galaxy Watch via BixbyWatchApp version 1.3.10.8 in mid-April. The changelog indicates that the track currently playing on the connected phone will be immediately displayed upon asking Bixby, without the need for Bixby to actively listen for the song.

In addition to the new music detection feature, Bixby Voice on the Galaxy Watch has also received an updated settings access point. Once Bixby is activated, a small settings cog now appears at the bottom of the screen, providing users with a few options, including language and voice settings, as well as the option to disable the “voice wake-up” feature.

Although this expansion in Bixby’s usability on the Galaxy Watch is a welcome development, it may not be sufficient to sway users from opting for Google Assistant on the Wear OS watch instead. For Bixby to be a serious contender, it will need to improve its performance in other areas as well.

---

Wear OS Watch Faces See all »

[instagram-feed feed=3]