What you need to know
- The last stage of Samsung’s One UI 6 Watch rollout appears to be underway, with users in Korea seeing the update become available for the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
- The move comes as Samsung has updated the Galaxy Watch 6 series, Galaxy Watch 5 series, and Galaxy Watch FE to Wear OS 5 in recent days and weeks.
- The updates, beginning abroad, will eventually come to the US and North America at a later date.
Samsung is reaching the final stage of its lengthy One UI 6 Watch rollout, which brings Wear OS 5 to all the company’s Wear OS smartwatches. As of today, users in Korea started seeing the One UI 6 Watch update become available for the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, according to a post on Samsung’s community forums. The update is currently available for only the Bluetooth models of the Galaxy Watch 4 series, and only in Korea — for now.
The company launched One UI 6 Watch alongside the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 7, released in July. It made its way to the Galaxy Watch 6 series late last month. Just yesterday, Dec. 3, Samsung brought the Wear OS 5 upgrade to the Galaxy Watch 5 series and the Galaxy Watch FE.
That means all of Samsung’s Wear OS watches, from the oldest Galaxy Watch 4 to the cheapest Galaxy Watch FE, are beginning to get the boost to One UI 6 Watch. As is typically the case, Bluetooth models of the Galaxy Watch will receive the upgrade in a few regions to start. Then, over the coming days and weeks, LTE-equipped models will become eligible to upgrade, and it’ll arrive in more regions. North American units are often towards the end of the line when it comes to receiving One UI 6 Watch upgrades.
A core part of the One UI 6 Watch update are health-related feature additions. Samsung is banking on the combination of Samsung Health and Galaxy AI, aiming to use it to help wearers improve their fitness and health. Energy Score is like Samsung’s rendition of Garmin’s Body Battery, and Sleep Analysis aims to let you know how well you slept. These features were exclusive to newer Galaxy Watch models at first, but are making their way to older ones now.
Samsung initially promised up to four years of software updates for the Galaxy Watch 4, which isn’t much of a concrete guarantee. However, it appears that old smartwatch may be nearing the end of its software support. Wear OS 5.1 looks like a minor update, based on Android 15, so the chances of the Galaxy Watch 4 making it to the eventual Wear OS 6 are slim.
Still, the first-generation of any product line typically receives poor software support, but that hasn’t been the case with the Galaxy Watch 4 (which is a first-gen product in the sense that it was Samsung’s first Wear OS watch). It’s had a great run with software upgrades, starting with Wear OS 3 and now supporting Wear OS 5.
