The Galaxy Watch is Samsung‘s best offering yet. Be its nifty rotating bezel or the strong battery life, the watch is impressive in a lot of aspects. And as smartwatches usually do, it also boasts some really cool features that make our everyday life a lot easier and in a sense, prettier.
So if you’ve just bought a new Samsung Galaxy Watch, or are planning to buy one this holiday season, here are some nifty tips and tricks to get the most out of it.
Stylize your watch face
One of the best things about a smartwatch is that you can keep a watch face that matches with your outfit. All you’ve to do is long press on your current watch face and swipe left or right. Now select a watch face of your choice and press the Customize option. You can do so through the Galaxy Wearable app on your smartphone as well. If you want more watch faces, you can download them from the Galaxy Apps store.
Turn on Always-on mode
By default, the Galaxy Watch screen turns off after a few seconds, but you can set it to stay on all the time. Just go to Settings > Display > Watch always on and toggle the switch on. This will keep the screen always lit and you won’t have to wake up the device every time you need to look at it.
Turn on power saving mode
The Galaxy Watch does boast a strong battery life, and you can stretch it for an even longer use with power saving mode. Once again, go to Settings and head down to Battery from there. Now look for Power Saving mode and enable it (when needed). You’ll also see an estimate of how long the watch will survive in that mode, as well as an outline of how it effects the watch’s usability.
Reorder your apps and widgets
The Galaxy Watch offers a handsome repertoire of apps, but you may not use all of them frequently. So why not order them as per your liking. To reorder the app list, press the Home key once to go to the recent apps and then long-press the screen until it says Edit mode. Now drag and drop the apps to your preferred order.
You can reorder the apps through the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone as well. Go to Settings > Apps and then tap on the three-dot menu and select Reorder. Similarly, you can reorder the widgets by going to Settings > Widgets.
Customize the Home button
The Galaxy Watch Home button opens up Bixby by default. But unlike the Bixby key in Samsung flagship smartphones, which cannot be remapped, you can use the button to trigger something else. The option to remap the button is available under advanced settings of the Galaxy Wearable app.
Turn on water lock mode
The Galaxy Watch is waterproof and you can wear it into the swimming pool or your morning shower. However, your watch may encounter plenty of false interactions because of water splashing on the screen. But hey, no need to worry. Head to Settings > Advanced and toggle on the Water lock mode. Now your watch won’t wake up with water touches.
Enable Screen Capture
We often take screenshots on our phone, but not really on smartwatches. However, enabling screenshots feature on your Galaxy Watch may come handy at times. You can do so by going to Settings > Advanced and toggling Screen Capture on.
To take screenshots, press the Back button and the Home button simultaneously, and swipe the screen from left to right. The captured image will be available in gallery.
Customize notifications
Smartwatches are meant to mirror notifications from your phone on your wrist, but not all of them for sure. You certainly don’t want your watch to vibrate at every notification your phone receives. To help your cause, the Galaxy Watch lets you customize notification settings such that you receive only priority ones. Go to Settings > Notifications > Manage notifications and set your preference.
Restart the Galaxy Watch
Now this may sound a bit weird, but it pretty much works with every mobile gadget. If your Galaxy Watch is acting up, and you can’t remember tweaking any settings, the first thing you should do is restart it. Simply hold onto the power button for roughly seven seconds and your device may start behaving normal.
Turn on Goodnight mode
With Goodnight mode on, your Galaxy Watch will be able to prevent disturbances when it recognizes you’re asleep. It mutes all alerts, except alarm, and system sounds, as well as turns off the always-on screen and the wake-up gesture. This also makes sure that the watch tracks your sleep cycle more precisely. You can find the Goodnight mode under the Advanced section of Settings menu in the Galaxy Wearable app.
Toggle the screen sensitivity
Want to interact with the watch with hand gloves on during those icy winter months? Toggle the screen sensitivity of your Galaxy Watch. Go to Settings > Advanced > and turn Touch sensitivity on to make the screen a lot more responsive. Granted, things can get a bit sensitive when you’re glove-less, but turning it off shouldn’t be a hassle either.
Pair your Bluetooth headphones
With Spotify and Tidal on the Galaxy Watch, you can listen to music on the go. The watch also has the ability to store offline music. But to take advantage of this, you need to pair a Bluetooth headphone with the watch. All you need to do is go to Settings > Connections > Bluetooth > BT headset. Now scan for nearby Bluetooth devices and connect.
