Samsung has confirmed the Wear OS 5 operating system, fronted by its own One UI 6 software, is ready to roll out to owners of older Galaxy Watch devices.
The new software skin and underlying operating system was available out of the box on the Galaxy Watch 7 back in the summer, but Samsung has spent the last few months beta testing for previous-generation watches.
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Android Police reports the beta program is now closed for last year’s Galaxy Watch 6, with the software now rolling out. The report says the Wear OS 5 firmware update containing One UI 6 will be going live within the next couple of days.
The Galaxy Watch 6 will be first up, while the update will also be made available to other Wear OS powered watches in the range – the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 4 editions.
So what can Galaxy Watch owners expect from One UI 6? There’s a new health and fitness feature called Energy Score, which takes its lead from tools like Garmin’s Training Readiness, and is based upon activity levels and recovery.
Speaking of recovery, sleep tracking is improving and the data will now show things like your resting heart rate and respiratory rate, as well as an indication of the time it took you to enter the land of nod.
There’s also the inclusion of Universal Gestures, which enable users with accessibility needs to use their watch by performing actions like making a fist, pinching, and more. The new watch faces that came with the Galaxy Watch 7 this summer have already trickled down to older generations.
As for Wear OS 5, there isn’t a lot new here, but you can expect smoother and speeder performance from Google’s wearable operating system.