Most Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 protection has centered on the way it compares to the Watch 5 by way of {hardware}, battery life, and so forth. Most opinions (together with my very own) did not contact on software program a lot as a result of not too many new Wear OS options arrived with the watch.You’ll have to attend till the Pixel Watch 2 for promised new options like Gmail and Google Calendar apps, as the ultimate “stock” model of Wear OS 4 will not launch till fall. For now, long-time Galaxy Watch customers know what to anticipate.Still, for brand new Galaxy Watch 6 house owners who have not spent a lot time with Wear OS or Samsung’s One UI Watch spin-off, understanding the place to start out could be intimidating. You get beneficial a couple of apps throughout the set-up course of, are guided by way of primary button presses and shortcuts…and you then’re by yourself. Our Galaxy Watch 6 suggestions and methods will enable you to begin your Wear OS journey in fashion. From watch faces to Water Locking, our newbie’s information will take you thru all of the important settings everybody will need to know, plus hidden methods for courageous Watch 6 house owners able to dive into the developer instruments. Change your watch face (and import new ones)(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)Before we get to the extra sensible Galaxy Watch 6 suggestions and methods, let’s begin by making your smartwatch really feel correctly like your individual personalised system. The Galaxy Watch 6 has a couple of dozen premade watch faces obtainable, even earlier than you strive downloading third-party apps like Facer that develop your choices. You can persist with the default, colourful watch face displaying the time and nothing else, however you would be remiss to not see what else is on the market first.Open the Galaxy Wearable app in your Android cellphone, sync your Galaxy Watch 6, and faucet Watch faces. Select any watch face that appears fascinating, and it will be added to your Favorites. From there, you possibly can choose Customize and alter the Background, Clock font, Complications/ Complication Colors, Photo, Layout, and extra, relying on the kind of watch face.Complications, if you do not know, are the person information fields that seem on extra detailed watch faces. Certain faces have room for big widgets like your Daily Activity, Last Workout outcomes, Sleep Coaching information, Weather forecast, and so forth. Otherwise, for smaller fields — that are extra frequent — you possibly can add shortcut buttons to particular apps, exercise actions, favourite contacts, routines, and so forth. Or, you possibly can see particular information fields from Samsung Health or third-party apps like MyFitnessPal, equivalent to steps or energy.Aside from simply discovering and customizing a watch face that appeals to you, I particularly advocate discovering Photo Sticker below Graphical, or Photos below Basic. With these, you possibly can set a favourite picture of a liked one or pet as your background, with information beneath the picture. At the underside of the Watch Faces view, you possibly can obtain supported watch face apps to develop your choices. Adjust the display screen timeout interval(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)To save on battery life, your Galaxy Watch 6 will deactivate the show in a measly 15 seconds of inactivity; 5 seconds after that, it will ship you again to the primary display screen. A brief interval of inattention will imply having to re-enter your PIN — which you want in case you allow Google Pay — after which swipe again to whichever Tile or menu you had been at earlier than.Open Settings > Display. Here, you possibly can activate Adaptive brightness or the Always On Display if you need, plus ensure that elevating your wrist or touching the display screen prompts the watch. You may even change the font kind, dimension, and boldness in case you’re visually impaired. While all of these choices are essential, I’d say your first transfer needs to be to vary the Screen timeout to at least one minute and Show final app setting to inside two minutes or one hour. This ensures {that a} second’s inattention would not ship you flying again to start out and spares you from having to continually twist your wrist or faucet the display screen. It’ll make the battery life barely shorter, however your expertise utilizing the Galaxy Watch 6 will probably be a lot much less painful.Activate your well being monitoring(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)By default, all the Galaxy Watch 6 well being sensors do not do all that a lot, solely checking once you manually activate them. You should activate them your self — together with one device you possibly can solely use in case you personal a Galaxy smartphone. First, open the Samsung Health app in your watch. You’ll discover it by scrolling to the app drawer, the place you may see an icon of a girl operating. Scroll right down to the underside of Samsung Health and faucet Settings.Here, you need to modify Heart charge to Measure constantly moderately than Manual solely; even when it drains battery life, it is price having this energetic. You also can modify your coronary heart charge alert settings, deciding how excessive of a coronary heart charge is just too excessive or low. You also can constantly measure Stress ranges if you wish to get notified that your coronary heart charge variance (HRV) exhibits an excessive amount of stress throughout your day. Otherwise, you may need to toggle on Blood oxygen throughout sleep, Snore detection, and Skin temperature throughout sleep. The latter three will use extra battery throughout sleep detection, however I discovered that it wasn’t truly too unhealthy as long as you’ve gotten 30% left or extra, and you may at all times recharge your watch to that degree in lower than a half-hour.If you need your watch to watch your coronary heart rhythm information, now we have a separate how-to information on the best way to allow this. But to summarize, you may must obtain the Samsung Health Monitor app