Wear OS has frequently been subjected to criticism, and the stagnation in development also doesn't help its cause. What further seems to prove how little Google cares about the platform is that "hey Google" hotword detection has been broken on Wear OS for months. The issue has officially been acknowledged only now, and Google says that a fix is on the way.

The problem's been going on for a while, with numerous user complaints on Reddit and Google support forums dating as far back as June 2020. One glance at the complaints, and it's clear that this isn't limited to smartwatches from a particular OEM; pretty much all of them have been affected. I tried waking up Assistant on my Oppo Watch with "hey Google," but all in vain.

For what it's worth, Assistant is still accessible via a long press of the power button or the left-most screen. That said, not being able to access it hands-free is still definitely a bummer. But the bigger story out here is that a salient feature of Wear OS remained broken for months and months. Even now, there's no ETA on when Wear OS watch owners can expect the fix to arrive.

Source: Google Support forums (1), (2)The Verge

Via: 9to5Google