A leak gives a glimpse of Wear OS 3.5 & One UI Watch 4.5 features
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 owners are getting a glimpse of things to come. A leak has shown off Wear OS 3.5 and One UI Watch 4.5 features that will land on their wrist wearable soon.
The info come from well known leaker Evan Blass (via Android Authority). He has an excellent track record when it comes to these sorts of things and was one of the first to post images of the upcoming Google Pixel Watch.
The images below that were shared on Twitter show what you will be able to find in in Wear OS 3.5 and One UI Watch 4.5. For starters, this includes a bunch of new watch faces. No real surprise there and we are expecting some more watch-faces to arrive by the time the software is official.
More interesting is the preview of the upcoming functionality. This includes some features which will make interacting with your watch a breeze.
The first is a QWERTY keyboard, so something similar to what is already available on the Apple Watch. Another is a TalkBack or Voice Assistant feature. This is something that already exists on Samsung phones and tables. In that incarnation TalkBack allows blind and low vision users to use their device without looking at the screen.
It makes perfect sense to port the feature over to the Galaxy Watch. After all, it has a tiny display which makes it difficult to interact with it even for those with excellent eyesight. As one of the leaked images shows, the feature can be enabled by double-pressing the device’s action button, allowing for seamless voice entry.
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Beyond this, users will gain the ability to adjust the left/right balance of audio broadcast from their watch. Other new customisation options include tap duration, double press accessibility shortcut, colour correction toggle and the option to utilise one of four colour filters.
Another set of images depicts dual-SIM functionality. Just like on a smartphone, it will allow users to choose which SIM to use from their wrist for communication purposes. A useful function for those that travel often or like to keep their business and personal SIM on the same device.
These updates are still in development. The expectations are that they will drop on the Galaxy Watch 5 sometime this summer. By then, we are expecting other brands’ watches to join the Wear OS 3 crowd.
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