John Thomas 
A few months ago, Wear OS 4 made its way to various Android smartwatches, bringing with it improvements such as enhanced battery optimization and native apps for Gmail and Google Calendar. Samsung was quick to update its older Wear OS smartwatch models. However, while Google’s smartwatch OS has encountered a few bugs that can be easily fixed, a recent issue with Wear OS is causing problems with Gboard in specific apps, affecting a considerable number of users.
Users have flocked to platforms like Reddit and Google’s community help center to report issues with their Android smartwatches when using Gboard on the latest Wear OS version. On Samsung watches, if you switch from the default keyboard to Gboard from Samsung’s native option, a peculiar bug prevents Gboard from appearing in several apps, including one developed by Google.
In apps such as Google Keep and TickTick, when attempting to create a new note or use the qwerty keyboard in the app, the screen suddenly goes blank, rendering users unable to input text. To clarify, neither the app nor the watch freezes at this point. It’s solely the keyboard that fails to appear on the screen. However, the buttons and touch gestures continue to function as usual, allowing users to return to the previous screen or access the watch face.
This issue initially emerged on the Galaxy Watch 6, which was equipped with Wear OS 4 based on One UI 5 approximately two months ago. Subsequent Wear OS updates for older Galaxy watches have introduced the same bug to the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5, according to several user reports on online forums. Our own Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is also affected by this problem.
It’s important to note that only a select few apps are impacted by this Gboard bug, and a Reddit user has helpfully compiled a short list of the affected applications: Bring, Google Keep, Samsung Alarm, Samsung Reminder, TickTick, Todoist, and Weargram. Given that most other mainstream apps are unaffected, there’s a good chance that the issue lies with these specific apps rather than the OS or the Gboard app for Wear OS. Although a Google product expert on the help community has escalated the problem to the team, the exact cause has yet to be determined by the company.
If you frequently use one of the affected apps on your Samsung smartwatch, the only workaround for this bug is to switch back to the Samsung keyboard for a smoother experience until the affected apps release a fix.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Dive Digest journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.