Unfortunately on the new 7 Ultra Wi-Fi only turns on when it is deemed necessary because it supposedly uses the Bluetooth connection to the phone. Unfortunately I often find that my Google Assistant and my Google Voice typing will not work cuz it says not connected to the internet. I fixed this by opening developer options and turning off the automatic Wi-Fi connection. Then I went into connections and turned on the Wi-Fi. Now my Wi-Fi stays connected all the time. I don't know what effect this will have on the battery yet but time will tell. Hopefully Samsung will fix this issue on their own. I did not have this problem with my six classic.
This will only work as long as your watch is connected to a wi-fi connection with an SSID with or without a password. If you are in a public place, like a restaurant or airport, or even your carrier's hot spot, the watches are not compatible with that, because you cannot open the required web page to grant permission to use it. It took me a while to figure out why, while I was in a place with a connection like that, I couldn't access my Google keyboard's voice typing on the watch to answer a text. It was at that point I realized it was because the venue I was in had one of those types of wi-fi connections. Once I turned on my data connection (I usually kept it off), I was able to access all that again. It doesn't need wi-fi, it needs a connection, and a data connection works just as well as wi-fi--I believe it uses less battery energy as well..
Play services work fine when my Phone is on LTE service. So when Im away from my home network it isnt an issue. It seems to be a problem only when im connected to my phone via bluetooth and my pone is connected to wifi.
Mine will not work solely through bluetooth to the phone even when the phone is connected to wifi... I had the continually go into connections and force a wifi connection so assistant would work... my solution is surely a temporary work around but now my assistant and speech to text work flawlessly.
To save battery, the watch only turns on wi-fi when it requires connectivity and is on a compatible network. It uses a lot of battery power otherwise. Mobile data does not use as much. I have a watch 4, and as in my previous post, the only time I couldn't connect to Google to use G-Board on the watch was when I had my mobile data turned off on the watch because the watch is not compatible with the public wi-fi. I have since turned wi-fi off on the watch, and kept mobile data active. Your issue may be because even with your phone connected to your home network and your watch connected to the phone via BT, you still need to either keep the watch's wi-fi on and connected to your home network or keep your mobile data active on the watch. The G-Board's voice connection to Google requires the connection to be on the device using the G-Board or assistant, or any Google service; as does remote connection (for when you are out of BT range of your phone).
