Taking us without warning, Google debuted Put on OS 4 with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 in August 2023. The Watch 6 was the primary wearable to run One UI 5 Watch based mostly on Put on OS 4. In the meantime, the Pixel Watch 2 was the primary smartwatch to run inventory Put on OS 4.
Many Android watches are nonetheless ready for the brand new wearable platform replace, however choose new releases include the OS out of the field. For instance, the OnePlus Watch 2 runs Put on OS 4 proper out of the gate.
So, whereas there are a lot of watches with Put on OS 4 and numerous extra that await the replace, let’s discuss concerning the software program itself. What precisely does Put on OS 4 deliver to the desk, and the way does One UI 5 Watch differ from the inventory Put on OS discovered on the Pixel Watch 2?
We’ll break down every part and clarify how Put on OS 4 improves upon the perfect Android smartwatches available on the market.
Put on OS 4 launch date
Google launched Put on OS 4 with the Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Traditional on August 11, 2023. A number of months later, the Pixel Watch 2 got here out with the inventory model of the OS on October 12, 2023. This was additionally when Google began rolling out the secure construct of Put on OS 4 to different Android wearables, together with the last-gen Pixel Watch.
As for Samsung’s tackle Put on OS 4, lots of the older generations of the Galaxy Watch household have already acquired the One UI 5 Watch replace. Each the Galaxy Watch 5 sequence and the Galaxy Watch 4 sequence have acquired the newest One UI 5 Watch based mostly on Put on OS 4 replace.
Put on OS 4: New options
As introduced at Google I/O 2023, Put on OS 4 provides apps for Gmail and Google Calendar for the primary time. You at the moment are capable of “shortly reply to emails…verify your schedule, view and RSVP to occasions, and replace process statuses” in your wrist.
Different additions embrace the brand new WhatsApp Put on OS app and Spotify’s new updates such because the Tiles centered on podcasts, most-played songs, and the in-app DJ. Google House has new controls like the power to unlock your sensible lock or verify your Nest Doorbell feed in your wrist.
One of many greater adjustments is the brand new Put on OS Watch Face Format co-created by Google and Samsung. Not like the previous Jetpack watch faces that needed to be always optimized for higher battery life and efficiency, new watch faces use “a declarative XML format” as a substitute of precise code. Put on OS itself renders the watch face, so builders “now not have to fret about code optimizations or battery efficiency.” You’ll be able to customise your individual watch faces, full with customized designs and behaviors.
Final and positively not least, Google lastly introduced a extra seamless knowledge switch choice to the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2. Customers can now backup and restore knowledge on Put on OS 4. You’ll be able to again up Galaxy Watches, however homeowners of inventory Put on OS watches have been requesting the characteristic for years.
Plus, in the course of the set-up course of for any Put on OS watch, your app permissions “will mechanically carry over” out of your Android telephone, Google says.
As for different Put on OS 4 updates, new adjustments like “energy optimizations” make apps run extra effectively than in Put on OS 3, in addition to new knowledge varieties in Well being Providers. Primarily, third-party apps are capable of entry extra of your health-sensor knowledge, as long as you allow permissions for them to take action first.
One UI 5 Watch
One UI 5 Watch technically is not related to Google’s model of Put on OS 4, as Samsung’s model preceded it by a couple of months. However One UI 5.5 Watch is predicated on the ultimate Put on OS 4.
First, One UI 5 Watch provides irregular coronary heart fee notifications based mostly in your coronary heart fee monitor. Accredited by the FDA, Samsung’s AFib detection directs you to take an ECG in your Galaxy Watch 5 (or different fashions) for a extra direct studying.
Subsequent, a brand new Sleep Insights UI offers you a redesigned sleep rating and Enhanced Sleep Teaching, and the watch now not flashes the inexperienced LEDs when it detects potential sleep — a frequent grievance from customers. Plus, it now affords menstrual cycle monitoring utilizing the pores and skin temperature sensor.
On the health aspect, Samsung integrated customized exercise depth ranges and coronary heart fee zones. It additionally implements fall detection and higher SOS performance. As for Galaxy Watch 5 Professional customers, they’re now capable of instantly entry a GPX map database to put in working and climbing maps for his or her exercises.
Though Samsung is working behind Apple in health, these options are actually a welcome signal that it is taking health software program extra severely.
You additionally obtain three key new Put on OS apps on the Galaxy Watch sequence: a revamped Samsung Pockets app, WhatsApp, and ThermoCheck.