Galaxy watch 4 playback through watch speaker

[Rochs918]

We need support for music playback through the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 speaker. The previous versions of the watch had Spotify on the Tizen OS and it played through the device speaker. Now since the switch to Wear OS it is not possible to play through the device speaker. This is a badly needed change to the Spotify app on Wear OS. Please fix and update! 

[Rochs918]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for all your comments and feedback on this topic!

We understand that you'd like to be able to listen to your music directly through the watch speakers. Our developers are aware of this, but currently implementing such a function is not on our roadmap for Wear OS models.

However, if this is something that you'd like to see in the future, we'd recommend having a look in our Idea Exchange, to see if someone else has already made a similar suggestion, and if not post your own.

The Idea Exchange is a great way for us to see what our users are interested in and how many people like a certain idea. You can read more about it here.

[kcdubya]

Yes.  Quite surprised and quite disappointed that Spotify regressed relative to support for the built-in speaker.  Hopefully this will be fixed soon.  Until its fixed I will need to use a different music app on the Watch 4.

[Xenia]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this here on the Community!

We're currently rolling out a new update for Wear OS smartwatches that allows offline listening, which should also enable streaming directly from the watch. More info here. 

Could you clarify whether you're able to download music onto your watch and just can't play through the watch speakers or does neither work for you?

Keep us posted 🙂

[kcdubya]

Hi

I just ran a quick test.  I connected my bluetooth ear bugs to my watch.  I was able to successfully listen to the following:

• Spotify streaming from my phone to my watch where Spotify on my watch controls Spotify on my phone
• downloaded music on my watch
• streamed music on my watch - not sure if it was over wi-fi or lte

What there appears to be no option for is listening to the above 3 sources using the built-in speaker instead of bluetooth. As mentioned in my previous post, that works my Samsung Galaxy Watch (2018).

Hope this clarifies things.  Let me know if you need any additional info.

[Rochs918]

Hi! Thanks for responding. I can confirm that I am able to download music
to the Galaxy Watch 4, but whether the music is downloaded on the device or
if it's streaming, it will not allow playback through the watch speaker.
When you press play, it brings up the watch Bluetooth menu, where it
requires connecting to Bluetooth headphones in order to play back. I hope
this helps, and expedites an update to playback through the watch speaker!

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your replies. 

Let us know the current WearOS version you're running, this way we can look into it and find out more about the speaker's compatibility.

@kcdubya In addition, please also confirm the OS version of your Galaxy Watch (2018).

Keep us posted. 

[kcdubya]

The watch says One UI Version 3 which as I understand it is a customized version of Wear OS 3.  

[Rochs918]

Hi, here's the info from my Galaxy Watch 4

One UI watch version: 3.0

Software version: R895USQU1BUH9

Google play services: 21.31.12(050304-388391302)

System Version: 11

Wear Core Services: 1.0.0.389583420

Security software version: ASKS v4.0 Release 20200806

Android security patch level: August 1, 2021

Just to verify the device speaker works with playing music, I am able to use the native music player to play on board music through the device speaker. So it is only Spotify that doesn't allow playback through the speaker.

[kcdubya]

Same for me.  The native music app works with the built-in speaker.  The built-in speaker also works with Pandora, although Pandora is having other issues not related to the speaker 😊.

[Rochs918]

oh right Pandora! I think I will install that now just so I can listen to music through the speaker while I run... I tried to run yesterday with the Galaxy Buds 2 but they keep falling out of my ears!

[kcdubya]

Just noticed you had asked for the version of the  Galaxy Watch (2018).  

One UI watch version: 2.0
Tizen Version: 5.5. 0.1

[MafeG]

Hi folks, 

Thank you for keeping us in the loop.

We appreciate everybody that shared the info on this thread. This is being looked into by the relevant teams and we will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Cheers.

[thaichristen]

Please add playback through watch speaker. On Tizen it works perfectly with my Samsung Galaxy Watch. A feature I used all the time when running and doing my workouts.

Odd thing, today my bluetooth loudspeaker freezed during playback from my watch4. So the music stopped. However, somehow I managed to continue to play Spotify through the watch speaker. What a huge surprise. Although I couldn't skip tracks it plays nicely through the watch speaker.

Unfortunately, when I stop playback and restart it asked my to connect to bluetooth device in order to play. So I turned back on my bluetooth loudspeaker. And just when the loudspeaker connects to the watch I pressed play, and it plays music through the watch speaker for maybe 2 seconds, then switched to the bluetooth loudspeaker. Very odd.

So my guess is, this feature is hidden somewhere or there is a bug. But it is definitely possible.

Please please fix it.

Thanks a lot!

[dannyss6]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Samsung galaxy watch 4

Operating System

One UI 3.0

My Question or Issue

The app cannot play ANY song on the watch speakers and this is kinda a main obvious feature we'd expect.

Also the interface to select output is dazzling and lengthy.

I hope this message is well received and hastily corrected. Thank you

[dannyss6]

It's both a feature and a bug lol. By using the media player tile i managed to make spotify play on speakers. Weird ahah

[a22matic]

Plan - Premium

Country - USA

Device - Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic (ASFF)

Model number - SM-R885U

One UI Watch version - 3.0  

Software version - R885USQU1BUH9  

Google Play services - 21.33.13 (050300-393339024)  

System version - 11  

Wear core services - 1.0.0.389583420  

Security software version - ASKS v4.0 Release 20200806  

Android security patch level - August 1, 2021

My Question or Issue

Same as everyone else, the app cannot play music/audio on the watch speakers. It always goes to the Bluetooth menu and then does nothing. I can play throug through phone just fine and control the app using the Watch. This is terrible. I waited a few weeks before purchasing hoping the bugs would be worked out. I wore the watch 4 (for fitness tracking)  on one arm and the watch 3 (only for music) on the other today while working out. I can't workout for 1-1.5 hours with no music. Please fix ASAP!

[jrudie247]

It would be great to be able to play music through the actual watch speaker, instead of needing headphones/earpods or another Bluetooth speaker connected to the watch. 

I have found this annoying when either I don't have my headphones or phone on me, yet still want to listen to music or a podcast, or just don't feel like using them! Also a use case when switching playback from my phone to watch, but haven't connected by headphones to the watch yet not wanting playback to be interrupted. 

Especially when in offline mode, this makes the watch still too dependent on the phone for even basic usability. 

[Paulh121]

The Spotify app doesn't let you play through the watch speaker but if you use the Media Controller that will let you choose the watch speaker 🙂

[dannyss6]

Alright well something else that really bugs me and surely other people is the delay when you wake the watch and the app says nothing is playing. What you are saying isn't a good fix because we cannot change song while playing music. It has to be clicky and clean please.

[dannyss6]

Surely this is a bug too : when waking the watch while on spotify app, the app will show nothing playing even tho it's playing through bluetooth.. for like 3-5 seconds. Then resume normal behavior. Feels like 20 and then you can switch song or play music.