It has been kind of a roller coaster ride, a soap opera if you will, regarding the “no wifi” issue on the LG G Watch R smartwatch. The owners of the undoubtedly nice LG G Watch R were expecting that with the Android 5.1.1 update to Android Wear promising WiFi connectivity, their smartwatches would actually gain that feature. Much to their surprise and disappointment, this did not happen. We now get a clearer picture with the official LG statement.
There were a number of people who assumed that because the LG G Watch R did not get the expected wifi feature, the watch did indeed not have a wifi modem. LG had denied this, of course. One thing led to another through unofficial blog posts and such, but finally we have a reply from LG on the issue – an official one, at that.
LG has made it clear although there is indeed a wifi element on the LG G Watch R, the watch was not designed with network connectivity in mind. Therefore, it wasn’t designed to automatically provide WiFi connectivity with the Android 5.1.1 update. However, LG confirms that the company was indeed going to activate the wifi element of the smartwatch “in the third quarter of this year”. That will come with a scheduled maintenance update.
LG Watch Urbane is the only wearable device currently shipping with the latest version of Android Wear OS and is Wi-Fi capable out of the box. The original LG G Watch was not designed with Wi-Fi in mind and will not have this capability even after the Android Wear update. LG G Watch R will require a maintenance release after the patch update to Android Wear-access Wi-Fi networks. LG engineers are preparing the patch now for availability in the third quarter.
LG maintains that only the LG Watch Urbane, their premium Android Wear wearable device, is the only one they designed with network connectivity out of the box. That said, we’re glad the issue is cleared up, and LG G Watch R owners will still have to wait until Q3 for their smartwatches to get the wifi feature.
VIA: Android World
This actually pleases me as I was under the impression that my watch wasn’t even Wi-Fi capable.
“The reason the G Watch and G Watch R aren’t getting updated isn’t because of the Wi-Fi chip, it’s because they lack Wi-Fi antennas. LG just didn’t pack them into the G Watch and G Watch R” – Phandroid.
Help….
The wifi is still not working on my G watch R. I turned off bluetooth on my Samsung S3, as expected the wifi icon appeared on my watch. Nevertheless the strikethrough cloud icon is still there and I can’t do pretty anything on my watch…. Looks like wifi on this phone is only to consume battery. How hell long do we have to wait for a working patch?