Samsung One UI 5 Watch update based on Wear OS 4 is out now. You can use it on Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, 5, and 6. But what does the update bring? Find the answer in this post. You get features like multiple timers, Universal gestures, app folders, and much more. Let’s check the best Samsung One UI 5 Watch features.
Table of Contents
1. Battery Widget
One UI 5 Watch update comes with an interesting and useful battery widget that lets you see the battery of your other Samsung devices. You can check the battery level of your Samsung Galaxy phone, Galaxy Buds, and your watch, all from the same screen.
To enable the battery widget or tile, follow these steps:
1. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your Samsung Galaxy phone.
2. Tap on Tiles and look for the Battery widget under the Connected Devices section. Tap on it to enable it.
3. Press the Save button.
4. Now, on your Galaxy watch, swipe left on the home screen multiple times until you see the battery tile.
Tip: To add the battery widget from your watch, go to the Add Tiles screen and tap on Battery Tile.
2. Tap, Select, or Perform Other Actions Using Gestures
The ability to answer or reject calls/alerts and quickly launch an app (Watch Settings > Advanced features > Gestures section) using gestures has been part of Samsung Galaxy watches for a while now. With the Samsung One UI 5 Watch update, you can now control your entire watch using gestures without pressing any button or touching the screen.
The feature called Universal gestures supports the following gestures:
- Pinch
- Double pinch
- Make fist
- Make fist twice
You can assign actions like a tap, next item, previous item, action menu, etc., to these gestures.
Follow these steps to enable Universal gestures on Galaxy Watch:
Note: When Universal gestures are turned on, the reject calls and quick launch gestures will be turned off.
1. Open the Wearable app on your phone and go to Watch Settings.
2. Tap on Accessibility > Interaction and Dexterity.
3. Tap on Universal gestures and enable the toggle on the next screen.
Tip: Know how to change wrist and orientation on the Galaxy watch.
3. Create App Folders
One of the things that irks me about Galaxy watches is that everything is icon-based. Sometimes, it’s hard to understand what’s the meaning of each icon or symbol in the watch. This holds true for app icons as well since you need to remember the icon of each app. While the Samsung One UI 5 Watch update doesn’t solve this problem, it offers a way to organize apps on the watch using folders.
Yes, you can now group app icons into folders, and give them a suitable name, and apply a unique color to each folder.
Follow these steps to add apps into folders on the Samsung Galaxy watch:
1. Swipe up on the home screen of your watch to open the Apps screen.
2. Long press an app and drag it over another app to create a folder. Similarly, you can move other apps to this folder or create another app folder.
3. Give a name to your folder by tapping on the Folder name text or tap on the Color icon to assign a different color to the folder.
Tip: Know how to sideload apps on Galaxy watch.
4. Create Multiple Timers and Access Them Quickly
One UI 5 Watch update also brings the ability to create multiple timers and the ability to start timers from the Timer tile, which would otherwise require the opening of the Timer app first. You can now have 20 timers running simultaneously on your Galaxy watch.
1. On your watch, swipe left multiple times until you see the Timer tile.
2. You will be greeted by three default timers. Tap on any existing timer to start it. Again, tap on any other timer to start it as well. Or tap on the hourglass + button to start a timer with different times.
3. To change the default timer times, long press on the Timer tile and press the Edit button.
4. Tap on the (-) red remove icon on the timer that you want to replace.
5. Then, press the (+) icon and select the time that you will use in the timer regularly.
Tip: To check the currently active timers, tap on the Hourglass icon on the home screen of your watch and then swipe left to see other active timers.
5. Set an Album or Story as Watch Face
There’s no surprise if I tell you that you can set a picture or even multiple pictures as your watch face on the Galaxy watch. But with the One UI 5 Watch update, you can now set an album or a story as your watch face. Your watch face will use a new picture from the album every time you turn on the watch face.
To set an album as a watch face on Galaxy watch, follow these steps:
1. Open the Wearable app on your phone.
2. Go to Watch Faces and tap on the Photos Watch Face under the Basic section.
3. The watch face will be moved to the active watch faces section at the top. Tap on the Customize button under the watch face and select the clock type or complications on the customization screen.
4. To use an album or story as background, go to the Background tab and tap on Album. Select the Album whose pictures you want to use as a watch face. Your watch will automatically cycle between the recent 20 pictures of the album. Tap on Save.
Tip: Check out the best tips to customize watch faces on Galaxy watch.
6. Use Voice Typing Quickly
Whenever you open the Samsung Keyboard on your watch to type something, press and hold the Home button to switch to voice typing mode quickly. Then, start speaking and it will be converted into text. Please note that this feature only works when the following two conditions are met:
- Samsung Keyboard is the default keyboard on your watch.
- The home button is assigned to Bixby voice assistant and not to Google Assistant.
Tip: Learn how to use Google Assistant on Galaxy Watch.
7. Create Your Own Exercise
Samsung offers many exercises but if you can’t find your own exercise in the available list, don’t worry. With the One UI 5 Watch update, you can create your own custom exercise that can measure speed, distance, route, and more.
1. Open the Samsung Health app on your phone.
2. Tap on the More button in the Exercise section and press the (+) icon at the top.
3. Tap on Create new exercise. Give your exercise a name and enable the toggle if you want to record speed, distance, or route with GPS. Finally, press the Save button.
8. Turn off Status Indicators
When Galaxy watches had the Tizen OS, one could easily hide the status indicators. However, the functionality was removed with Wear OS. Thankfully, the One UI 5 Watch update brings the ability to disable status indicators back.
On the Wearable app, go to Watch Settings > Advanced features> Status indicators. Select Hide after 2 seconds.
Tip: Know how to customize buttons on the Galaxy watch.
9. Transfer Watch to New Phone Without Reset
Earlier, if you purchased a new phone and wanted to link your existing Galaxy watch to it, you had to factory reset the watch first. Thankfully, that has changed with the Samsung One UI 5 watch update as you don’t need to reset the watch now. This allows you to keep your apps, watch faces, and other things. The only requirement is that the Google account on your new phone and watch must be the same.
1. On your watch, go to Settings > General > Transfer watch to new phone.
2. A few conditions will be shown like:
- If you transfer to a new phone and want to connect back to the older phone, you need to reset the watch first.
- If you are using a different Samsung account on your new phone, that account will be used on the watch too.
If you are satisfied, tap on the checkmark icon.
3. Then, follow the on-screen instructions.
Other Interesting Features of One UI 5 Watch Update
- If you’re a Samsung Z Flip or Fold phone and you use your phone’s camera in Flex or Tent mode, a Camera icon will appear at the bottom of the watch face. Tap on it to access the camera viewer on your watch that you can use to take pictures and control the phone camera from your watch.
- If you use a PIN or pattern lock on your watch, you must enter it after you factory reset your watch. This feature is enabled by default.
- You can enable or disable 360 audio for Buds using the Buds controller tile.
- You can now access Sleep coaching mode from the watch itself.
- The One UI 5 Watch update also brings automatic cycling detection.
- Bedtime and Theater modes are now present under Modes, which can be accessed from the Quick panel or Watch Settings > Modes.
Manage Your Watch
Those were some of the cool features of the Samsung One UI 5 Watch update. Before you go, know how to manage notifications like a pro on Samsung Galaxy watches. And also, check out the tips for calling feature on the watch.
