Samsung announced a couple of weeks back that it will be making available a beta for the upcoming One UI 6 Watch update for a trio of its Galaxy Watch series and the first build is initially available in two regions across the world. Here’s what features the beta brings and how you can download and install it on your watch.
One UI 6 Watch Beta: Galaxy AI Features & More
As updated on Samsung’s US community page, here’s what the update is touted to bring:
Health and fitness advancements
- Monitor your energy levels: Samsung Health’s new energy score shows your physical and mental readiness based on you sleep and physical activity. If your energy score is low, it may be best to take a rest. If your energy score is high, it could be time set a personal best in your favorite exercise. Galaxy AI provides personalized insights and motivation to keep you on the right track.
- Get more detailed sleep analysis: Galaxy AI-powered sleep insights give you more detailed and accurate analysis of your sleep quality. Your comprehensive sleep report now includes your heart rate, respiratory rate, and the amount of time it takes you to fall asleep after you lie down.
- Make your own workout routines: Combine a series of different exercises together for a custom workout routine. You can set targets for sets, reps, and more.
Enhanced watch control
- Do more with double pinch: Take quick action in a variety of situations by pinching your thumb and index finger together twice. You can answer calls, turn off alarms, scroll through notifications, control music, take pictures, and more. A finger icon will appear on buttons that can be controlled with a double pinch.
- Faster horizontal scrolling: Flick the screen left or right or to quickly scroll through notifications or tiles.
- View ongoing activities all at once: Tap the bottom of your watch face to view a list of ongoing activities such as phone calls, exercises, or music playing. Tap an item in the list to easily switch between them.
- Take action quickly with Universal gestures: In situations where a quick action is needed, such as answering a phone call or turning off an alarm, the button for the action will be automatically focused so you can do the action immediately without the need to manually change focus.
- Go back without touching the screen: Move your wrist back and forth to go back to the previous screen. You can control this in Universal gestures.
- Get only the notifications you want: Choose which apps are allowed to send you notifications directly on your watch without opening the Galaxy Wearable App on your phone.
- Control your watch with modes: Modes can now automatically control more of your watch’s settings based on what you’re doing or where you are. Modes can control Do not disturb, Always On Display, Raise wrist to wake, Touch screen to wake, Touch bezel to wake, Sound mode, and Disconnection alerts.
Communication and connectivity
- Instantly access your favorite emojis: You can set the emojis you use most as favorites so they’re always available to send as a quick response.
- Save image attachments: You can now save images attached to messages on your watch. Saved images can be viewed in the Gallery app, shared with others, or used to create a unique photo watch face.
Additional improvements
- Stylish new font: One UI 6 Watch has a new default font with a more stylish and modern feel. You’ll see the new font if the default font is selected in Settings. If you’re using a different font, you’ll still see that font after upgrading to One UI 6 Watch.
- Make your battery last longer: When Power saving is turned on, you can also choose to limit health features to make your battery last even longer than before.
- Automatically connect to Bluetooth audio devices: When you start playing music on your watch, your Bluetooth headphones or speaker will automatically connect for playback. If no Bluetooth audio devices are available to connect, music will play through your watch’s speaker if your music app supports it.
One UI 6 Watch Beta: How To Download?
The One UI 6 Watch Beta is available in only two regions as of now, including the US and South Korea and only for the Galaxy Watch 6 Bluetooth model. The steps we mention to download the beta update to your Galaxy Watch 6 will remain identical for other Galaxy watches too, once the beta program adds support for Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 4 series. The steps are as follows:
Step 1
Open the Samsung Members app on your Galaxy device. If you are using your Galaxy Watch with a non-Samsung phone, you won’t be able to download the beta.
Step 2
Tap on the “Speaker” button at the top-right corner to open the “Inbox.”
Step 3
Now under the “Notices” tab, tap on the topmost option that says “Join One UI 6 Watch Beta program,” and then tap on the blue “Join” button at the bottom.
Step 4
You are now all set. You can update your watch to the latest beta by going into the Software update section on your watch or on your phone via the Galaxy Wearable app to initiate the update.
Also, make sure to download the supplementary apps via the links provided in the Samsung members post, such as the Galaxy Wearable APK and the Galaxy Watch 6 Manager APK files. These will be needed for a successful sync between the watch and your Galaxy smartphone.