In case Google Assistant is not enough
The launch of the Skagen Falster Gen 6 gave us the promise of a Fossil-Amazon partnership that would bring Alexa to select smartwatches. We’ve already seen the Alexa app for smartwatches, but it wasn’t functional — until now. The latest findings suggest that the Alexa app is active and available for use on some Fossil watches running Wear OS.
The Alexa app on the Skagen Gen 6 recently received an update that enabled support for Amazon Alexa on the device and Wear OS, per 9to5Google. We tried it on a few smartwatches to see just how far the support goes, and so far it works on the Razer Gen 6 as well, but none of the Mobvoi or Samsung Galaxy Watches we tested supported it.
If you have a Skagen Falster Gen 6 or Fossil Gen 6, you can start using Alexa as your assistant. Simply open the app and grant it permission to use the microphone. Then, download the Alexa app on your paired smartphone and link it — as well as your smartwatch — to your Amazon account. Next, launch the app on your phone and navigate to Devices > Add Device and select “Smartwatch.”
Once done, you’ll be able to give Alexa voice commands to make calls, read notifications, perform home controls, and do any other assistant-y stuff you need. Bear in mind, however, that unlike Google Assistant it won’t respond to you verbally. It gives feedback via text, meaning you’ll have to keep your face glued to the screen. Plus, Alexa doesn’t have the always-listening functionality of Assistant, so you can’t summon it with a voice command — but the app will prompt you to set a shortcut button to launch it. If you can look past those limitations, you’ll find that Alexa works quite well on supported devices once paired.
The arrival of Alexa on Wear OS gives users access to more than one smart assistant from their smartwatches. The only real downside at the moment is that just a few Fossil watches are supported. We’d have to wait and see if that changes sometime soon.
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