Samsung Gear S3 scores hefty software update with improvements across the board
Samsung rarely provides software updates for its market-leading smartphones beyond their second birthdays, but even though the company remains unable to rival Apple in terms of global smartwatch sales, the 2016-released Gear S3 hasn’t been forgotten yet.
After a teeny-tiny 10MB or so update rolled out a couple of months ago to fix a “sudden battery drain” issue, Samsung is reportedly sending US-based owners of the Gear S3 a significantly heftier goodie pack over-the-air with a wide range of new software features, UI tweaks, and enhancements included.
According to a screenshot of the official changelog shared by the folks over at Tizen Help, the update tips the scales at nearly 300MB, which is pretty large for a wearable device with 4 gigs of internal storage space in total.
Support for “various” new indoor workouts and “back-to-back workout” in the Samsung Health app is at the top of the revision list, followed by sleep stages information you can now view in the Health Widget, and two advanced user modes added so you can easily avoid disturbances during “specific time and place.”
Meanwhile, replying to messages from your wrist is made “quicker and easier”, with more than 1,000 emojis supported, as well as the ability to save drafts. The settings menu comes with “improved categorizing” for “better discovery of features and items”, and last but not least, Gear S3 users get better phone-free control of the music playing on their smartwatch.
Expect this new Tizen 4.0.0.2 OS update with firmware version R760XXU2DSA1 to be expanded worldwide soon enough, making a decent, affordable smartwatch even better in a number of significant ways.
After a teeny-tiny 10MB or so update rolled out a couple of months ago to fix a “sudden battery drain” issue, Samsung is reportedly sending US-based owners of the Gear S3 a significantly heftier goodie pack over-the-air with a wide range of new software features, UI tweaks, and enhancements included.
Support for “various” new indoor workouts and “back-to-back workout” in the Samsung Health app is at the top of the revision list, followed by sleep stages information you can now view in the Health Widget, and two advanced user modes added so you can easily avoid disturbances during “specific time and place.”
You can set your smartwatch to Theater or Sleep modes from the Gear S3’s quick panel, which itself is improved with newly added quick settings, also promising “easier and faster interaction.”
Meanwhile, replying to messages from your wrist is made “quicker and easier”, with more than 1,000 emojis supported, as well as the ability to save drafts. The settings menu comes with “improved categorizing” for “better discovery of features and items”, and last but not least, Gear S3 users get better phone-free control of the music playing on their smartwatch.
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