Fossil at CES 2022 launched two smartwatches and announced that it will be rolling out the Wear OS 3 update later this year. The reason behind the delay is that the new unified Wear OS developed by Google and Samsung has an exclusivity aspect to it for Samsung until the second half of 2022. While we continue to wait for the Wear OS 3 update, the Fossil Group has announced that it will be bringing Alexa support to its watches soon.
Fossil in both the new Razer x Fossil Gen 6 and Skagen Falster 6 smartwatches has included an Alexa widget, which when tapped you will see a “coming soon” message. According to a report by 9to5Google, the support will be rolled out to all users in the first half of 2022.
Considering if Fossil manages to deliver Alexa support in the first half of this year, it would arrive before the Wear OS 3 update, which is set to release in mid-to-late 2022.
You might be wondering as to why Fossil is teasing Alexa support even when it is not ready. The reason behind this could be that it wants to provide its users with something while they wait for Wear OS 3. Another reason behind the introduction of Alexa support could be that the company is looking to reduce its dependency on Google, due to its partnership with Samsung.
Whatever be the reason, Fossil introducing Alexa support is a step forward. As to date, most smartwatch users did not have a choice of which voice assistant to use. Wear OS is linked to Google Assistant, Apple Watch is linked to Siri, Samsung Galaxy Watch is linked to Bixby, while some others use a custom voice assistant. There are some smartwatches that link you directly to your smartphone’s digital voice assistant.