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10 must-try Samsung smartwatch tips and tricks
Are you in the market for a new smartwatch? There are so many options out there that it can be tough to figure out what each one offers.
You have a wide array of choices, from Apple Watch to Samsung Galaxy to Fitbit’s range of smartwatches. One of these options, the Samsung Galaxy smartwatch, offers some cool features that you may not know about. Need help choosing? Tap or click here for the five best smartwatches on the market.
While you may be familiar with some features that come with the Samsung Galaxy smartwatch, there’s a lot more to this tech than what meets the eye. It has a ton of cool tricks up its sleeve. Here’s are 10 Samsung smartwatch tips and tricks you need to know.
1. Picking a new watch face
You have complete control over the watch face on your Samsung Galaxy smartwatch. You can change your watch face to whatever fits your needs — and then switch it back when you want to.
Samsung offers a ton of different faces that are already preloaded onto your watch. More options can be found inside its Galaxy Wearable companion app. The customizable features include adding widgets and changing the background color on your smartwatch face.
You can download and customize your watch face one of two ways: directly from your wrist or with the Galaxy Wearable app.
To change the watch face using the Galaxy Wearable app:
- From the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone, tap the Discover tab.
- To open the Galaxy store, tap View more on the Recommended watch faces card.
- From here, you can browse for watch faces.
- When you find the watch face you want, tap My watch faces > Customize to change the available features like the background color, or add widgets to appear on the watch face.
To change the watch face using your Samsung smartwatch:
- To download directly from the watch, touch and hold the watch face to enter edit mode.
- Swipe left to and tap Galaxy Store, and then tap Watch faces.
- Select your desired watch face, and then tap Install.
2. Tracking your sleep
Getting a good night’s rest is imperative if you’re trying to keep your body in good health. The easiest way to know what your sleeping habits are is to track them with your smartwatch.
Not all smartwatches offer this feature, but Samsung smartwatches do. The sleep tracking feature is part of the Samsung Health app. You’ll not only get insight into how well you’re sleeping, but you’ll also get tips and other information on getting better sleep.
To use the sleep tracking feature in Samsung Health:
- Download the Samsung Health app on your smartwatch.
- Open the Samsung Health app.
- Scroll down and tap Sleep.
- Open Record REM Sleep and toggle the option to On.
- Wear your smartwatch while sleeping to get insight into your sleeping habits.
Related: 5 health apps you never knew existed
3. Mute calls by shaking your wrist
There’s nothing more embarrassing than a phone ringing during an important meeting. If you’re wearing a Samsung smartwatch, you can actually mute calls quickly and easily to cut down on interruptions.
If your phone starts ringing and you want to mute it, all you need to do is shake the wrist with your Samsung smartwatch on it. This works for muting alarms, too — but you may not want to use that trick if you’re tracking your sleep with your smartwatch. You could end up muting your alarm and oversleeping.
4. Safety: Setting up “Send SOS requests” and fall detection
There are useful features that your Samsung Galaxy watch offers, including “Send SOS requests” and fall detection. Both of these features can be useful in a ton of situations, whether you’re injured on a run or require assistance due to a fall or car troubles. These features are also handy when it’s not safe to use your phone to summon help.
Your SOS requests and fall detection alerts will be set up to go to the people you designate as recipients. Make sure you keep these phone numbers updated so that you’re sure the emergency contacts are correct when you need them.
To set up your Send SOS requests:
- On your phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app.
- Swipe to and tap SOS, and then tap the switch next to SOSes.
- Review and then agree to the Terms and conditions.
- Next, you’ll be asked to add an emergency contact. You can tap either Create contact or Select from contacts, and then add or create your desired contact.
To call for help using SOS requests:
- To send SOS requests in an emergency, press the Home key on the smartwatch quickly three times.
- Your emergency contacts will receive SOS messages containing information about your current location and how to track you for up to an hour.
To set up fall detection:
- Launch the Galaxy Wearable app
- Tap SOS
- Toggle on Detect Falls
- Tap Create contact or Select from contacts
- Choose an emergency contact
After a fall, your watch will alert you for 60 seconds with a popup, sound and vibration. You can cancel the alert or swipe to send SOSes right away. If you don’t respond for 60 seconds, an SOS message will be sent to your Emergency Contacts.
