Samsung Teases New Sleep and Health Features for Upcoming Galaxy Watches

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch line is getting a handful of sleep, health and wellness updates, hinting that the tech large will proceed to lean into well being as the principle focus for its future smartwatches. The One UI 5 Watch replace will arrive on Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watches later this yr. Current Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 house owners within the US and Korea can register for the replace’s beta program this month.

The deal with sleep, well being and wellness upholds a development that is been current all through the wearables {industry} for a number of years however grew to become notably distinguished all through 2022 and 2023. Both Apple and Samsung’s newest smartwatches gained temperature sensors in 2022, and sensible ring maker Oura simply introduced a collection of recent sleep-related options. Google’s Fitbit added the flexibility to repeatedly monitor for potential indicators of stress on its Sense 2 smartwatch final yr too. 

Samsung’s new software program will show the sleep rating extra prominently on the watch’s sleep insights display and can make sleep teaching accessible on the wrist. Sleep teaching measures a wearer’s sleep traits and assigns an animal mascot primarily based on the ensuing patterns. Until the replace arrives, this function is accessible solely via a person’s cellphone. 

The change is a part of Samsung’s objective to floor sleep information extra simply, mentioned Hon Pak, head of the digital well being workforce for Samsung’s cellular expertise enterprise.

“Our customers are telling us that it’s now not enough to inform them what the info says,” Pak mentioned. “They need assist and insights which can be actionable.”

When it involves the place sleep monitoring goes sooner or later, Pak sees potential in studying extra about how components like exercise and stress are impacting an individual’s nightly relaxation and normal well-being. He talked about that Samsung is engaged on some measures round coronary heart price variability and stress that it isn’t prepared to debate but.

“We suppose that step one is bringing consciousness to the interdependencies in a approach that is straightforward to see,” he mentioned.

Battery life can also be an industry-wide hurdle that limits using smartwatches as sleep trackers. Devices just like the Galaxy Watch 5, Apple Watch Series 8 and Google Pixel Watch often final just one to 2 days on a cost, making it troublesome to trace sleep constantly. Improving battery life in smartwatches might be particularly vital as wearables repeatedly measure extra well being metrics within the background, which is a course that Pak mentioned the {industry} will proceed transferring in.  

“Health represents in all probability a major cause why folks purchase smartwatches,” he mentioned. “And due to that, it additionally drives that demand for extra steady passive monitoring.”

The One UI 5 Watch replace will deliver different wellness-related updates too, together with customized coronary heart price zones much like these supplied by Fitbit, help for operating and strolling within the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro’s route exercise possibility and fall detection enabled by default for many who are 55 years and older. 

The enlargement of Samsung’s route-tracking function is especially useful because the present model of the instrument works solely throughout mountaineering and biking exercises. My colleague Lexy Savvides beforehand speculated in her evaluate that help for walks and runs may are available a future software program replace. 

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There may even be updates to Samsung’s SOS function that make it simpler to share location data with emergency providers immediately and entry medical data.

Samsung’s announcement additionally means that a number of the most helpful new well being options in smartwatches could arrive via software program updates quite than contemporary {hardware}. That message got here throughout in 2022 as Apple launched a slew of recent well being options for the Apple Watch as a part of its WatchOS 9 replace, akin to a brand new low energy mode, extra detailed operating metrics and extra complete sleep monitoring. Samsung additionally launched new cycle-tracking options powered by the Galaxy Watch 5’s temperature sensor earlier this yr. 

Adding new options like these in One UI 5 Watch — even when they’re seemingly minor — might be important for Samsung to maintain up with rivals. Apple is reportedly engaged on a synthetic intelligence-powered well being teaching instrument that leverages Apple Watch information, in keeping with Bloomberg, additional signaling that the wearable well being tech area is about to get extra aggressive. Samsung historically releases new Galaxy Watches in August, which is probably going after we’ll be taught extra in regards to the software program replace and Samsung’s upcoming wearables.