Get the most out of your Samsung smartwatch with this guide.
If you have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4-7 on your wrist, discovering its hidden tricks and features will help you get the most out of it.
The brand’s One UI Watch software is relatively intuitive to navigate, but plenty of elements aren’t immediately obvious – especially if you’re new to Samsung smartwatches.
That can even extend to basic things, such as turning it off, rearranging apps, or performing a soft reset. That’s where this guide can help. Below are 23 essential things to know if you have a Galaxy Watch.
1. Add complications
Make your favorite watch faces more useful by adding complications.
Complications are a watchmaking term for any information added to the watch face. In the old days, this would usually be the date. But in smartwatch terms, this could be heart rate, weather, barometer info, world time, or even quick links to your favorite apps.
To add a complication, perform a long press on a watch face and choose ‘Customize’.
Swipe right to Complications (if it’s not present then that watch face doesn’t support them) and choose a spot on the watch face. You can tap existing complications or blank spots.
You can choose a data point from a huge list of existing complications.
2. Take the temperature (Galaxy Watch 6/7 only)
Did you know you can take temperature measurements on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, Watch 6 Classic, and Watch 7?
This is a baffling alternative use case for the temperature sensor – traditionally reserved for tracking during sleep, or more accurate cycle tracking insights. Yet, it is possible.
You can immerse the Galaxy Watch in water or point it at surfaces to test the temperature. As we say, there aren’t many useful use cases here, but testing food or bath water could add to your peace of mind.
To use it, go to the app menu and tap the thermometer icon. You’ll also need to take the watch off your wrist.
Now choose ‘Living’ or ‘Water’. Living means you can point the watch at things to estimate their temperature, while water is designed to submerge the watch to do the same.
3. Make the watch feel faster
Adjusting animation speed will make your whole Galaxy Watch feel faster and snappier.
Go to Settings > About Watch > Software information. Find ‘Software Version‘ and then tap on it multiple times quickly. This will enable Developer Mode.
Go to ‘Settings > Developer options‘, then scroll down to ‘Animation Scale’ and change to 0.5x.
This will reduce the time of animations, make apps load quicker, and generally improve the responsiveness of the whole Galaxy Watch experience.
4. Turn on the always-on display mode
The Galaxy Watch’s always-on screen mode isn’t enabled out of the box. If you want to check in on the time at all times, you need to do the following:
- Swipe down from the main watch screen to reveal the quick settings.
- Tap the cog to open settings.
- Scroll down to Display, search for the ‘Always On Display’ option, then tap to enable.
Once done, you can view the home screen without raising your wrist to wake it up.
5. Organize the quick settings
The Galaxy Watch’s quick settings are a great alternative to laboring through menus and are handy when you want to make easy adjustments to core features.
Here, you can find features such as the do-not-disturb mode, the flashlight, and the screen brightness slider. You also control what settings are shown here and where they live.
To re-arrange the Galaxy Watch’s quick settings:
1. Launch the quick settings by swiping down from the home screen.
2. Tap and press an icon and keep your finger on the icon to drag it to another position.
Alternatively, remove the selected icon and replace it with a new one. Add a new setting by swiping left to get to the last screen and hitting the ‘+’ icon to add a new shortcut setting.
6. Connect to exercise machines
The Galaxy Watch can wirelessly connect to compatible exercise equipment – similar to the Apple Watch through its GymKit platform.
This way, you can use the onboard heart rate sensor alongside data from machines like treadmills for a more comprehensive workout overview.
To connect Galaxy Watch to exercise machines:
1. Go to the Samsung Health app on your Watch.
2. Scroll down to ‘Settings’, then ‘Connected services’.
3. Tap the toggle next to ‘Heart rate to transmit heart rate data’.
4. You can also use your ‘Profile’ (height, weight, gender) during this mode to receive a more accurate calorie burn.
7. Connect the Galaxy Watch to TVs
To connect the Galaxy Watch to a Samsung TV:
1. Go to the Samsung Health app on your Watch.
2. Scroll down to ‘Settings’.
3. Scroll down to ‘Connected services’ and select ‘TV’
4. Tap the toggle button to show heart rate and calorie burn on your TV.
8. How to turn off continuous heart rate monitoring
If you’re not particularly fussed about keeping close tabs on your heart rate, there is a way to turn that continuous monitoring off. This will likely boost battery life, too.
To adjust heart rate monitoring settings on the Galaxy Watch:
1. Go to the Samsung Health app on your Watch.
2. Scroll to ‘Settings’, then tap ‘Measurement’.
3. You now have the option to switch to monitoring HR every 10 minutes while still, or you can select the manual monitoring option.
You also have the same option for stress monitoring, which uses heart rate variability measurements. Again, changing the setting here will positively impact battery life.
9. Check how much battery life you have left
You can view the battery percentage simply by swiping down from the main watch screen.
However, Samsung also adds a battery screen where you can see an estimate of battery life in days, and see the difference in battery life under the watch’s power saving mode.
To check the battery life of the Galaxy Watch:
1. Swipe down from the main watch screen to view quick settings and tap the cog icon to open ‘Settings’.
2. Scroll to ‘Battery’ and see that battery life estimate in full smartwatch mode, along with an estimate if you switch to power saving mode.