5. Samsung Pay
Contactless pay is useful during normal times, but it’s especially useful right now. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic, and it’s important to limit contact with public spaces as much as possible. This includes POS systems at grocery stores or restaurants.
If you’re using Samsung Pay on your Samsung smartwatch, you won’t have to touch anything to pay for what you need. You can touch your watch to the payment terminal and be on your way.
You can add credit cards, gift cards and other payment methods to Samsung Pay. Once those are added, it’s simple to make contactless payments.
To pay in store via Samsung Pay:
- Open Samsung Pay on your phone.
- Tap Pay and select your preferred card.
- Tap PIN or IRIS, and enter the required security information. Or, if you have fingerprint security set up, place your finger on your phone’s fingerprint scanner.
- Next, hold the phone’s back up to the contactless reader and perform your desired actions to complete your purchase.
6. Quick Responses
If you want to quickly reply to a message but don’t have your phone in hand, you can use Quick Responses on your Galaxy smartwatch. These responses appear at the bottom of incoming messages when you open them on your watch. You can even customize the Quick Responses to make them fit your style.
To use Quick Responses on your Samsung smartwatch:
- On your watch, swipe right on the notification panel and then tap a message to view it.
- To select a response, swipe up or down and then tap a Quick response.
- Then, tap the arrow to send it.
You can also add and delete Quick responses. To do this:
- Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone and tap Quick responses.
- Tap the plus icon, enter your response and tap Save.
- To delete your response, tap More options (the three vertical dots) on the app’s home screen, tap Edit, and tap the response you’d like to remove.
- Tap Delete.
Related: Top security settings for Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy and Fitbit
7. Reorder apps (similar to organizing apps on a Galaxy smartphone)
Nobody wants a cluttered watch screen. You can reorder the apps on your Galaxy smartwatch to make them easier to find and navigate. If you want to move an app that you regularly use to the top of the list, you can do that by reordering them. Or, if you want to move a rarely-used app to the bottom, you can do that, too.
To reorder the apps on your Samsung smartwatch:
- On your phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app and tap the Home tab.
- Swipe to and tap Apps > Reorder.
- To move an app, tap and hold the app icon, and then drag the app to a new location on the list.
- When you are finished, tap Save.
- Note: To move an app on your watch Apps screen, tap and hold the app you want to move, drag the app to the desired location and release.
8. See your Google feed
Want to look over your Google feed but don’t want to pull out your phone? You can do that easily from your Samsung smartwatch. This will show you information on your Google calendar, any pending deliveries, news and sports stories, weather updates and any other Google-related info you need.
To check out your Google feed on your Samsung smartwatch, all you need to do is swipe right from the main watch face. This will pull up your feed and give you the information you’re looking for.
9. Scribble letters with your fingers that turn into words
Texting or writing notes with the tiny keyboard on your Samsung smartwatch can be more trouble than it’s worth. Luckily, you have another option: you can use your finger to draw letters and turn them into words instead. This is simple to do directly from your watch face.
To draw letters and turn them into text:
- Start a text on your watch face.
- You should see three options: a microphone, an emoji and a text input button.
- Tap the text input button to change it to drawing.
- Note: You can also turn the bezel clockwise to switch options.
- Draw the letter you want and it will appear at the top of the screen. Note: You can only draw one letter at a time.
10. Simplify things by switching to “Watch only” mode
If your watch is low on battery power or just want to cut down on alerts you’re getting on your Samsung smartwatch, you can switch to Watch Only mode. This will help preserve battery power and turn off the smart features on your watch temporarily. Here’s how:
- Swipe down on your Quick Settings panel and tap Battery Management.
- Tap on Power mode.
- Choose your preferred Power mode. You will be able to select between Standard, Power saving or Watch only.
Tags: Apple, Apple Watch, battery/batteries, Fitbit, Galaxy, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Pay, Sleep tracking, smartwatch
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