A few days back Samsung announced One UI 5 Watch, the latest version of its customized software on the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5, revealing some of the new features that will be added to the watches with the update.
One UI 5 Watch will be accompanied by an upgrade to Wear OS 4 from Wear OS 3, and that will bring its own new features and improvements that will be applicable to all watches that get Wear OS 4, not just Samsung’s. And Google has detailed some of those features today at the Google I/O conference, where it also launched its competitor to Samsung’s foldable phones.
As it did with Wear OS 3, Google has teamed up with Samsung for some of the Wear OS 4 features, including the ability for developers to create custom and more complex watch faces and for users to edit their favorite watch faces right from their watch. Wear OS 4 will also bring full support for Gmail and Google Calender.
Furthermore, Wear OS 4 will add the option to connect a smartwatch to a new phone without having to perform a factory reset, which is a feature folks have long desired to see on their Samsung Galaxy smartwatches. And Wear OS 4 will also bring improved battery life, though Google hasn’t revealed what kind of battery life improvements we’re looking at.
Wear OS 4/One UI 5 Watch beta for Galaxy Watch 4, Watch 5 coming later this month
Google has released a developer preview for Wear OS 4 that developers can download right away. Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 owners in the US and Korea will get to try Wear OS 4 and One UI 5 Watch through a beta program Samsung will launch sometime this month. The first stable version of the new software, meanwhile, will debut on the Galaxy Watch 6 in July/August.