10. Change your goals
Whether you’re smashing your daily step count targets or want to decrease them, there’s an easy way to change your Activity goals.
To change activity targets on the Galaxy Watch:
1. Swipe left from the main watch screen and locate the Activity Tile (heart-shaped icon).
2. Tap the Tile and scroll down to ‘Set targets’.
3. Here, you can adjust ‘Steps’, ‘Active time’, and ‘Activity calorie targets’.
11. Turn on automatic exercise detection
Samsung’s watches can automatically track many exercises, including running, indoor rowing, and the elliptical machine.
You can additionally automatically record your location when it detects you’re walking or running.
Go to the Samsung Health app and find ‘Settings’ to enable this feature.
Select Auto-detect workouts and enable tracking for the five different support activities, along with the location recording.
12. Keep your Samsung apps updated
If you want to quickly check if you’re running the latest version of Samsung’s apps, like Health and Bixby, there’s a way to see if any app updates are available.
To check if your Samsung apps are updated, go to ‘Settings’ and then select ‘Apps’.
Scroll down to Samsung app updates. If an update is available, it will offer you the option to update.
13. Change the font size
If you’re finding it difficult to absorb data screens (or prefer text to look a bit larger or smaller), you can adjust the font size on the Galaxy Watch.
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then select ‘Accessibility’.
2. Select ‘Visibility enhancements’ and then ‘Font size’ – you can choose between small, medium, and large font sizes.
14. Use gesture controls for handling calls
There are two ways to interact with the Galaxy Watch without pressing a button or tapping that touchscreen display. If you have a Galaxy Watch 7, you can also access the Double Pinch feature.
When the phone starts to ring, there are two gestures you can enable to answer or dismiss.
To turn Galaxy Watch gestures on:
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Advanced features’.
2. Scroll to ‘Gestures’ and look for ‘Answer calls and dismiss alerts and calls’. Tap to turn on each gesture.
15. Turn off all sounds
Samsung gives you the option to drown out all the noise including alerts and tones, which is ideal if you want to enjoy a quiet smartwatch experience.
To turn off all the sounds on the Galaxy Watch:
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then select ‘Accessibility’.
2. Next, tap ‘Hearing enhancements’ and toggle ‘Mute all sounds’.
16. Check your storage
For those taking full advantage of piling apps, photos, and music onto their Galaxy Watch, there is a way to see how much storage you’ve got to play with.
To view storage space on your Galaxy Watch:
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘About Watch’.
2. Tap ‘Storage’ and you’ll see available space along with how much space is taken up by images, audio, apps, and watch faces.
17. View media controls
Controlling the music playing on your smartphone is one of the great things about having a smartwatch.
The Galaxy Watch supports this feature, though you might find it’s disabled out of the box.
To turn on media controls, do the following:
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Display’.
2. Scroll to find ‘Show media controls’ and tap to turn those controls on.
18. Enable power saving and watch-only modes
With the Galaxy Watch, you’re playing with around a couple of days of battery life, but there are ways to ensure you enjoy the maximum battery life between charges.
You can turn on the battery-saving mode, which isn’t as restrictive as it sounds and still gives you access to most of the critical features.
On the other hand, the watch-only mode keeps things basic and will only show the time.
To turn these modes on:
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Battery’.
2. From here, you can view watch-only and power-saving modes, with the latter letting you see how much extra battery you can expect compared to normal battery mode.
19. Hear notifications read out to you
This is a useful feature if you’ve got Bluetooth headphones hooked up to your watch and don’t have easy access to the screen to see your notifications.
Go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Notifications’, and scroll down to ‘Read notifications aloud’, and tap to turn on this feature.
20. Change the button controls
You do have the ability to change what the physical home and back buttons are capable of controlling.
The top home key can be double-pressed to open your installed apps, while the back key can show the most recent apps.
To access Galaxy Watch button controls:
1. Go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Advanced features’.
2. Next, select ‘Customise keys’ and assign those new controls.
21. Turn on snore detection
The Galaxy Watch devices offer many features that help deliver a rich sleep-tracking experience.
That includes monitoring blood oxygen levels, and the ability to detect when you’ve been snoring during sleep, too.
You might need to turn these additional features on first to start receiving insights on them.
To turn on the Galaxy Watch’s snore detection:
1. Go to the Samsung Health app and select ‘Settings’.
2. Tap ‘Measurement’ and then select ‘Snore detection’.
22. Rearrange and edit Tiles
For the uninitiated, Tiles in Wear OS are widgets that provide a handy shortcut into a third-party app.
You can swipe left from the main watch screen to view them. You can also tinker with where those Tiles live, and even edit what some Tiles can display.
To rearrange Tiles on the Galaxy Watch:
1. Swipe to a Tiles screen and tap and hold.
2. Continue to hold and drag it into a new position.
23. View exercise history
The Galaxy Watch packs a lot of sports modes, and, if you want to check in on your exercise history, there’s a quick and easy way to look back at your sessions.
To view exercise history on the Galaxy Watch:
1. Go to the Samsung Health app and scroll to exercise history.
2. From here, you can drill into each workout and see your metrics. So, for runs, you’ll also be able to view the advanced running metrics, for example.