Samsung announced One UI 8 Watch for its Galaxy Watch lineup in June. It pushed the update for the Galaxy Watch Ultra soon after the initial announcement, with the Watch 7 and Watch 6 family getting a taste of Wear OS 6 in September and November, respectively. Now, the Galaxy Watch 4 is joining the bandwagon, with its Wear OS 6 update going live in Samsung’s home country.
When Samsung initially revealed One UI 8 Watch, there were contradicting reports that the 2021 Watch 4 won’t get the update. After all, the release would fall outside the company’s promised four-year support window. But Samsung confirmed soon after that it would indeed update the Watch 4 and its Classic sibling to Wear OS 6, though it didn’t provide a release timeframe.
The long wait for Galaxy Watch 4 owners is finally coming to an end, with the Wear OS 6 update rolling out in South Korea with a download size of over 1GB.
Samsung could take a while to push the JYK4 build globally, with wider availability likely to happen over the next few weeks. For now, the firmware is only live for the watch’s Wi-Fi variant. Owners of the LTE model should expect an even longer wait.
Wear OS 6 and One UI 8 Watch pack several new features
Based on Android 16-based Wear OS 6, One UI 8 Watch should bring noticeable improvements to Samsung’s 2021 smartwatch, including smoother system animations and performance.
One UI Watch itself introduces a few nice enhancements, such as Now Bar that displays controls for music playback and workouts, new watch faces, and more information-rich tiles. It works similar to how Now Bar works on Galaxy phones running One UI 8.
One UI 8 Watch also packs several new health features, like Bedtime Guidance, Vascular Load, Running Coach, and Antioxidant Index. However, not all of them will make their way to the Galaxy Watch 4 due to hardware restrictions.
With Google promising major underlying optimizations, Wear OS 6 and One UI 8 Watch should improve the overall experience of using the Watch 4.
This is likely the last major update for the Galaxy Watch 4, drawing the curtain on the smartwatch that helped Google and Samsung revive Wear OS and make a comeback in the smartwatch market.
