Samsung’s older Galaxy Watches get handy update too

Samsung has just announced that the stable One UI 4 update is now being pushed out to the Galaxy S21 series. But it also has a surprise for owners of Tizen-based Galaxy Watches, including the original Galaxy Watch.

The company announced a software update that brings a few health and personalization features to the Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active, Galaxy Watch Active 2, and Galaxy Watch 3. Although it must be said that not all features are coming to the original watch.

For starters, more advanced fall detection functionality is coming to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 and Galaxy Watch 3. More specifically, you can now choose to increase the sensitivity for fall detection, even letting you detect a fall when you’re standing still. Either way, an SOS alert will be sent to pre-defined contacts.

Samsung is also bringing an updated Group Challenge feature to the watches:

“With the new update, you can now add your friends or family members to a Challenge, battling it out to see who can go the furthest or the fastest, either working as a team or competing against each other individually.”

Finally, the Korean manufacturer says it’s bringing 10 more watch faces to the table, with these first launching on the Galaxy Watch 4. You can check them out below.

Samsung didn’t clarify whether all watches would be receiving the new faces and updated Group Challenge functionality or just some of them. We’ve asked company representatives to clarify supported watches and will update the article if/when we hear more. Either way, we hope Samsung continues to support its Tizen-based watches with meaningful updates now that it’s embraced Wear OS 3.0.