Android Wear won't send voice replies but everything else works

I've encountered a really strange problem on my watch (Samsung Gear Live) lately. Not a single texting app will let me use the "reply" button with voice.

Example: Friend texts me, text pops up on my watch. I swipe it and click "Reply" and try to reply using my voice. The text will write out on my watch screen, but the red Google mic icon just sits there for about 10 seconds as if its still thinking it's receiving input, and then it takes me to the "disconnected/watch is offline" screen.

But the watch is obviously not disconnected: I can exit that app and tap the screen and say "Okay Google" and then say "Text friend 'hi how's it going'" and the text will send without a problem.

I've encountered this error when using Coffee SMS, WearResponses, and Google Messenger. I've reset the watch, and cleared Android Wear data, and the problem still persists. This makes no sense. Any ideas/suggestions?