The Galaxy Watch 4 now has an official Samsung walkie-talkie app

Earlier this year, there had been rumors that the Galaxy Watch 4 would be getting a walkie-talkie feature. Well, we didn’t get it with the smartwatch’s announcement, but Samsung has now officially released the WalkieTalkie app (via XDA Developers).

The app just got released on the Google Play Store, and it transforms your wearable into a push-to-talk device, which you can use to have “instant conversations” with anyone from your Contacts list. Sorry, did I say anyone? No, unfortunately, for now, the app only works on the Galaxy Watch 4 series. Most likely, this limitation is because of Wear OS 3 compatibility.

The idea of adding a walkie-talkie function to a smartwatch is not exactly new, as Apple did that back in 2018 with the Apple Watch Series 4. Apple’s version has virtually no range limit since it uses FaceTime audio over the internet, which means the feature works from any distance. Samsung is yet to clarify whether that’s the same for Galaxy Watch 4.

The South Korean tech giant instructs users to have their wearable connected to a smartphone when they first start using the app. To set up a connection, you first have to pair your smartwatch with that of the person you want to talk to. All you need to do after that is tap and hold the button when talking.