Venu 4 phone calls and voice assistant

Hello,

I've just received my venu 4 today and paired it, all was fine (moved from FR 960).

I've just had chance to test the voice assistant and noticed that all that happens is it launches google assistant/gemini on my phone, the watch hangs on the spinning triangle and proceeds to say 'cannot connect' - during this time if I ask a question, I just get a response from my phone given it's invoked the assistant but almost not transferred to the watch.

I noticed a more critical problem and am wondering whether the two are related. I get a phone call, notification comes through on my watch, I answer (via watch) and the call connects but I cannot hear the other person and they cannot hear me either.. on my phone it shows it's passed to a bluetooth device (venu 4) and turning that off I can speak on my phone as I usually would.

Any ideas? my specs are below;

venu 4

software version bundle 14.10 (DFU-026599)

phone - samsung galaxy ultra s25

OneUI version 7.0 - Android version - 15

garmin connect version 5.17.2 

Thanks,

  • That is disappointing to hear... out of curiosity was it like that in launch of the venu 3 or did it break via an update?

  • This sounds similar to mine, although it never really registers the words as you say, it invokes it on the phone, then hangs and says could not connect, yet my phone will pick up what I'm saying... I specifically need google assistant for my g home devices, but I tried bixby out of curiosity and that doesn't work either!! It worked occasionally and then all of a sudden it never did the vibrate and kept thinking I said 'play' even if I was silent. I also strongly believe whatever is going on with the voice assistant is related to the call issue. I got calls working and it only ever broke after 2 days since I started trying to mess with the voice assistant again..

  • For me the call and voice assistant features have always been problematic since the beginning, on the Venu 3. It started with calls on the watch cutting out after a few minutes. That was resolved at some point with a firmware update. Then came call audio not coming through the watch, unless I toggle the volume up and down. 

    The assistant has always been hit or miss. Sometimes better sometimes worse depending on the firmware. Initially I thought a lot of the problems were due to using an iPhone, but then found plenty of Android users reporting similar issues. 

  • From my experience with an Android, the Venu 3 phone function and Google assistant generally worked pretty well, although not perfectly. I hope now that the Venu 4 is displaying the same issues Garmin might actually do the right thing and fix the defects. That said, given their apparent lack of concern to resolve these year long known defects, I am not very confident they will do the right thing. Seems like once they have our money, customer care and service is not even a consideration. It's a real shame, as when these watches actually work as advertised and intended, they are great. 

  • Doubt they are able to fix this, just look how well they "fixed" it on the Venu 3. Guess i have to send it back and get a Pixel Watch 4.

    1. May we, if necessary, have permission to Direct Message / email you?
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    3. In what country do you live?