MWC 2021: Samsung Reveals New One UI Watch Experience

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Samsung presented a fresh UI design for its next generation of wearables. One UI Watch is the latest smartwatch interface from Samsung; and will run on top of Wear OS, which Samsung co-developed with Google.

While a version of One UI is present for Galaxy Watch, this time, it’s different. This time, Samsung is trying to achieve a more fluid and seamless functioning between the two devices, Samsung phones, and the Samsung Galaxy Watches.

Wear OS or One UI?

Previously, Samsung watches used to run on Android Wear, a Google-owned operating system, later rebranded as Wear OS. However, Samsung switched from Android Wear to Tizan, a Linux-based OS. In a turn of events, Samsung is now back with Wear OS on Galaxy Watch; for the next-gen of Galaxy Watch.

Back when Google announced its partnership with Samsung to develop a new wearable OS, we had an idea of what was coming. Now, when One UI is finally unveiled, a hybrid of Tizen and Wear OS; which also gives the watches better optimization with regards to responsiveness and battery consumption. While we have our first look at the new One UI, we have yet to see a full review.

In the press release, Samsung said, “One UI Watch will be available for Galaxy Watch on the new, unified platform it jointly built with Google, bringing performance enhancements, a more seamless experience between the Watch and Android smartphones, and access to an even greater number of applications.”

Samsung app ecosystem?

Let us take a closer look at the details of the new Samsung One UI for Galaxy smartwatches. For starters, when you install an app on your Samsung phone, the same app will also be downloaded on your Samsung smartwatch. Moreover, the settings will also port over from your phone to your smartwatch. Making things interesting, the same will work the other way around.

Coming over Tizen’s lack of third-party app support, the new One UI on Wear OS will offer support of multiple apps with the integration of the Google Play store. This will, in turn, allow users to get apps directly from the play store. Meanwhile, some of the applications will include Addidas, Facer, Calm, Google Maps, YouTube Music, and more.

In addition, Samsun and Google have confirmed a new watch face design tool, allowing developers to create endless display screens to present helpful information on the screen. While this is only a basic idea of what the new One UI upon Wear OS will do, we have yet to see a hands-on experience. Although, for the hands-on experience, we’ll have to wait until Samsung starts rolling out the new One UI for smartwatches.