Samsung Fails To Address Gear S3 Voice Dictation Bug Plaguing US Users

Samsung Gear S3 users in the United States are unable to respond to text messages using the smartwatch’s voice activation feature due to a bug that came with the “value pack” software update released months ago. The South Korea tech giant is now being called out for its failure to address the problem right away.

On Monday, SamMobile published a story on how Samsung appears to be in no hurry to fix the voice dictation bug that’s affecting Gear S3 owners in the U.S. What’s worse is the fact that a Samsung representative already acknowledged the presence of the disrupting bug on May 1, but the company has yet to issue a fix three months later.

When the value pack software update was rolled out, many users were pleased with it because it came with new features. Unfortunately, it also brought with it a critical bug that has since blocked users from properly accessing the voice dictation feature of the wearable. To be exact, the bug is known to affect the voice dictation feature only when replying to text messages; it does not disrupt voice dictation with other apps like S Voice.

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Samsung has already issued statements telling users what they could do to work around the issue. One advice the company gave was for U.S. consumers to switch the language of their device to U.K. English. While this may be an effective tip, many complained that the switch in language also changed the voice dictation feature’s ability to pick up commands sans the U.K. accent.

It’s possible that Samsung engineers could be working on a fix that could very likely come with the upcoming update that would add Bixby to the Gear S3. However, there’s been nothing that could back this speculation at all. It’s also unknown if Samsung has plans of addressing the bug as of this time.

Many Gear S3 owners have voiced out their concern and expressed their disappointment at Samsung due to the bug online. On Samsung’s online community forums, users have been sharing with each other tips on how to temporarily fix the problem. One user also claimed that voice dictation is not only inaccessible when responding to text messages and emails, but also when adding reminders.

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On XDA Forums, many users are voicing the same concern about the Gear S3’s voice dictation feature. One user stated that after doing a factory reset, the unit he has seemed to be functioning well already. The user did not indicate though if this fixed the voice dictation for text messages problem. Other users have asked Samsung to fix the bug first before it even moves forward with new updates.

Phone Arena found out that the issue persists in the Gear S3 units running the R760XXU2BQC5 firmware version. The publication has already relayed this to Samsung, but the latter has yet to respond or give an update that would squish the critical bug that’s causing this.