from the Galaxy Store — therefore why you want a Galaxy cellphone — and approve varied permissions earlier than you can verify passively for AFib points. As a remaining level, except you’ve got been utilizing Samsung Health prior to now, you in all probability have your well being and health information saved with one other app. Check our information on the best way to use Google Health Connect, which may allow you to transfer your new Samsung Health information mechanically to a different app like Google Fit, Fitbit, Oura, MyFitnessPal, and so forth. Ditch Bixby for Google Assistant(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)Considering it took Samsung and Google months to make Google Assistant work on Galaxy Watches — and loads of Wear OS watches nonetheless cannot help Google Assistant — I at all times wish to obtain the brand new assistant immediately, not taking it without any consideration.In the Galaxy Watch 6 Play Store app, seek for Google Assistant and faucet Update. Wait for it to put in on the watch, then faucet Open > Get Started, at which level it will ship you to your linked Android cellphone. You can then faucet Agree if you wish to have your watch at all times listening for a “Hey Google” command each time it’s actively awake; this does burn by way of a variety of watch battery and require Voice Match, nonetheless. Your various is to set your watch up so you possibly can entry Assistant by holding down the top-right button. The Galaxy Watch 6 calls Bixby by default with this shortcut, even in case you make Google Assistant your major assistant. Open the Settings app in your app drawer, then select Advanced options > Customize buttons > Press and maintain to swap to Google Assistant. Until we get the rumored Google Assistant Tile, this shortcut is your best choice for accessing the good assistant with out destroying your battery life with always-listening enabled. Change your button shortcuts(Image credit score: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)This goes hand-in-hand with the final level, however button shortcuts are a good way to entry your favourite apps rapidly, together with Google Assistant.In Settings, discover Advanced options > Customize buttons. Double tapping the Home button opens your final app by default, however you possibly can change this to any put in app that you simply open most regularly. Press and maintain opens Bixby, however you possibly can change this to Google Assistant or the Power off menu in case you choose. Lastly, tapping the Back button takes you to the final display screen you had been on, which I personally like; in case you’d moderately change this to Show latest apps as an alternative, you are able to do so. You cannot program a Back button double-tap, and holding the Back button pulls up Samsung Wallet and cannot be modified to a brand new shortcut. Adjust your Tiles and App Drawer(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)Once I completed establishing the Galaxy Watch 6, I spent essentially the most time both checking Tiles or going to particular apps within the app drawer. To spare your self a variety of pointless sliding of the rotating bezel or swiping downwards, put your favourite apps entrance and heart, and add Tile shortcuts so you do not at all times must open the app to seek out out info. Once you’ve got completed putting in the very best Wear OS apps, go to the Galaxy Wearable app in your cellphone and faucet Apps > Reorder apps. You can then drag all the apps round to your most well-liked order, shifting the much less helpful default apps to the underside. Then simply hit Save, and also you’re all set. (You can technically drag-and-drop apps in your watch, too, however this takes a lot longer on the smaller display screen in comparison with a cellphone display screen.) Apps will also be put into folders, in case you need to throw some extra ineffective apps right into a folder so that they’re taking over much less area on the app drawer.Then, slide your finger alongside the capacitive bezel (or flip the bodily bezel on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic) till you get to the Add Tiles choice. You’ll see each obtainable Tile in your total app library, and may faucet any of them so as to add to your Tile assortment. Once you are carried out including Tiles, return to the Galaxy Wearable app, choose Tiles, and you may simply faucet and drag them into your most well-liked order, placing essentially the most helpful Tiles proper in entrance. You also can do that on the watch itself, nevertheless it’s slower and fewer exact. Add music recordsdata and begin streaming(Image credit score: Android Central)Whether you do not like carrying your cellphone with you throughout exercises otherwise you simply need to have easy accessibility to your playlists at any time, you could need to save music recordsdata to your Galaxy Watch 6. In the Galaxy Wearable app, faucet Watch settings > Manage content material > Add tracks. Assuming that you’ve got music recordsdata saved in your cellphone, you can choose a music, playlist, or album, then faucet Add to observe to make it seem within the watch’s Music app (it is a blue app with a white musical word icon) in your app drawer.If you haven’t any laborious copies of music recordsdata and easily need to use your music subscription service of alternative, you may discover Wear OS apps for Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, SoundCloud, Deezer, and different apps that allow you to obtain songs for offline listening. Just take into account that, by default, the Galaxy Watch 6 makes use of about 9–10GB of storage for pre-downloaded system recordsdata and apps. That solely leaves about 6GB for your entire additional saved information, together with music. So, you might have to be selective about which playlists you save. Turn on Samsung Smart Lock(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)Samsung Smart Lock enables you to hold your Galaxy cellphone unlocked when it detects it is in movement, when it is in trusted geographic places, or (most related to this information) when it