Finally available on other smartwatches, Wear OS 3’s first new option is missing a significant functionality. Google Assistant is not at all supported by the Montblanc Summit 3.
The Montblanc Summit 3 is a high-end smartwatch that was only announced last month. It is the first smartwatch to use Wear OS 3 that isn’t part of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 lineup. The watch’s short description is that it includes a Snapdragon 4100 processor, a new setup companion app, Wear OS 3 in a mostly stock configuration, just with a few of Montblanc’s apps pre-installed.
It has been unequivocally verified in a video from our buddy Michael Fisher that the Montblanc Summit 3 will not arrive with any kind of Google Assistant integration. That comes as a suprise considering that Google Assistant has long been a crucial component of Wear OS.
Why?
Unfortunately, there isn’t currently a definite response to that. Fisher stated that he had the sense that Montblanc would have included Google Assistant to the Summit 3 if it had been made accessible, but Google only provided a general comment when questioned about the voice assistant’s status with regard to this particular watch.
Delivering a high-performing platform for our partners and consumers is our top focus with Wear OS, so we take the effort to make sure our apps and services offer a top-notch user experience. At this moment, we have nothing else to say.
The left-most Wear OS screen, which displayed contextual information similar to Google Now from earlier versions of Wear OS 3, is also gone. However, this was long anticipated. Instead, Google has chosen to use both sides of the watchface for Tiles, with swipes up or down previously providing access to the quick settings and notifications.
It’s probably safe to assume that, moving forward, Google Assistant on Wear OS will operate much more like the Galaxy Watch 4 series—an app that can be activated using hardware keys or hotwords rather than an integral component of the operating system. Given this, it makes sense why Google Assistant isn’t pre-loaded on the Montblanc Summit 3. However, it makes us wonder where Google Assistant will be present and even more so, where it won’t be on future Wear OS 3 products.
We’re expecting to get our hands on the Summit 3 soon, but you can check out Fishers complete hands-on with it here.
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