Galaxy Watch 4 Series Will Get One UI 8 Watch, Samsung Confirms

Samsung has finally put an end to the speculation surrounding software support for its first-generation Wear OS smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, which debuted four years ago, will officially receive the One UI 8 Watch update based on Wear OS 6. The company confirmed this at Unpacked on Wednesday.

Galaxy Watch 4’s Wear OS journey isn’t over as it gets One UI 8 Watch

Back in 2021, Samsung made a major shift by replacing its in-house Tizen OS with Wear OS, co-developed with Google. The Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic were the first to ship with One UI Watch 3 based on Wear OS 3, kicking off a new era of Android-based smartwatches for Samsung. The company promised four years of OS updates for the lineup.

Earlier this year, when Samsung launched the One UI 8 Watch beta program, it excluded the Watch 4 series, causing confusion and disappointment among early adopters. It appeared the company had ended updates for the lineup, but not to be. Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic will receive the One UI 8 Watch update.

This is big news for users who were worried about their devices being left behind. However, it’s worth noting that this will be the final major update for the 2021 Galaxy Watches. For those wanting to upgrade to a newer watch, Samsung just launched the Galaxy Watch 8 series, which ships with One UI 8 Watch out of the box.

The Wear OS 6-based update brings a fresh design and a host of new features, including richer, customizable watch faces with new animations and transitions, redesigned tiles, vertical app launcher, Now Bar, updated battery icons and charging animations, and a bunch of new health and fitness tools. Pre-orders are now live for the Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic via Samsung.com.