Your Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra has arrived, and now you are questioning whether or not you made the best name shopping for a $650 smartwatch? It’s too late for purchaser’s regret, so step one is to personalize your Ultra in order that it is as helpful and individualized to your wants as doable.
Having reviewed the Galaxy Watch Ultra and a number of other different Samsung watches, I’m acquainted sufficient with its One UI Watch spin on Wear OS to level you in the direction of each software program function, new or previous, that requires you to dive into settings earlier than you entry them. Here are my Galaxy Watch Ultra suggestions and methods for getting began!
Note: Whenever I say “Settings” beneath, I imply the Galaxy Watch Ultra settings discovered while you swipe down from the primary watch face, except I say in any other case.
Change your default assistant, apps, and shortcuts
If you are a fan of Samsung’s apps like Bixby and Samsung Wallet, then skip to the subsequent part. But for everybody who prefers Google’s apps, Samsung allows you to change them in as your default choices. But you may must obtain lots of them from the Play Store first, and never all of them will be activated in the identical place.
To change your default apps, go to Settings > Apps > Choose default apps. Here’s the place you can also make Google Assistant and Google Messages your default choices. Then, again in Settings, open Buttons and Gestures and, underneath Home button, choose Press and maintain and select Assistant as a substitute of Bixby.
Unfortunately, Samsung refuses to allow you to remap the long-press again button shortcut from Samsung Wallet to Google Wallet (or anything). But on this similar menu, you can also make the Double Press shortcut go to any app, together with Google Wallet.
While you are on this Settings menu, you possibly can change what the Quick Button does; it defaults to Samsung Health exercises, however you possibly can select the Stopwatch, Flashlight, or Water lock instruments as a substitute, or default to a particular exercise kind.
Lastly, if you wish to use Gboard as a substitute of Samsung Keyboard, obtain Gboard from the Play Store, then go to Settings > General > Input > Keyboard checklist and default > Default keyboard and select Gboard.
Turn on gestures
Samsung has three gesture controls in the identical Buttons and gestures menu, all disabled by default. Samsung does not level these out in the course of the preliminary buttons-and-functions tour, so that you may by no means understand they’re there except you go searching.
Double pinch allows you to “reply calls, dismiss alerts, launch apps, management your music, and take images.” Shake to dismiss has you rotate your wrist twice to “decline incoming calls or dismiss alerts equivalent to alarms, timers, and reminders.” Knock knock has you bend your wrist down twice to drag up whichever app you need.
You can flip every on or off individually, so you may must determine in the event that they’re worthwhile to you. Our Galaxy Watch 7 reviewer praised these shortcuts, even whereas saying they solely work about 70% of the time. It is smart to attempt them for your self and see if (A) you could have points with false positives and (B) you discover it simpler than counting on the buttons. Personally, I like “Knock knock” probably the most, just because I like having extra shortcuts to my favourite apps as a substitute of getting to look within the app drawer.
Set up Emergency SOS and Fall Detection
In an emergency, you possibly can press and maintain the Quick Button to set off a loud siren, to assist anybody close by discover you. But in the event you’re someplace remoted and must name for assist, you possibly can faucet the Home button 5 instances to name 911 out of your watch, in addition to ship your location and an SOS message to your emergency contacts. And your watch can auto-call 911 if it detects you falling.
Some of those options must be arrange prematurely, nonetheless! Open your cell Galaxy Wearable app with the Ultra synced and observe these steps:
1. Tap Watch settings > Safety and emergency.
2. Under Medical data, fill out your Name, Medical situations, blood kind, allergy symptoms, medicines, organ donor standing, and different data.
3. Back in Safety and emergency, faucet Emergency contacts > Add emergency contact and select whoever you’d need notified in an emergency out of your telephone Contacts. Then toggle Share throughout emergency calls and texts to make sure emergency response receives your medical data and emergency contact data.
4. Next, faucet Emergency SOS. Change your Emergency quantity to name if needed (mine mentioned 112 as a substitute of 911) and determine whether or not you need to toggle require swipe to name to forestall unintended 911 calls, or to Share data with emergency contacts to concurrently ship your data out as you name 911.
5. Finally, toggle Hard fall detection on. With this perform, your watch will detect in the event you’ve instantly stopped transferring and name 911 in the event you’re not acutely aware or in a position to answer the on-wrist alert.
