Samsung gives Bixby Voice a better ear for music on Galaxy Watches

Bixby Voice for Wear OS Galaxy Watches has received a new update. It's a pretty major release coming out of nowhere, and through this new update, Samsung not only changed some UI elements but also gave Bixby Voice a better ear for music.

The new update pushes Bixby Voice on Wear OS to version 3.0.09.12. In terms of new features, Bixby Voice can now recognize music and tell users the name of a song that's playing on their paired smartphones. Users can now ask: “What's the music playing now?” and receive an answer.

In addition, Bixby Voice 3.0.03.12 for Wear OS has a new and convenient Settings icon in the conversation view. Samsung moved the Discover button to the top of the conversation view, and the new cog wheel icon resides in its place.

Tapping this new button reveals Bixby Voice settings for language, voice style, and more. It's a sensible change, as it allows users to access Bixby Voice's settings while using the service rather than having to go through separate menus.

The bigger addition is probably the music recognition feature, although it's a bit unfortunate that Bixby Voice can't seem to be able to detect music playing directly on the smartwatch.

To access these new Bixby Voice features on your Galaxy Watch, you need to assign the virtual assistant to one of the physical buttons on your smartwatch. And in case you're wondering, we have a guide on how you can reassign the side keys.

Samsung's official changelog for Bixby Voice 3.0.09.12 on Wear OS also mentions additional functional improvements and bug fixes, but it's a more generic statement and doesn't go into detail about what exactly was changed, patched, and improved.

The Galaxy Watch 5 also received the April 2023 security patch recently and could get the May 2023 update if Google's recent release for the Pixel Watch is any indication.