A Wear OS smartwatch is a great tool to access notifications and stay connected to your smartphone while it's out of reach. It can even relay calls right to your wrist when needed, a feature that many are known to appreciate.

But sometimes, the tiny speaker within the smartwatch isn't enough, and pairing a set of Bluetooth headphones can significantly improve your experience. Here we've detailed the steps you'll need to follow to make this connection.

The Bluetooth link also comes in handy if you listen to audio when you leave your phone behind and exercise with just your smartwatch.

Pair Your Headphones Through the Wear OS Bluetooth Menu

Once you have your Bluetooth headphones and Wear OS smartwatch with you, follow the steps listed below. We're using a Samsung Galaxy Watch, but the steps should be the same on other devices too.

  1. Swipe down on any watch face to access Quick Settings on Wear OS.
  2. Swipe until you find the button for Bluetooth and tap on it.
    Screenshots showing a watch face on galaxy watch 4 and its quick settings menu
  3. Once inside the menu, your Wear OS smartwatch might automatically look for available Bluetooth headphones (or earphones). We recommend waiting for this initial scan to end.
  4. Once the initial search is over, put your headphones into pairing mode and hit the Scan button.
  5. Your headphones' name should now appear. Tap on it and then confirm the pairing on the next screen.
    bluetooth headphones pairing screen on samsung galaxy watch 4 running Wear OS 3

The icon for Bluetooth can differ from one Wear OS smartwatch to another. On the Galaxy Watch 4, the menu uses a headphones glyph with the Bluetooth logo between the earcups.

If you want to unlink your headphones, tap on the gear icon next to the name tag. It will bring up the option to unpair the device. Also, if you want to customize the type of audio streamed to the headphones, you will notice toggles that enable or disable phone calls and media.

bluetooth device settings sub-menu in Wear OS 3 on Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

Using Bluetooth a lot might mean you have to charge your watch more often, but there are ways to improve the battery life of a Wear OS smartwatch.

Improve Your Wear OS Smartwatch Experience With Bluetooth Headphones

Completing the steps above will allow you to stream audio or answer calls on your smartwatch. Hence, cutting any cords and making the device more functional.

You can further improve your experience by trying out a variety of Wear OS apps available on the Play Store, and we urge you to give them all a shot.