Crown talk with the screen off or dark

Talk with the crown while the watch screen is off, keep KeyUp showing on the dimmed watch so the crown always works, and keep the screen dark while you talk.

The crown can start a talk with the screen off (Wear OS 5 or newer, with an Accessibility setting), or with KeyUp kept on a dimmed screen. You can also keep the screen black while you talk and turn it off when the talk ends.

Screen-off crown talk

Normally the crown talks only while KeyUp is on screen. Screen-off crown talk uses a watch Accessibility service so the crown works with the screen off. Raise to talk uses the same service. KeyUp’s crown service reads crown and bezel turns to start and stop a talk, can keep the screen black and lock it after a dark-screen talk, and can open KeyUp to show who is talking or to start a talk you asked for with a double pinch. It also checks which app is on screen, so the crown still scrolls in other apps. It reads nothing else on your screen, what you type, or anything in other apps, and nothing from it is stored or sent. The watch explains this before anything turns on, and while the service is on Android lets KeyUp turn on the microphone for a talk you start with the screen off.

Watch

The first time you open KeyUp on the watch, right after the microphone and notifications, it asks Talk with the screen off? with the full explanation. Tap Agree and open settings, turn on the KeyUp service in the watch’s Accessibility settings, then come back. Or tap Not now: nothing opens and nothing turns on.
To turn it on later: swipe up, tap Settings › How you talk and pick Crown.
Tap Screen-off crown talk, right under the five choices, and read Talk with the screen off. Tap Agree and open settings, or Not now. This text, the name of the KeyUp service and the names of the KeyUp tile and shortcuts follow the language of the watch when it is Spanish, German, French, Portuguese or Italian.
Turn on the KeyUp service in the watch’s Accessibility settings when asked.
Turn the crown with the screen off to test it.

Settings › How you talk: Set up in one tap, then Crown, Raise, Tap the button, Hold the button and Open mic. — One How you talk picker.

Phone

You › Talk › On my watch, with Crown picked, shows how to turn it on. The Accessibility step happens on the watch.

You › Watch: How you talk on the watch with Crown, Raise, Tap the button, Hold the button and Open mic, the line under it, Crown talk, then Advanced. — Watch settings on the phone.

Keep KeyUp on screen and the black screen

Keep KeyUp on screen keeps KeyUp showing on the dimmed watch so the crown and double tap work without the Accessibility service. It is automatic. Black screen while crown talking turns the screen black during a crown talk, and Screen off when a crown talk ends turns the display off right after one.

Keep KeyUp on screen

Watch

Nothing to do in most cases: it turns on by itself when the crown talks without the Accessibility service, or when Double tap the dimmed screen to talk is on. While Double pinch is your way to talk it stays on and says On while you talk with Double pinch.
To choose yourself, swipe up, tap Settings › How you talk › Advanced › Keep KeyUp on screen. Each tap goes Automatic, On, Off. Off works at once: the next time the screen dims, the watch face comes back.
Right under it, Dim screen picks what KeyUp shows while the watch is dimmed: Clock and room (the time, your room and a hint) or All black (nothing at all). See An all black dim screen.
While Keep KeyUp on screen is on for Double tap the dimmed screen to talk or Double pinch, the small KeyUp mark shows on the watch face even if you turned off Show KeyUp on the watch face, because the watch keeps KeyUp on the dim screen only with it. Your own choice comes back when neither one uses the dim screen.

Settings › How you talk with Crown picked, Advanced open: To start talking and To stop talking (How far to turn: Light); Black screen while crown talking, Screen off when a crown talk ends, Voice strictness, Double tap the dimmed screen to talk and Keep KeyUp on screen follow, and the rows for other ways are under Not used with Crown. — Crown fine tuning.

A dark screen for crown talks

Watch

Pick Crown in Settings › How you talk, then open Advanced.
Turn on Black screen while crown talking (“Screen stays dark”).
Turn on Screen off when a crown talk ends (“Display goes off at once”). It is off until you turn it on.

Phone

These switches are on the watch only. The phone’s You › Talk › On my watch has More on your watch.

Good to know

It needs Wear OS 5 or newer.
On a Galaxy Watch with the touch bezel (every model except the Classic ones), the bezel can’t be used while the screen is dark: wake the watch first, then slide around the edge. The physical bezel on the Classic models has not been tried with the screen dark yet. The watch says this under Crown.
A crown turn makes the watch listen first, and nothing is sent until you speak. A bump of your sleeve won’t put you on air.
Turning the crown also lights the watch screen. Wear OS does that for any crown turn, and KeyUp can’t stop it. No button or gesture on the watch can start a talk while the screen stays fully dark. For a dark watch, turn on Black screen while crown talking and Screen off when a crown talk ends under Advanced. See Keep KeyUp on screen and the black screen.
Raise to talk uses the same setting for the screen-off mic.
To let the crown keep scrolling in other apps, the service only notes which app is in front. It does not read what is in them.
No Accessibility? Keep KeyUp on screen turns on by itself, so the crown still works on the dimmed KeyUp screen. See Keep KeyUp on screen.
Android can switch the service off after an app update or a restart. When it did, the watch shows a notice, Screen-off crown talk is off (Screen-off bezel talk is off on a Galaxy Watch), with Tap to turn it back on. It shows at most once a day.
Every way into the watch’s Accessibility settings from KeyUp shows Talk with the screen off first, unless the service is already on and you agreed. If you turn the KeyUp service on in Accessibility yourself without agreeing in KeyUp, it does nothing: the crown does not talk with the screen off, and KeyUp shows the explanation each time it opens until you tap Agree. Not now leaves it doing nothing.
Already using the service? After the update that added Double pinch, the watch shows Talk with the screen off once more, with the new double pinch wording. Tap Agree. Not now keeps the crown and Raise working as before; only a double pinch that needs to open KeyUp first waits until you agree.
Keeping KeyUp on screen uses more battery.
On the dimmed KeyUp screen a crown turn gets the mic ready with one buzz, and you go live when you speak. Nothing is sent before that.
A crown turn with the screen off lights the watch screen. Black screen while crown talking covers it with black at the lowest brightness from the first click of the crown or bezel that reaches KeyUp, before the mic is ready, with one small red dot while you talk. When the watch was asleep, the watch itself may light the screen for about a second before that first click arrives; no app can stop that. It stays until the talk ends or you touch the screen. A turn that doesn’t start a talk ends the same way.
Screen off when a crown talk ends works after a crown talk that started with the screen off or dimmed. After the end buzz the screen stays black until the watch turns it off. On a watch without a PIN or other screen lock, the display turns off right away. With a screen lock it stays black until the watch’s own timeout, so the watch never asks for your PIN because of KeyUp. It uses the crown talk Accessibility service. It does nothing after a talk you started on the lit screen, after a raise, if you touched the screen, or during a call.
Why not keep the screen dark from the start? On the Pixel Watch, the system lights the screen on the first crown turn and the side button always wakes the watch. KeyUp can’t change that, so the black screen and the screen off at the end are the way to keep it dark.

Still stuck? Email [email protected]. Tell us your phone and watch model and what you tried.