Limit your notifications
I solely need sure notifications popping up on my wrist; I can test much less vital ones later, and when sure apps buzz your wrist consistently, it turns into extra aggravating than useful.
In the Galaxy Wearable cell app, faucet Watch settings > Notifications > App notifications. Here, you will notice a full checklist of put in apps and may individually toggle off apps you do not care to see.
By default, Sync Do not disturb with telephone is toggled on, which suggests you need not fear about getting notifications at evening. I additionally like to enter Advanced notification settings and toggle on Turn on display screen. This implies that I need not twist my wrist each time I really feel a notification buzz; when I’m working at my desk, I like having the ability to look at my wrist with out having to maneuver it.
Update your watch face
The cool factor in regards to the Galaxy Watch Ultra is how its 3,000-nit show can squeeze in a ton of readable data and has some new, sporty watch faces by default. That mentioned, it’s best to positively take the time to replace them with extra helpful data and your private aptitude.
You can edit watch faces on the Ultra immediately, but it surely’s a lot simpler to take action within the Galaxy Wearable app underneath Watch faces. There you possibly can select between all the default One UI 6 Watch choices or go downloading from the Play Store. Unfortunately, as a result of Wear OS 5 makes use of a brand new XML Watch Face Format, it is incompatible with the favored watch face app Facer.
Still, you may discover loads of customization choices in the primary Wearable app. With the brand new Ultra Analog watch face, as an example, you possibly can edit the colour, model, palms, evening mode look, and all eight problems, so you possibly can see all method of various information primarily based on what you care about. Simply choose every standards, change what you need, then hit Save and it will instantly auto-update to the Ultra.
I wish to pre-customize and complicate a couple of completely different watch faces suddenly. Then, if I’m within the temper for a method change, I can simply faucet and maintain the primary display screen after which swap to considered one of my backups whereas conserving the identical information I care about.
Adjust your show and timeout settings
The Galaxy Watch Ultra lasts lengthy sufficient that I like to make use of the Always-On Display (AOD) setting, make my display screen timeout delay longer, and preserve apps open and operating within the background in case my watch show turns off by mistake.
Swipe down from the primary watch face and faucet the Settings cog icon, then choose Display. Here, you possibly can (and will) allow Adaptive brightness for apparent causes, then determine whether or not to go away AOD on or off.
In this similar menu, I favor to regulate Screen timeout to 1 minute and Show final app to Within 2 minutes, simply to have probably the most flexibility. This will drain your battery a little bit sooner however really feel like an enchancment everytime you do use your Ultra.
You may change the default font on this menu. For the visually impaired, the Gothic Bold font makes all textual content a bit bigger and simpler to learn at a fast look while you’re not sporting your glasses.
Learn the right way to lengthen your battery life
For polar-opposite folks extra involved about making the Galaxy Watch Ultra final so long as doable, let’s run by means of your choices.
First, the plain one: Swipe all the way down to Quick settings and faucet the Battery with leaf icon to insta-trigger Power Saver mode. This turns off the Wake up gesture, AOD, and Wi-Fi, and it “limits” CPU efficiency, background community and placement updates, and display screen brightness whereas shortening your display screen timeout.
By default, Power Saver additionally disables auto-detected exercises, excessive/low HR alerts, steady HR / HRV / stress, and nightly pores and skin temp, SpO2, respiration, and sleep rating. But Samsung appears to know that you simply may need to lower the smarts however preserve the well being information in Power Saver mode; go to Settings > Battery and toggle Limit well being options to Off to retain them. It makes Power Saver much less environment friendly however extra sensible that you simply’d need to use it.
One different battery-saving possibility is so as to add extra Sleeping apps. Essentially, this ensures that sure apps will test for notifications “solely often,” delaying data. It’s kind of a semi-DND for apps you can’t flip off solely however know you do not get many notifications or do not care about seeing them instantly.
Extend Unlock your Samsung telephone
One of my favourite Wear OS options is to maintain my telephone unlocked if it detects my smartwatch close by. Toggling this instrument is easy, as long as you could have a Galaxy telephone.
Open your telephone settings, then Lock display screen and AOD > Extend Unlock. You’ll be prompted to enter your telephone PIN. Then faucet Trusted gadgets > Add trusted machine and select your Galaxy Watch Ultra out of the checklist of related Bluetooth gadgets.
