Can you make calls on a smartwatch?

Smartwatches are all the buzz in the technology world. Slowly but surely, we’ve realised the benefits of wearables. While most of us know what these are, several certainly don’t know them exhaustively, as quite a lot of us are first-time users.

There are certain things that most of us aren’t sure about. One of them is the calling capabilities of a smartwatch. Given the diversity of brands, OS, features, and much more, it becomes slightly difficult to know this with utmost certainty. Well, don’t worry, we can clear your doubts today.

Can a smartwatch actually be used to make and receive calls?

To be able to call just from your smartwatch, without the help of your phone, you need to have a smartwatch with a cellular connection. These are also called LTE variants/versions. It simply means that your watch can connect to a cellular network directly and make calls without the help of your phone.

A few examples of such smartwatches include the Apple Watch Series 9, Samsung Galaxy Watch6, and even the Fire-Boltt Dream.

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A non-cellular smartwatch can’t make calls on its own. There are non-cellular smartwatches that can make calls and receive calls, but you need to ensure that your watch is connected to your phone either via Bluetooth or the network. This is the reason why it is called Bluetooth calling.

Devices and apps you can link with your smartwatch

The smartwatch market is full of players, and each has its own smartwatch to offer. They have their own quirks, features, and limitations, based on which brand or variant you choose.

For instance, the Apple Watch is one of the most exclusive and sophisticated smartwatches available on the market. It is compatible only with iPhones running iOS 10.0 or later. It won’t pair or sync with any other devices. Not even other products from Apple, such as the iPad or MacBooks.

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Then there are the smartwatches that support Android. There are a lot of options and variety available here. Most smartwatches that run Wear OS by Google are compatible with phones with Android 6.0 or later and iOS 13.0 or later. Another great feature of these watches is that you can connect them to an Android tablet as well.

As far as app support goes, premium smartwatches such as the Apple Watch, and Samsung Galaxy Watch support a variety of apps for communication, health, fitness, and much more.

They generally have an app store where you can source third-party apps directly on the watch or use your connected smartphone. More affordable smartwatches have few limitations, primarily due to their less competent hardware and software. But still, they also have decent app support.

ALSO READ: Fire-Boltt Dream smartwatch review

If all you need is an affordable smartwatch that can make or take calls routed via your smartphone, you can consider any affordable smartwatch with Bluetooth calling functionality. This includes options like the Croma Velocity AM smartwatch or the Nothing CMF Pro smartwatch.