After the Wear OS community’s cries for help over broken “OK Google” functionality were picked up by media and shared widely, Google acknowledged the bug that had plagued the platform for months. Today, Wear OS owners have noticed that Google’s favorite hotword combination appears to be fixed.
I can confirm that “OK Google” works on the TicWatch Pro 3 pictured here. After firing up the watch, I had updates to both the Google and Wear OS apps that might have done the trick. I also had a Wear OS update on the phone I had paired.
The Google app on this watch is now on version 12.8.4.25 and the Wear OS app is on 2.45.0.358809240. To check for these updates, you’ll want to open Google Play on your Wear OS watch and tap on the “My Apps” button. If updates are available, they’ll be right at the top of that section.
To check to see if “OK Google” is working on your watch, remember that you’ll have to first to turn the option on and make sure your watch is awake before the command will activate. Having tilt-to-wake activated is the key here if you plan on using your voice often. To make sure “OK Google” is activated, head into your watch’s settings, then Personalization, and tap the option for “‘OK Google’ detection.”
Feel free to let us know in the comments if your watch has been fixed. This reddit thread seems to have a mix of folks who are either good or still having issues.