In 2021 after many years of success with their Tizen operating system, Samsung made a big switch back to Google’s Wear OS platform with the release of the Galaxy Watch 4 and 4 Classic. Interestingly, 4 years later, Samsung is still supporting these two watches.
The latest now, as seen on Reddit and reported by SamMobile, Samsung is rolling out a major software update to the Galaxy Watch 4 and 4 Classic.
Over the last weekend, Samsung started rolling out a big new software update for the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Users in India are already receiving this update. This means that this update might already be live in the US and other countries.
This new update which has a firmware version code of R8x0XXU1IYCD is a massive one with a total file size of 444.47MB
Though, there isn’t much information on what is new with this update. It just mentions “the stability has been improved” and under the security category, it says “the device is protected with improved security”.
If you have a Galaxy Watch 4 or 4 Classic smartwatch, you should check for the update on your device by opening the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone and navigating to Watch Settings » Watch software update » Download and install.
A Reddit user who has installed this update, says he hasn’t noticed any new features in the update so far, but a few bug fixes are there and the animations feel a bit smoother.
Before the Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung only offered up to 3 years of software support to the Galaxy Watch 3 and older models. In other words, the Galaxy Watch 4 and 4 Classic are the first set of Galaxy watches to receive up to 4 years of software support.
For me, this is a very welcome development from Samsung. 4 years of software support means you don’t get to miss out from new features. If you recall, in 2022, the Galaxy Watch 4 series alongside Galaxy Watch 5 series received the One UI 4.5 watch with Wear OS 3.5. In 2023, the Galaxy Watch 4 series also received One UI 5 watch alongside Wear OS 4. And just recently, in December 2024, the Galaxy Watch 4 series also received One UI 6 watch with Wear OS 5.
The big question is, will the Galaxy Watch 4 series also receive the next One UI and Wear OS?
Samsung is already beta testing One UI 8 Watch.
For clarification, Samsung has decided to skip the number, One UI 7 Watch. This is done so that both Samsung phones and watches have the same One UI version. One UI 7 Watch is already released to Galaxy phones. So Samsung is now working to release One UI 8 Watch for the next Galaxy watches.
So, again, will the Galaxy Watch 4 receive this update alongside Wear OS 6?
Well, while Samsung promises up to 4 years of software support, I don’t think it necessarily means up to 4 years of operating system update.
In other words, while the Galaxy Watch 4 series have received software update for the last 4 years, the One UI 6 Watch and Wear OS 5 could be the last for the Watch 4 series.
However, Samsung could still pull some surprises and deliver One UI 8 watch and Wear OS 6 to the Galaxy Watch 4 series.
Samsung is expected to release the next Galaxy watch 8 series in July or August. If this schedule holds, we will see if the Galaxy Watch 4 series gets One UI 8 watch before the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, if you have not received this update, don’t worry you should get it soon.