What you need to know
- Users have started reporting a black screen appearing when using Google’s Gboard on several Galaxy Watches.
- Reports state the keyboard will not appear on several apps such as Google Keep, Samsung Reminder, TickTick, Samsung Alarm, and others.
- The problems appears to affect Samsung’s devices with Wear OS 4 such as the Galaxy Watch 6, Galaxy Watch 5, and Galaxy Watch 4 series.
Users have unfortunately encountered quite a frustrating bug within the Wear OS 4 software.
Reports flying in from Reddit over the past couple of months state that the One UI 5 Watch (Wear OS 4) update is causing problems with keyboards on the Galaxy Watch (via Android Police). The user’s report, experienced on a Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, explained that opening the Reminders app displays a black screen when selecting “Add reminder.” The issue appears to be with Google’s Gboard, as it’s not appearing.
Users in the comments have deduced as much (also recounting similar problems), while another report states that Gboard won’t appear when adding a new note or list in Google Keep on a Galaxy Watch. A black screen is all users face when attempting to scribble a new note.
Bixby also appears to stop listening once this blank display rears its head.
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Reports have also spilled over onto the Wear OS community forums, as a user points out the problem is happening on their Galaxy Watch 5.
While most of the reports have revolved around Google Keep and Samsung Reminder, users have reported keyboard issues with other apps such as Samsung Alarm, Todoist, Weargram, TickTick, and Bring.
Unfortunately, deleting cache, uninstalling, and reinstalling Gboard hasn’t solved the problem. For now, the only workaround users can use is to switch over to Samsung’s default keyboard instead of Google’s. The Korean OEM’s own app doesn’t seem to have any conflicting issues with the Wear OS 4 software and the aforementioned apps, at least according to what users have experienced thus far.
More importantly, a product expert responded to the community forum thread, promising to escalate the problem to Google after experiencing the issue with their Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. So, hopefully, word or a fix will come out soon enough for those affected by the black screen.