One UI Watch
Everything new with Samsung One UI 5 Watch for Galaxy Watch 4 and 5
On June 7, Samsung officially announced the most-anticipated One UI 5 Watch Beta Program. In addition, the company officially detailed which new features will be installed on your Galaxy Watch 4 or Watch 5 smartwatch with this new upgrade.
Everything new with Samsung One UI 5 Watch
Watch faces and tiles
Add watch faces and tiles more easily
- A new vertical layout makes it easier to find the watch faces and tiles that are right for you.
Improved Buds controller tile
- You can now turn 360 audio on and off from the Buds controller tile if your Buds support 360 audio.
Quick access to timers
- You can start timers from the new Timer tile without opening the Timer app.
Set an album or story as your watch face
- Instead of just one picture, you can now make your watch face cycle between pictures in an album or story that you select. Your watch face will change to a different picture each time you turn on the watch screen.
Samsung Health
Automatically record cycling workouts
- Samsung Health can now detect when you start cycling and record your workout automatically. You can also set whether to automatically map your cycling routes.
Get heart rate guidance during running workouts
- Your watch can provide personalized heart rate zones while you run to help you manage your exercise intensity.
Backup and restore
Keep your watch data safe
- Files and data from your watch are periodically backed up to your phone when it’s connected to your watch. You can also save backups to Samsung Cloud. Your phone needs the latest version of the Smart Switch app to use this feature.
Control your phone
More call controls
- You now have more control over calls without touching your phone. You can adjust the call volume, mute sound, and press buttons on the keypad, all from your watch.
Additional changes
Dictate text with the Home button
- Just press and hold the Home button any time you’re entering text with Samsung Keyboard to instantly switch to voice input.
Use multiple timers at once
- You can now have up to 20 timers running at the same time to help keep track of all your tasks.
Share your medical info in an emergency
- A button to access your medical info will appear automatically when a hard fall is detected or when you press the Home button 5 times to start the Emergency SOS feature.
Device care
- Check the status of your watch’s battery, storage, and memory and immediately fix any problems to extend battery life and keep your watch running smoothly.
Control your watch without touching it
- Universal gestures let you control your watch without touching the screen or pressing a button. You can assign various actions to gestures such as shaking your wrist, making a fist, or pinching your fingers.
Organize apps in folders
- Create folders to keep your apps organized so you can find the apps you need quickly with less scrolling.
Samsung is not forgetting its older smartwatches, even though it has switched to Wear OS for its latest models. Right now, Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is getting a new update that adds two watch faces of One UI 5 Watch.
The fresh update brings two new watch faces to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 – Stretched Time and Perpetual. These watch faces were introduced with the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, which runs on Wear OS 4 with Samsung’s One UI 5 Watch.
The update does not change the operating system of the Galaxy Watch Active 2, which remains on Tizen OS. Samsung has confirmed that it will not update its older Tizen-based smartwatches to Wear OS, but it will continue to support them with security and feature updates.
If you have received the update notification then install it now. Users need to open the Samsung Wearable app on their connected phone, go to Watch settings, select Watch software update, and tap Download and install.
Samsung has been updating its smartwatch lineup with the latest One UI Watch 5 software, which debuted with the Galaxy Watch 6 series. However, not all Samsung smartwatches are eligible for the One UI Watch 5 update but the company promised to bring some of the new watch faces for them. Right now, Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 has started receiving a new update that adds One UI 5 watch faces.
The new update of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 comes with two faces of One UI 5 Watch update, which are Stretched Time and Perpetual. These watch faces were previously exclusive to the One UI Watch 5 devices, and they offer a minimalist and elegant design.
Users of Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 are getting the new update in Europe with firmware versions R840XXU1DWK2 /R850XXU1DWK2. The Tizen OS version stays unchanged at 5.5.0.2. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 is expected to get the same update soon.
To update the Galaxy Watch 3, users need to open the Samsung Wearable app on their connected phone, go to Watch settings, select Watch software update, and tap Download and install.
Some third-party watch faces on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4/5/6 series do not show the preview when you use the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone to customize them. If you own a Galaxy Watch 4/5/6 series and use some third-party watch faces, you might have noticed this issue.
However, Samsung has officially confirmed that this is happening because of a bug that prevents the Galaxy Wearable app from processing the events related to watch face customization provided by Google.
Samsung has acknowledged this issue and plans to release a software update that will fix it. In addition, the Korean tech giant has shared a temporary solution to resolve this issue through the community.
You can still customize the watch face on your watch, without using your phone. You just need to follow a few easy steps – Press and hold the watch screen on your Galaxy Watch 4/5/6 series >> Swipe left or right to select the watch face you want to customize >> Tap on the customize button >> Now you can customize as you like.
If you are facing any issues with your Galaxy Watch then make sure to update it to the latest available software.
For that, you just need to open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone that is connected to your Galaxy Watch 4/5/6 series >> Tap on the watch settings option on the app’s home screen >> Click on the update watch software option >> Press download and install option to start the update process.