Recording on Your Smart Watch
Wave works on Apple Watch and on Wear OS watches like Galaxy Watch and Pixel Watch. See what each can do and how recordings reach your library.
Wave AI turns your Smart Watch into a record button. Tap once on your wrist, and the recording is passed to the Wave app on your phone, which uploads it so it lands in your library transcribed and summarized like any other Wave.
Your watch works through the phone it's paired with: an Apple Watch with Wave on your iPhone, or a Wear OS watch (Galaxy Watch, Pixel Watch, and other Wear OS 3+ watches) with Wave on your Android phone. Sign in on the phone; the watch picks up your sign-in automatically.
What each watch can do
| Apple Watch | Wear OS | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs | watchOS 10 or later, paired iPhone | Wear OS 3 or later, paired Android phone |
| Install | Usually installs with the iPhone app; if not, install it from the Watch app on your iPhone | Installed separately: tap Install on the Wave works on your watch card in Wave, or get Wave from the Play Store on the watch |
| Pause and resume | Yes | Yes |
| On the watch face | Wave complication (circular, corner, rectangular, inline) that shows recording, paused, and unsent states | Ongoing activity while recording or paused; no complication or tile |
| Offline | Records with no phone nearby; recordings wait on the watch | Records with no phone nearby; recordings wait on the watch |
| Low battery | Stops and saves at 10% | Low battery warning at 15%, stops and saves at 10% |
| Sync path | Watch → iPhone → your library | Watch → Android phone → your library |
On both, if recordings stay unsent, go to Settings → Help → Troubleshooting → Sync watch recordings on your phone to ask the watch to send them again.
Set up and record
- Recording on Your Smart Watch: Apple Watch: set up, record, pause, use the complication, and fix stuck transfers.
- Recording on Your Smart Watch: Wear OS (Galaxy Watch, Pixel Watch): install, record, pause, keep sync reliable on Samsung phones, and fix stuck transfers.
Recording on your phone instead gives you live captions and the in-recording tools the watch doesn't have. Everything lands in the same library either way.
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