What’s New:

• New features^[1] include Bedtime Guidance ^[2] – to optimise your sleep; Vascular Load ^[3] – which measures stress on your vascular system while sleeping; Running Coach^[4] – to help strategise your training and Antioxidant Index ^[5], to measure your carotenoids for healthy aging.
• The new features are part of the One UI 8 Watch, which will be available on the newest Galaxy Watch series. Starting from this month, the features can be experienced through a beta program^[6] to a limited number of Galaxy Watch users.

Why it Matters: 

The goal of these new features is to help you build healthier daily habits, which can be challenging because they don’t develop instantly. It takes time to accumulate these behaviour patterns, and meaningful changes are often only apparent after a long period. But the rewards are worth it.

• For example, eating unhealthy food may not immediately impact your health, but over time, it can have significant consequences.
• Conversely, adopting healthy habits may not show immediate results, but over time, they lead to positive changes in your body and mind.
• Samsung Health’s new features aim to help you develop healthy habits by motivating you through instant feedback on your health. These features inspire you to maintain your habits by providing rewards or warning signs and demonstrating immediate impact of your behaviours.

“Sleep remains a cornerstone of our approach to health, as it influences physical and mental well-being, social relationships and even work performance,” said Dr. Hon Pak, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Health Team, Mobile eXperience, Samsung Electronics. “Now, we envision our Galaxy Watch delivering holistic insights centred around sleep — insights that lead to meaningful changes in daily life. We believe this aligns with our vision of empowering you to lead healthier lives through proactive care and holistic health management.”

Explore New Health Features

Samsung Health’s new features aim to help users develop healthy habits, using instant health feedback as a motivating tool.

Bedtime Guidance 

A single night of restful sleep offers immediate health benefits, encouraging more proactive behaviour changes and leading to a healthier tomorrow. This starts with a regular and optimal bedtime.

• We constantly seek to advance our sleep-related tools, which include sleep pattern analysis, sleep coaching, and optimising sleep environments. They also include the feature that detects signs of sleep apnea^[7] — a sleep disorder — and help you take proactive steps.
• Now, we are providing additional tools for better sleep by suggesting an optimal bedtime based on your lifestyle and sleep patterns while sending reminders to help you stick to it.
• By analysing your past three days’ sleep patterns, the feature evaluates your need for sleep pressure and your circadian rhythm to calculate a bedtime that maximises alertness the next day.
• This feature is particularly helpful for those trying to optimise their sleep after periods of irregular bedtimes. For example, if you go to bed later than planned over several days or have inconsistent sleep schedules between weekdays and weekends – the bedtime guidance will consider these factors to ensure you get enough sleep.

Vascular Load    

Sleep is a window into overall health, as it impacts holistic well-being. Galaxy Watch uses this opportunity to measure vascular load — the amount of stress on your vascular system while sleeping.

• The vascular system carries blood throughout the body to deliver oxygen and nutrients and remove waste – making it a strong indicator to determine good heart health.
• During sleep, stress on your vascular system should naturally dip – however, excessive fluctuations can negatively impact cardiovascular health.
• Simply wear your Watch while sleeping and it will measure your vascular load – providing insights into the stress on your vascular system.
• Additionally, since all health factors are interconnected – the feature also provides insights into lifestyle factors such as sleep, exercise and stress to help you maintain a healthier lifestyle and develop positive habits.

Running Coach 

While sleep is a precious time to cultivate and care for your health, managing your health during active moments is equally important. Running is one of the most basic and universally available fitness activities, and Samsung has long sought to support runners, offering features to help everyone stay active and achieve their fitness goals.

• Many runners face injuries due to over-pacing or are not optimally pushing themselves. Running Coach is designed to help runners safely complete marathons through optimised-intensity and injury-preventive training, making it ideal for beginners.
• Our new Running Coach feature delivers motivation and real-time guidance – creating a unique training program based on your fitness level to help you achieve your goals.
• Just wear your watch and run for 12 minutes; it will analyse your performance and running level from 1-10. You’ll receive a detailed training plan to help you complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon or full marathon based on your level. Complete your training session and you’ll level up and unlock your next running challenge.

Antioxidant Index 

When taking a holistic approach to health, we naturally focus on aging and inspiring healthy aging. However, behavioural factors, such as drinking alcohol, smoking, UV exposure, stress and lack of sleep, can accelerate aging by increasing free radicals in the body.

These free radicals damage cells and accelerate aging. Antioxidants, nutrients found in many healthy foods, are molecules that neutralise these free radicals, helping prevent chronic illnesses and promote healthy aging.

• Use Galaxy Watch to measure carotenoids, which are antioxidants found in green and orange vegetables and fruits, stored in your skin.
• Galaxy Watch employs an industry-first feature to measure carotenoids in just five seconds via its advanced, light-activated BioActive sensor.
• These insights reflect behavioural changes. For example, drinking carrot juice can show changes in the index, providing motivation to adopt healthier habits.

Great health comes from the combination of many small changes — and with Galaxy Watch, it is now possible overnight.

