Samsung’s Galaxy Watch line is getting a handful of sleep, health and wellness updates, hinting that the tech large will proceed to lean into well being as the principle focus for its future smartwatches. The One UI 5 Watch replace will arrive on Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watches later this 12 months. Present Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 house owners within the US and Korea can register for the replace’s beta program this month.
The give attention to sleep, well being and wellness upholds a pattern that is been current all through the wearables {industry} for a number of years however turned notably distinguished all through 2022 and 2023. Each Apple and Samsung’s newest smartwatches gained temperature sensors in 2022, and sensible ring maker Oura simply introduced a set of recent sleep-related options. Google’s Fitbit added the power to repeatedly monitor for potential indicators of stress on its Sense 2 smartwatch final 12 months too.
Samsung’s new software program will show the sleep rating extra prominently on the watch’s sleep insights display and can make sleep teaching out there on the wrist. Sleep teaching measures a wearer’s sleep developments and assigns an animal mascot based mostly on the ensuing patterns. Till the replace arrives, this function is accessible solely by a consumer’s telephone.
The change is a part of Samsung’s aim to floor sleep information extra simply, mentioned Hon Pak, head of the digital well being workforce for Samsung’s cellular expertise business.
“Our customers are telling us that it’s now not enough to inform them what the information says,” Pak mentioned. “They need assist and insights which might be actionable.”
Samsung’s upcoming One UI 5 Watch replace will carry adjustments to the way in which the watch shows sleep information.
On the subject of the place sleep monitoring goes sooner or later, Pak sees potential in studying extra about how components like exercise and stress are impacting an individual’s nightly relaxation and basic well-being. He talked about that Samsung is engaged on some measures round coronary heart fee variability and stress that it isn’t prepared to debate but.
“We expect that step one is bringing consciousness to the interdependencies in a method that is simple to see,” he mentioned.
Battery life can also be an industry-wide hurdle that limits the usage of smartwatches as sleep trackers. Gadgets just like the Galaxy Watch 5, Apple Watch Sequence 8 and Google Pixel Watch often final just one to 2 days on a cost, making it troublesome to trace sleep persistently. Bettering battery life in smartwatches will likely be particularly vital as wearables repeatedly measure extra well being metrics within the background, which is a path that Pak mentioned the {industry} will proceed transferring in.
A finger scrolling the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional’s app display.
“Well being represents in all probability a major motive why folks purchase smartwatches,” he mentioned. “And due to that, it additionally drives that demand for extra steady passive monitoring.”
The One UI 5 Watch replace will carry different wellness-related updates too, together with personalised coronary heart fee zones just like these supplied by Fitbit, assist for working and strolling within the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional’s route exercise possibility and fall detection enabled by default for individuals who are 55 years and older.
The growth of Samsung’s route-tracking function is especially useful because the present model of the software works solely throughout mountain climbing and biking exercises. My colleague Lexy Savvides beforehand speculated in her evaluation that assist for walks and runs might are available a future software program replace.
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There may also be updates to Samsung’s SOS function that make it simpler to share location data with emergency companies immediately and entry medical data.
Samsung’s announcement additionally means that among the most helpful new well being options in smartwatches might arrive by software program updates reasonably than recent {hardware}. That message got here throughout in 2022 as Apple launched a slew of recent well being options for the Apple Watch as a part of its WatchOS 9 replace, corresponding to a brand new low energy mode, extra detailed working metrics and extra complete sleep monitoring. Samsung additionally launched new cycle-tracking options powered by the Galaxy Watch 5’s temperature sensor earlier this 12 months.
Including new options like these in One UI 5 Watch — even when they’re seemingly minor — could possibly be vital for Samsung to maintain up with rivals. Apple is reportedly engaged on an Artificial Intelligence-powered well being teaching software that leverages Apple Watch information, in line with Bloomberg, additional signaling that the wearable well being tech house is about to get extra aggressive. Samsung historically releases new Galaxy Watches in August, which is probably going once we’ll be taught extra concerning the software program replace and Samsung’s upcoming wearables.
