Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 owners, and later users of the Galaxy Watch 5 and 4 series, are about to get a Wear OS 5 update after months of beta testing.
This update to some of the best Android watches comes from a recent Reddit post (first spotted via Android Police) with a screencap from Samsung to a beta tester, stating that the beta testing process has been completed. Android Police reports that a new Wear OS 5 firmware update should arrive “in the coming days” for Galaxy Watch 6 owners who are not part of the beta program.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and 4 owners can also expect a Wear OS 5 firmware update, although that won’t reportedly be available for a few weeks.
Wear OS 5 will launch with Samsung’s One UI Watch interface as usual. One UI Watch 6 is the latest version of Samsung’s interpretation of Wear OS, and Galaxy Watch 6 owners will be prompted to make the switch via a software update.
The new Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 already uses One UI Watch 6. It gets very good reviews, thanks to new features such as the Energy Score that is also used by the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
Analysis: Samsung succeeds where Google struggles
Samsung has completed testing and rolling out Wear OS 5, but Google is having some issues with its own operating system. While Wear OS 5 runs on the Pixel Watch 3, Google has halted the rollout of the original Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2.
Users reported that their devices were bricked by the new operating system, so Google is still working on fixing the issues there.
Nevertheless, we imagine the update will roll out to older Pixel Watch users before the end of the year.
