Gear S3's voice dictation system for text messages isn't working in the US since four months

Watch

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Samsung had released a ‘value pack' software update for the Gear S3 in the US four months ago. While it brought a lot of new features to the smartwatch, it also introduced a critical bug. After installing the software update, users couldn't access the voice dictation feature for replying to text messages after a couple of times. It's been four months since the bug was introduced, but Samsung seems to be in no hurry to fix it.

The feature seems broken only for US English users. While Samsung has announced a couple of workarounds to get the feature working, many users are still facing the same problem. One of those workarounds include setting the Gear S3's language to UK English, but users are reporting that they're facing problems with voice recognition due to changes in the accent. The other workaround includes users hitting the keyboard input button while replying to a text message, then rotating the watch's dial all the way to select the last input option.

This voice dictation bug on the Gear S3 only occurs when replying to text messages, working fine while using other apps such as S Voice or while making phone calls. Although a Samsung representative has acknowledged the bug on May 1 and reportedly passed it to the engineers, the company is yet to roll out a fix. Some users are speculating that Samsung might fix the bug while rolling out Bixby to the smartwatch, but we are yet to see any sign regarding such plans.

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

[email protected]

First Samsung device: T100

Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S21 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.

Via Source 1 Source 2 Watch Gear S3