detects a trusted system just like the Galaxy Watch 6 close by. On your Samsung cellphone, open your Settings and choose Lock Screen > Smart Lock. Enter your cellphone PIN or sample. You can then faucet Trusted gadgets and add any linked and saved wearable over Bluetooth. Once your Galaxy Watch 6 is a trusted system, your cellphone will stay unlocked for as much as 4 hours as long as your watch stays close by.I’m undecided if I’d truly advocate you do that because it might result in doable safety points. But it is definitely handy, letting your Galaxy Watch 6 function proof that you simply’re you, so you are not continually typing in passcodes. Play with the developer settings(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)There are sure Galaxy Watch 6 options, equivalent to determining the best way to obtain Pixel Watch faces to One UI Watch, which you could solely allow by way of Developer Tools. In Settings, go to the very backside and choose About watch, then Software Information. Tap the Software model button 5 occasions; you may see a “Developer Mode turned on” pop-up. Swipe again two screens, and Developer choices will seem beneath About watch. Tap it, and you will find a full checklist of choices you possibly can’t usually entry. For instance, you possibly can have your watch keep awake whereas charging, vibrate when it connects or disconnects from a community, present your faucets on the display screen, or make transition animations slower or quicker. Those are the less complicated methods, whereas others are extra obscure and require actual developer data. Turn on Water Lock earlier than a bathe or swim(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)The Galaxy Watch 6 has IP68 water resistance, however that does not imply you possibly can efficiently swipe by way of menus underwater or with a moist display screen, simply that it will not break. While swimming, it might register your arm actions as “raise to wake” motions; and a few water might find yourself trapped contained in the watch. Go to Settings > Advanced options > Water lock and switch it on. At that time, you will not have the ability to use the show till you maintain down the Home button for 2 seconds. After that, the watch will start an Eject mode the place it makes use of the built-in audio system to expel trapped water contained in the watch; simply hit the Home button once more when you assume you’ve got efficiently eliminated any water. Run a VO2 Max stress take a look at(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)One of the few new options on the Galaxy Watch 6 is its personalised coronary heart charge zones, that are based mostly in your most coronary heart charge. You can get an estimated vary after a 10-minute GPS-backed Run exercise, however for correct outcomes, you need to do a correct stress take a look at. This Runner’s World information offers easy steering: heat up for a mile or two on a monitor, then run one other mile at “tempo pace” — that means barely slower than 5K race tempo — then run very laborious for 400 meters, and at last dash yet one more lap at your hardest doable tempo. This will undoubtedly enable you to hit your physique’s most coronary heart charge, guaranteeing your future runs have completely correct coronary heart charge zones.So, merely open up Samsung Health, begin a Run exercise at your native monitor, and get to work. Before the exercise begins, click on Settings and change Workout begin from Countdown to Manual; in any other case, the exercise often begins earlier than the GPS sign has picked up, providing you with inaccurate readings. You also can modify your Workout screens to point out totally different information in your wrist throughout a run or activate a Target and provides your self particular period, calorie, distance, or interval objectives to hit. Switch your Galaxy Watch 6 to a brand new cellphone(Image credit score: Michael Hicks / Android Central)One of the latest Wear OS 4 instruments is the power to modify your smartwatch to a model new cellphone with out having to manufacturing facility reset it or depend on backups. Thankfully, it is quite simple. Open your watch Settings and choose General > Transfer watch to a brand new cellphone. It will state that “The Google Account on the watch and new phone must match” and that “If you’re signed in to a Samsung account on the new phone, that account will be used on the watch as well.”You’ll be taken to a Starting switch… display screen displaying a four-digit code; in your new cellphone, you may must both open your Bluetooth settings to detect it or (on a Samsung cellphone) use the Galaxy Wearable app to seek out it immediately. At that time, you may undergo the very same rigamarole as the primary time you arrange the Watch 6, granting permissions and downloading data till the watch is prepared. But most of your core settings and information ought to have remained intact throughout the switch. Hopefully, our Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 suggestions and methods have you ever heading in the right direction in getting essentially the most out of probably the greatest Android smartwatches available on the market. We could not cowl every thing on this Galaxy Watch 6 newbie’s information; I counsel you merely take an hour to scroll by way of each single Settings menu and familiarize your self with the choices obtainable. You’d be shocked at what primary options have to be manually turned on, equivalent to Wi-Fi within the fast settings menu.If you have not purchased a Galaxy Watch 6 simply but and need to see the way it compares to different choices, you possibly can try our information on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic vs. Galaxy Watch 5 Pro or the Watch 6 vs. Apple Watch Series 8.
The Galaxy Watch 6 follows the Watch 5 method however boosts the show dimension and brightness and provides an honest efficiency acquire, too. The base mannequin is compact and nice for sleep monitoring, whereas the bigger Galaxy Watch 6 Classic offers you trendy stainless-steel and the welcome return of the rotating bezel from the 4 Classic.