How to increase the volume of your Samsung Galaxy Watch audio guide for workouts and more

Samsung Watch Audio Guide for Samsung Health Workouts

A lot of Samsung Galaxy Watch users love getting those guided audio announcements and status updates when working out with the Samsung Health app.

But if you also jam to music (or listen to podcasts) simultaneously, you might not be able to hear your audio guide because the music is too loud and drowns out the audio guide’s notifications.

If that sounds like what’s happening when you work out with your Samsung Galaxy Watch and Samsung Health, read on!

Related reading

About your watch’s audio guide–surprise, it’s not Bixby! Samsung Galaxy Watch home screen with apps

You would think that Samsung Health uses Bixby or Google Assistant (your selected voice assistant) settings for the audio guide, but it doesn’t. The audio guide is entirely separate from Bixby or Google Assistant–it’s actually text-to-speech.

While it seems like it should be an easy fix of simply increasing the volume of the audio guide, it turns out that you control the volume of both music and the audio guide via the same Media volume setting!

So when you increase the media volume, it increases both your music’s volume and the audio guide and doesn’t help separate the two. And you still can’t hear the audio guide’s updates!

The good news is that there is another way to increase the volume of your watch’s audio guide without increasing your music or other audio source’s volume. This article outlines just how you do it.

How to increase the volume of the Samsung Health app’s workouts audio guide on your watch

When the audio guide in Samsung Health notifies you of workout updates like elapsed time and distance, your watch should automatically reduce the volume of any currently playing music or other audio. But for many people, that reduction is not enough to understand the audio guide.

If you find the audio guide too quiet and want to increase its volume without impacting the volume of any other audio, follow these steps.

These steps should make your audio guide louder so you can hear it over any other audio that’s playing, AND it works whether you listen on the watch, Bluetooth earbuds, and headphones, or other wireless speakers.

These steps work for Samsung Google Wear OS watches like the Galaxy Watch 5 or 4

  1. On your watch, open the Settings app. Scroll down and select General. Samsung Watch settings app General settings
  2. Choose Text-to-speech. Samsung Watch text to speech settings
  3. Make sure that Speech Services by Google is your preferred engine. If not, tap it and select Google instead of Samsung.Samsung Galaxy Watch TTS settings
  4. Tap TTS engine settings.
  5. Scroll down and toggle on Amplify speech volume.
    1. This option raises the volume of any spoken text, including your audio guide, so it’s easier to hear when playing other audio, like music. Samsung Galaxy Watch TTS setting to amplify speech volume
  6. If you want to change the speech speed, tap Speech rate and turn the dial to adjust it and match your preferences. TTS speech rate on Samsung Galaxy Watch
      1. You can also change your speech rate in the Wearable app > Watch settings > General. In the Text-to-speech section, change the Speech rate. Speech engine for text to speech in Wearable app

The audio guide’s language is the same as your watch’s and phone’s language, so if you want to change the audio guide’s language, you must change the language settings on your connected phone.

Change your phone’s language in the Settings app > System > Languages & input on Android devices and Settings > General Management > Language on Samsung devices. 

If you change the language on your paired phone, open the Settings app on your watch and check if the language has also changed.

For older Samsung watches that run Tizen

It is a lot easier to adjust the audio guide’s volume on newer Wear OS Samsung Watches. If you use an older watch that runs Samsung’s own operating system Tizen, try the following.  

For folks that pair their watch with a non-Samsung phone, skip to step 4.

  1. On your Samsung phone, open Settings > Sound & Vibration.
  2. Choose Sound Assistant.
    1. If you don’t see a sound assistant option, download it from Samsung’s Galaxy Store.
  3. Toggle on Adjust media sound in multiple apps.
  4. On your watch, open Settings > Sound and vibration > Volume and turn up the volume for notifications. notification volume on Samsung Galaxy Watch
  5. To adjust speech speed, open Settings > General > Text-to-speech > Speech rate and try to increase or decrease to your preference. TTS speech rate change on Samsung Galaxy Watch
    1. You can also change your speech rate in the Wearable app > Watch settings > General > Text-to-speech > Speech ratechange speech rate in Wearable app for text to speech

Final thoughts

I hope you can now hear your audio guide AND your music while working out with Samsung Health on your watch.

If not, or if you used a different method to get the audio guide audible, let us know in the comments.

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A. Beth Whittenberger
I started my love affair with computers way back in elementary school with the Apple II. Since then, I've worked with technology in my career as a media educator and videomaker. I have an MFA in media making from Temple University, where I also taught undergrads as an adjunct faculty member. Additionally, I was a writer, content producer, and editor on the popular tech blog AppleToolBox. So I know a thing or two about teaching others and creating how-to guides! After a cancer diagnosis, I turned to mobile technology like my Apple Watch to help me monitor my health throughout my chemotherapy treatment and later, to regain my wellness once in remission. I love sharing how to understand and use mobile tech, like smartwatches and phones, as a tool for empowerment to live our best and healthiest lives! Connect with me on LinkedIn!

2 COMMENTS

  1. This was a game changer on my Watch 4. Thank you so much!

    Unfortunately on my new Watch 7 it does not help (enough) and the audio guide is once more basically unusable while running and listening to music.

    Any suggestions?

  2. I am living in Croatia and I have the watch 5 paired with the s22 ultra. I cannot get my audioguide to work on my watch. I have set the text to speech language on my phone in English and also on my watch, but nothing. I have tried everything that is on the net but just can’t find the solution. Can you help me?

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