^{1 Samsung Health features are intended for general wellness and fitness purposes only. The measurements are for your personal reference only. Please consult a medical professional for advice.} 

^{2 Not intended for use in detection, diagnosis, treatment of any medical condition or sleep disorder. Bedtime guidance is available on Android phone (Android 11 and above) requires Samsung Health app (v6.30.2 or later). It is based on 3 days of sleep analysis of user’s circadian rhythm and sleep pressure.}

^{3 Service only available with Galaxy Watch Ultra or later released Galaxy Watch Series. To measure vascular load, it is required to wear Galaxy Watch when sleeping for at least 3 days out of recent 14 days.}

^{4 Service only available with Galaxy Watch7 Series or later released Galaxy Watch Series. To use running coach program, user needs to take a running level test and get a level before starting the coach program.}

^{5 Service only available with Galaxy Watch Ultra or later released Galaxy Watch Series. To measure, place the centre of your finger on the sensor at the back of the Watch and hold it for 5 seconds. While Anti-oxidant index can be measured using any finger, the thumb is recommended for the most accurate result. Repeat measurement due to uneven skin texture may lead to inaccurate results.}

^{6 Users based in South Korea and the U.S. with Galaxy Watch (Galaxy Watch5 or later released Galaxy Watch series) are eligible to join the beta Program.}

^{7 The Sleep Apnea feature is an over-the-counter (OTC), software-only, mobile medical application operating on a compatible Samsung Galaxy Watch and Phone. This feature is intended to detect signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in the form of significant breathing disruptions in adult users 22 years and older, over a two-night monitoring period. It is intended for on demand use. This feature is not intended for users who have previously been diagnosed with sleep apnea. Users should not use this feature to replace traditional methods of diagnosis and treatment by a qualified clinician. The data provided by this device is also not intended to assist clinicians in diagnosing sleep disorders. Availability may vary by market, carrier, model or a paired smartphone.}

Here is a look at the new features that will be available on your Galaxy Watch Active2 soon.

Improve Your Athletic Performance

Become a better runner, improve your form, and prevent injury with the Running Analysis² feature. The Galaxy Watch Active2 now offers a standalone running analysis and can provide a variety of detailed metrics, such as asymmetry, regularity, stiffness, vertical oscillation, ground contact time, to help you improve performance and reduce injury.

On top of this, you can also measure VO2 max, an indicator of the maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilise during intense exercise. It is a common measurement used to determine an athlete’s fitness and performance capacity, which can track the progress in your training routine and help you improve your endurance.

Watch Out for Your Loved Ones, Even From Afar

The Fall Detection feature³ helps you care for yourself and your loved ones, even when you are apart. When a potential fall is detected, you will immediately be given the option to send an SOS notification to up to four pre-designated contacts, ensuring that help is never too far away.

More Convenient Communication From Your Wrist

Rather than having to turn to your phone after receiving a notification on your smartwatch, you can easily view emoticons and photos directly from your wrist. Plus, with Smart Reply, you are provided with a suggested response⁴ for both messages and images, with advanced photo recognition technology, so you can send a reply, even when you are in a hurry.

Also, when you get a message, your watch will automatically show your chat history, instead of just a single message, so you can quickly pick up your conversation. No more constant switching between devices – you can do more directly from your wrist.

With the latest update, you also get the latest fun replies. You can now select to send both AR Emoji Stickers⁵ and Bitmoji Stickers⁶ straight from your watch, so you can truly express yourself in your messages while on-the-go.

Effortlessly Control Your Mobile Experience

You can control your mobile experience with the Galaxy Watch Active2 more effortlessly, including giving you instant access to your playlist on your phone. With this latest update, you have an even more seamless music experience across your devices – from your smartphone to Galaxy Buds device to your smartwatch.

Additionally, your Galaxy Watch Active2 will now support the scroll capture feature, so when you take a screenshot from your smartwatch, it is automatically sent as an image to your smartphone. That way, you can capture message threads, workout information and more and quickly save them for future reference.

For more information about the Galaxy Watch Active2, please visit https://www.samsung.com/za/wearables/all-wearables/?galaxy-watch-active

[1] Availability may vary by market or operator. The update will initially be available on Bluetooth versions of the Galaxy Watch Active2 and will roll out to LTE versions shortly thereafter. Requires the latest version of the Galaxy Wearable app and Galaxy Watch Active2 plugin.

[2] When you select “running” under the exercise feature in Samsung Health, your Galaxy Watch Active2 will automatically perform running analysis and measure your VO2 max. For an accurate reading, you should only measure VO2 max while running outdoors at a high intensity for at least 20 minutes.

[3] To activate on mobile: Open the Galaxy Wearable app > select ‘SOS’ > Turn on ‘Detect falls’ and add the contact that you want to receive your SOS notifications. Fall Detection recognises falls when the user is engaged in dynamic motion, not when staying still. To notify an emergency contact, a network connection is required. GPS accuracy may be affected by obstructions to the satellite signal, such as buildings.

[4] Available in 9 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

[5] Compatible with Galaxy smartphones with One UI 2.5 or above and an AR Emoji Camera; Supports a maximum of 45 stickers in total: Three AR Emoji avatars, with a maximum of 15 stickers each.

[6] Compatible with Galaxy smartphones with the Bitmoji app; Supports 30 stickers maximum. This feature is available to users that have installed the latest version of the Bitmoji app on their smartphone.

*Backup the device before updating. Do not disconnect the device during the update of the software. The use of a proper Wi-Fi network is recommended to avoid abnormal carrier data fee.

*Make sure to charge the battery (more than 50% capacity) and to have the enough device memory – at least 1GB. Do not remove the battery during upgrade. This service update is subject to data charges and free minutes do not apply.

* The images shown are for illustration purposes only, and may differ from the actual product. Product specifications may vary by country, region, model, and carrier.