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Media controls - Watch 4

(Topic created on: 21-09-2022 11:11 PM)
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NETJOE
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While setting up my new Watch 4, I managed to connect it to my bluetooth speakers and found the setting to turn on media controls, but that doesn't do much that I can tell. I use Youtube Music on my TCL Android phone, I was hoping that I could control the music via the smart watch, is there a way to do that?

I can see which song is playing and a photo of the album on the watch, but none of the buttons on the watch face would react, can't change the song or control the volume. Please help.

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NETJOE
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I downloaded the YOUTUBE Music app to the watch, but it won't connect to the app on the phone because it is not a premium account, do you need to have premium for it to work ?

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NETJOE
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My watch started playing on its own so I don't know what fixed it, but here is all my findings.

I come from the iPhone world where everything just seems to work with minimal efforts on my part.

But I got an awesome offer on an Android phone by switching carriers and I wanted to try something different, so I order a Watch 4 to go with my Android phone.

After the initial general setup, of course all I wanted to do was to play music on my phone and control it via the Watch 4. Now I know it sort of can be done, but it has its quarks.

I do not own any music files to download to the watch, I only use YT Music, and I am having a hell of a time trying to get this watch to just advance to the next song or lower the volume, which is something that is done so simply and intuitive on the iWatch.

At this point it is asking me for my Google account connected to YT Music, I don't get a prompt to enter the information, it wants to grab it from the phone, and I do have that account active on the phone and the watch, it tries to sync that account from the phone into the watch but it fails, and the message I get on the phone is that I need to get YT Premium.

So if I don't have the paid subscription it won't work ?

I really like the round physical appearance of the watch better then the square iWatch, Watch 4 is a gorgeous watch, I just don't know that is worth the hassle.

I don't understand why Samsung wants to buy the hand that feeds them, trying to sell you all the same services that you are required to sign up for on the Google side, so it is all a repeat.

I can't keep up with all the accounts and passwords that I had to create just to get this phone and the watch to connect with each other

At this point Google doesn't make their own watch, a lot of those cheap watches from Amazon can control music, why can't Samsung just make it work ?

Well, while I went on a hunt for answers on the internet, I guess it marinated while I was here reading and replaying to some of the messages, I went back to the watch, and it all got resolved on its own magically.

my Gmail account showed up on the watch, in the YT app, I was able to start playing all my liked songs, I was able to select one of my playlist and downloaded to the watch.

As I type I am streaming music from the watch to the Bluetooth bookshelf speakers, I can advance songs on the main YT Music title, but to control the volume I have to go into a different volume title, weird but that is how it works.

Later I found that I can kind of sort of control the volume from the main YT Music title using the virtual wheel, but that is very choppy and very hard to control so it can damage your speakers and hearing, I guess if you have the classic with the mechanical wheel that would work better for you.

One major difference is that on the IOS system everything is in sync when playing music, the same song playing on the watch is also being display on the phone lock screen, so you can control the music on both screens/display which ever is closest to you.

With the watch 4, it needs the phone to obtain the login information for YT Music but that is as far as that union goes, after that the watch operates independently of the phone, so you have to use the watch to control the music, the phone doesn't know what the watch is doing.

The only exception is if you receive and answer a call, the watch will pause the music for the duration of the call. Other than that you can only control the music through the watch if you start playing through the watch, they work independently. Weird.

Also the sound profile from the watch is very different from the phone when playing the same source song, and connected to the same speakers, the phone streams with more base, the watch streams much more lean.

I still haven't find a way to play music thought the watch own speaker, if I disconnect the Bluetooth speakers, the music stops and the YT Music controls becomes unavailable.

Today is my first day with the watch, I am sure the more I use it the more stuff I will discover and will have to keep finding work around, but this is a $280 device, that is real money from all the headaches so far...

I haven't even gotten started with the health app, not sure what is waiting for me there.

One of the thing I found when I compared the cheap Amazfit watches to the the iWatch 6 I own, was that although they all had much of the same health functions and features, the Amazfit watches could only keep up and provide accurate results when I was walking at a slow pace and not for too long...

The minute I increased the demand on the watch, and I started sprinting and changing the pace and going for longer workouts, the cheap watches would loose accuracy, fall behind and provide bogus results, I hope that is not the case with the Watch 4.

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NETJOE
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While writing this long report I was enjoying some good tunes streaming from the watch, until it disconnected from the speakers for to obvious reasons, at which point the music stops and it won't play through the watch own speakers, the only way to get the music back is to reconnect the Bluetooth speakers. I hope someone has the answer or the reason for this behaviour, as it is useful at times to just pay music when you are away from any other speakers and the watch is always on your hand so it is right there where ever you go.

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NETJOE
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I continue to use the watch trying not to mind the features I can't get to work, but the watch has a mind of its own and out of nowhere some features magically start to work.

 

For example, I was watching YouTube on my television via the Amazon Fire stick, a process I do every day, not related to my phone or the watch, they are all connected to the same YouTube account, I just turn on the television and watch YouTube.

This time my watch vibrate to alert me, when I turn on the watch screen, I see the media control for the YouTube video I am watching on the TV, I can pause the TV, I can also raise or lower the volume.

I didn't do anything strategically to make this happens and if you asked me to replicate and make it happen again I wouldn't be able to do so, but it did it once all on it's own and I was pleasantly surprised.

And that is how it goes with this watch, it is capable of doing most of what the Apple Watch does, it just does it on it's own when it wants to, you just don't get a predictable journey unfortunately.

On thing that it does better than the Apple watch is that it can detect when you take a random nap during the day and it adds it to your total sleeping hours for the day.

The Apple watch only monitors your sleep at predefined schedule for the period of time that you think you are going to sleep, so if you go fall sleep an hour earlier that hours doesn't count, it is not included on the overall sleeping data, and if you take an afternoon nap, that doesn't count with with the Apple Watch. That is one thing that the Active Watch 4 does a lot better.

Other than that, I think the round 44mm Watch 4 is much more elegant than the tiny square Apple watch that I have.

I also think the Apple Watch is much better at responding to texts, you can either use the keyboard, or draw letters, or the best method just speak your response to the watch and it does all the typing for you, that process is much more intuitive and works much more smoothly on the Apple Watch

 

This are all my comparison finding so far from these two watches, the Apple Watch 6 vs the Active Watch 4.

 

One last thing, Apple watch 6 has an accident or fall feature that will call 911 if it detects that you went down and I don't think the Watch 4 has that.

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