[ad_1]
Google Assistant is a powerful tool, but it’s never been available on the wrist through the company’s own Wear operating system. Now Google Assistant has arrived on Fitbit and, somewhat annoyingly, it works incredibly well.
Assistant on Fitbit arrives as the second voice assistant option on fitness-focused wearable devices after Alexa’s debut on the Versa 2. Thanks to a new app on the watch or the settings in the companion app. , you can choose between the two watches. Once the Google Assistant is selected, the app opens to an active listening assistant. You can ask questions and control your smart home easily, all in a predominantly black user interface.
I’ll get right to the point here. Google Assistant on Fitbit works amazingly well. The app is almost instant to open and the Assistant loads almost immediately. It quickly recognizes voice commands and responds to actions within seconds.
This is all in stark contrast to the Assistant’s performance on Wear OS in recent years. Most watches running Google’s operating system struggled to keep up with Assistant. The arrival of options with 1GB of RAM has made things better, and the new Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip has made it even better. Still, most of the Wear OS watches currently in the hands of consumers are lagging behind what Fitbit, a much less powerful watch, is bringing to the table.
The interface here is super basic, which probably helps performance. Even when you ask for information like the weather, you get no graphics, only text. Still, it is functional and works well. Routines are supported, but some Assistant “applications” are not. When you ask to play music, it starts on the connected phone. At the bottom of most Assistant answers, you’ll also see buttons for another related Assistant request, but I found them to be slow to work. Notably, you can also use the Assistant to ask questions about your sleep data from Fitbit and start workouts from the Assistant. The Assistant on Wear OS is much more functional and better designed, but the Fitbit version performs much better overall.
What’s the downside? It’s quite annoying to access Assistant on Fitbit. You can use the “button” on the side of Sense and Versa 3 to trigger it, but that button is boring to use, so it doesn’t work very well. Beyond that, the fastest way to access Assistant is to browse your list of apps. It works fine, but again, it’s not instantaneous. Personally, I would like Fitbit to integrate Assistant (and Alexa, I guess) into some watch faces.
The Google Assistant is currently rolling out the latest updates for Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3. You can purchase the latest Fitbits for $ 329 and $ 229, respectively, currently on sale for Black Friday. Our full review of both watches is coming soon.
Learn more about Fitbit:
FTC: We use automatic income generating affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
[ad_2]
Source link