[Update: Fixed in Pie] 3-Month old Wear OS bug is still causing lag in phone calls answered on watch

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Update 8/8/18: Although Google has yet to confirm this, multiple users (via AndroidPolice) on the Issue Tracker report that the Android Pie (Android 9) update has fixed the issue. The original story follows.

Wear OS (formerly known as Android Wear) has a cool feature called “Play phone voice call on watch.” It does exactly what you would think: allows you to take calls through your connected smartwatch. The idea is the watch essentially becomes a Bluetooth headset by using the speaker and microphone. It works with any app that can use a headset, including the phone, Duo, WhatsApp, etc. Unfortunately, users have been experiencing a major bug for 3 months and it still hasn’t been fixed.

The bug was first reported in the Google Issue Tracker on December 23rd, 2017. When “Play phone voice call on watch” is enabled, the phone app will freeze for 10-15 seconds after making or receiving a call. Users can’t hear anything during this time, which results in the other person hanging up. Google acknowledged this issue just a few days after the initial report. Yesterday, Google finally announced the bug had been fixed, but users are still having issues.

Google claimed the fix was available to any device that received the Wear OS rebranding OTA update. They tested the fix with the Huawei Watch 2 and Google Pixel 2 XL. A lot of users are still reporting the same issues as before. It doesn’t appear that the “fix” has solved the problem. Google is asking users to share bug reports and to reset watches. The problem is persisting and Google has not addressed the lack of a fix again.

Obviously, this is a pretty annoying bug. Especially to be going on for 3 months now. Phone bugs can be especially troublesome when an important call comes in. We hope Google can get this figured out and release a fix that actually works. Has anyone experienced this same issue?

Thanks Rob!