Google Messages rolling out voice memo support on Wear OS

Abner Li | Oct 13 2023 - 11:31 am PT

Following the announcement last month, Google Messages is rolling out the ability to send and listen to voice memos from the Wear OS app.

Open a conversation on your watch and tap the microphone icon flanked by emoji and keyboard input. Previously, you’d enter “Voice to text” immediately, but now there’s a “Voice message” option. Note how it uses a new waveform icon that should also be coming to the phone app when that broader redesign rolls out.

Recording starts immediately with the UI featuring a progress ring so that you can bring it up to your wrist. The recording limit is 59 seconds, with the ability to stop and send.

You can now listen to voice messages on your watch, but I didn’t find an obvious way to adjust the volume, with the crown just scrolling you up/down the conversation thread.

We’re seeing this voice memo functionality with the latest Google Messages for Wear OS beta (version 20231010_01_RC00).

This follows WhatsApp, offering a similar feature since launch, while Google Messages would benefit from Wear OS Tiles that show your inbox or act as shortcuts to conversations.