Towards the end of last month, Samsung announced One UI 6 Watch, the next iteration of its skin atop Google’s Wear OS. At that time, the company only said the update would become available “later this year” to the Galaxy Watch4 and later Samsung smartwatch models.
Now, Samsung has released the first public beta build of One UI 6 Watch for the Galaxy Watch6 and Galaxy Watch6 Classic, in both the US and Korea. The beta won’t be available in any other countries, unfortunately. One UI 6 Watch is expected to be pre-loaded onto the Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, which should become official in early July at Samsung’s next Unpacked event.
Owners of both the Galaxy Watch6 and the Galaxy Watch6 Classic in the US and Korea are able to enroll their devices into the beta via the Samsung Members app. Initial availability seems limited to the Bluetooth version of the watches, but the LTE-capable models are going to get access as well in the near future.
The beta will also make its way to the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch5 in due course. According to the changelog, Samsung Health has a new energy score which shows physical and mental readiness levels based on your sleep and physical activity. There’s also a more detailed sleep analysis, with AI-powered insights and a comprehensive sleep report that includes heart rate, respiratory rate, and how long it takes you to fall asleep after you lie down.
You can combine a series of different exercises into a custom workout routine. With double pinch, quick actions are available by pinching your thumb and index finger together twice – this works for answering calls, turning off alarms, scrolling through notifications, controlling music, taking pictures, and more. Buttons that can be controlled with a double pinch will show a finger icon to let you know.
Horizontal scrolling is now faster, tapping the bottom of a watch face will show a list of ongoing activities (phone calls, exercises, music playback), and the button for a quick action (answering a phone call, turning off an alarm) will be automatically focused for you. If you move your wrist back and forth you can go to the previous screen without touching it, and Modes can control more of your watch’s settings based on what you’re doing or where you are.
You can choose which apps are allowed to send you notifications directly on the watch, set emojis as favorites for quick access, save image attachments from messages, and limit health features when Power saving is on to make your battery last even longer. One UI 6 Watch also has a new default font, and when you start playing music on your watch, your Bluetooth headphones or speaker will automatically connect for playback. Only if no Bluetooth audio devices are available to connect will the watch attempt to play through its speaker (if your music app supports this).
