Late last month, Samsung announced One UI 6 Watch, its next skin on top of Google’s Wear OS. At the time, the company only said that the update would be available for the Galaxy Watch4 and subsequent Samsung smartwatch models “later this year.”
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. Unfortunately, the beta won’t be available in any other countries. One UI 6 Watch is expected to be pre-loaded on the Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, which should become official at Samsung’s next Unpacked event in early July.
Owners of both the Galaxy Watch6 and Galaxy Watch6 Classic in the US and Korea can enroll their devices in the beta via the Samsung Members app. Initial availability appears to be limited to the Bluetooth versions of the watches, but LTE-enabled models are also expected to get the feature in the near future.
The beta will also be rolled out to the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch5 soon. According to the changelog, Samsung Health has a new Energy Score that shows your level of physical and mental readiness 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 pressing your thumb and index finger together twice – this works for answering calls, turning off alarms, scrolling through notifications, controlling music, taking photos, and more. Buttons that can be controlled with the Double Pinch will show a finger icon to let you know.
Horizontal scrolling is now faster, tapping the bottom of the watch face will show a list of ongoing activities (phone calls, exercise, music playback), and buttons for quick actions (answer a phone call, turn off an alarm) will automatically come into focus for you. If you twist your wrist back and forth you can go to the previous screen without touching it, and Modes can control most of your watch’s settings based on what you’re doing or where you are.
You can choose which apps can 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 so your battery lasts longer. The One UI 6 watch also has a new default font, and when you start playing music on your watch, your Bluetooth headphones or speakers will automatically connect for playback. Only if there is no Bluetooth audio device available to connect will the watch try to play through its speakers (if your music app supports it).
