Unshackle yourself from the smartphone and stay connected from the wrist
Answering calls is one of the simplest and most effective features of a Wear OS 3 smartwatch, allowing you to stay connected whether you’re within range of your phone or not.
Depending on the type of Wear OS watch you own however, making and taking calls can actually be very different. Making calls on the Samsung Galaxy Watch works differently to stock Wear OS watches such as the Google Pixel Watch 2.
And that’s where this guide comes in.
Below, we’ll explain everything you need to know about calling on Wear OS 3 (and later) smartwatches.
And read our guide to how to make calls on the Samsung Galaxy Watch if that applies to you.
Making and taking calls with Bluetooth
Whether you have a Wear OS 3 smartwatch capable of cellular support or not, you’ll be able to make and receive calls if you’re within the range of your phone.
This naturally will vary depending on the strength of connection to your device, but, generally speaking, being within the same room as your phone is a good rule if you want to be able to take calls via Bluetooth.
What happens when you accept a call also differs between watches. For those with a microphone and speaker, you’ll be given the option to talk and listen from the wrist.
However, if your watch doesn’t have a microphone or speaker, your watch simply works as an extension to your phone. And when you accept a call, it will begin on your phone.
Making and taking calls with cellular support
With cellular support on your Wear OS 3 watch, things get a little more interesting. The core benefit here is that you don’t need to be connected to your phone in order to enjoy the benefits of calling.
This means you can ask Google Assistant to begin a call for you, dial a new number into the phone app’s keypad, or select a contact to call from your smartphone’s synced-over list.
You can even call emergency services (or send an emergency text via Google Assistant) even if your watch’s eSIM is locked or invalid, which is a neat safety feature.
Before getting carried away with all this untethered calling, though, you’ll have to ensure your smartwatch is both capable and on a monthly data payment plan (usually with your smartphone carrier).
Follow the steps below to check whether your Wear OS 3 watch supports cellular, and how to both make and receive calls in their most basic form.
Check if your Wear OS 3 smartwatch supports cellular
1. On your Wear OS 3 device, head to the ‘Settings’ section.
2. From here, scroll down to ‘System’ and then ‘Connectivity’.
3. You should then see an option for ‘Cellular’, at which point you can check the status of this connection.
If you don’t see the option for ‘Cellular’ in your settings, your watch either doesn’t support the feature or it’s not available because it requires setup within your smartwatch’s companion app.
In the Pixel Watch app, for example, this setting comes under ‘Mobile Network’ in the settings.
You can, of course, also check the box your device came in – it will usually note somewhere whether the watch is the LTE edition.
Make a phone call from your Wear OS 3 smartwatch
As mentioned above, you can make a phone call in a number of different ways from your Wear OS watch. Below are the steps to call a contact.
1. On your watch, find the app list and select ‘Phone’.
2. Select either ‘Favorites’, ‘Recent’, or ‘Contacts’ from the list.
3. To place a call, tap the contact.
Receive a phone call on your Wear OS 3 smartwatch
You have three options when a phone call is coming into your Wear OS device:
- Answer the phone call by swiping left
- Reject the phone call by swiping right
- Dismiss the call with a pre-written text by tapping the three-dot menu and ‘Send message’.
