Monday, December 23, 2024

Samsung is sunsetting Tizen and fully ending support for the smartwatch OS

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Samsung’s devices haven’t used the Tizen operating system since before the Galaxy Watch 4, when the company switched to using Wear OS for it’s flagship werables. Tizen OS is now on track to lose full support by the end of 2025.

Tizen OS was a controversial software when it was available for the Samsung Galaxy Watch lineup and additional Active 1 and 2 devices. It worked well enough for Samsung to sell smartwatches as they were still becoming popular, even alongside a struggling Wear OS that seemed to be on every other Android OEM’s werable offerings.

Samsung stopped utilizing Tizen OS when it released the Galaxy Watch 4, which carried a hybrid OS in partnership with Google. While officially Wear OS, Samsung refers to it as One UI Watch, and it has pulled a lot of weight in regards to furthering smartwatch performance as a whole.

As posted by a user on Reddit, Sasmung is starting to let folks know that it plans on sunsetting Tizen OS by the end of 2025 (via Android Authority). Changes will begin to take place today, which includes the blockage of any new Tizen Watch content from the Galaxy Store. Samsung notes that “services related to this watch will stop everywhere except Galaxy Store.”

It’s worth noting that the screenshots originally posted carry translated text, so Samsung’s notice will not read perfectly.

The letter goes on to state that “purchased items in the Galaxy Store… will stop,” which indicates that watch faces users have bought for their Galaxy Watch 3, and previous devices will no longer be available to download. Samsung goes on to note that existing downloads will remain on devices. This is to take place on September 30, 2025. It will be the last action Samsung takes to end support for Tizen OS in any smartwatch capacity.

This comes as little surprise, considering Samsung no longer sells smartwatches with Tizen OS. The watches that do utilize it are nearing the end of the support schedule, with Samsung only promising a lifeline until 2023. We’re well past that.

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