Keep in thoughts that Extend Unlock works even in the event you’re not at present sporting your watch; somebody may theoretically choose up your unattended watch as a key to unlock your telephone. If you are apprehensive about that, you possibly can go into the Modes and Routines settings and make it in order that Extend Unlock solely works at a selected location or time, while you’re much less more likely to take your watch off or depart your telephone unattended.
Add music recordsdata to your watch
The Galaxy Watch Ultra can stream your playlists from well-liked music streaming apps over its built-in LTE connection in the event you add it to your mobile plan, however that is additionally a battery killer, even for a long-lasting watch. A greater possibility is to make use of the doubled cupboard space and pre-install your music playlists, podcasts, or audiobooks onto the Ultra. That approach, you possibly can depart your telephone at house and deal with the Ultra like a real standalone machine.
This information on the right way to add music recordsdata to Galaxy Watches runs by means of the steps in additional element, however to briefly summarize, you open the Galaxy Wearable app in your telephone, faucet Manage content material > Tracks on watch, and add any playlists, albums, or particular songs you need.
Otherwise, in the event you subscribe to a selected music streaming app like Spotify, you possibly can sometimes obtain offline playlists immediately from every respective app. The similar applies to Wear OS apps like Audible (which has you pre-download audiobooks onto the watch) or Wear Casts for podcasts. Then you simply want some Galaxy Buds 3 Pro or different wi-fi earbuds to pair with the Ultra.
On a considerably associated notice, in the event you favor to stream by means of your telephone, it’s possible you’ll need to go to Settings > Advanced options > Auto launch media controls. This makes the controls seem by default after you begin a playlist or video, so that you need not go attempting to find them.
Buy some backup bands
If you preordered your Galaxy Watch Ultra, you bought a second band to go along with whichever you picked. Otherwise, you are caught together with your single Marine, Trail, or Peakform band, every with its explicit perks and drawbacks. Since Samsung fees a whopping $79 for its official bands and the Ultra makes use of a proprietary band connector, you may must search for some third-party choices if you wish to change issues up.
We have a complete information on Galaxy Watch Ultra bands it’s best to think about; you may both must go along with low cost, generic bands from nonsensically-named manufacturers or pay full value on Samsung’s superior choices. Either approach, the advantage of the Ultra is that swapping your band takes lower than a minute due to how straightforward it’s to pop them out and slide new ones again in.
Turn on developer choices
If you actually need to get probably the most out of your Galaxy Watch Ultra, attempt taking part in with the identical settings that the Wear OS builders secretly use. They usually have drawbacks that make them unfit for on a regular basis customers, however you may nonetheless need to attempt them.
In Settings, scroll all the best way all the way down to About watch, then faucet Software data and discover the Software model area. Then faucet it 5 instances. A Developer Mode pop-up ought to flash, so again as much as Settings and you will see Developer choices underneath About watch.
There are dozens of developer choices, too many to debate right here, however I used to be pleasantly stunned to see Force full GNSS measurements. Samsung already gave the Galaxy Watch Ultra higher monitoring accuracy, however this dev mode makes your watch test your location extra regularly on the expense of battery life. If you do not thoughts the trade-off, this could make your outcomes much more correct.
You may toggle issues like Vibrate on connectivity change to warn you in the event you depart or enter a community, or guarantee your watch stays awake whereas charging in the event you wish to have it sit in your desk throughout that point. An particularly well-liked setting, primarily based on what I’ve seen on Reddit, is to shorten the animation when switching between apps or menus to 0.5x.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra has the identical software program as previous Galaxy Watches, barring a couple of Wear OS 5 adjustments. Aside from the brand new Quick Button shortcuts and gestures, a lot of the expertise will really feel fairly acquainted to you, or to followers of Android watches typically.
I did not cowl some suggestions like ensuring to put on your Ultra to mattress to see your Energy Score, or to take an ECG studying and observe the prompts to arrange the leads to the Samsung Health monitor app — since most Galaxy Watch house owners will naturally determine these issues out on their very own. Hopefully, this Galaxy Watch Ultra newbie’s information may have proven you issues that you simply may not have observed by yourself!
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
Contains hidden depths
The Galaxy Watch Ultra prices greater than your typical smartwatch, so be sure you’re getting your cash’s price by updating all the above settings straight out of the field. It’s a long-lived smartwatch — each for its 60-hour battery life and 4 years of Wear OS updates — so you may need to profit from these perks.
