Launched first in 2018, Samsung Galaxy watches have become one of the most popular wearables worldwide. Samsung’s latest smartwatches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Watch 6, have taken the wearable experience to the next level. The displays are bigger, the battery life is longer, and the OS is upgraded. There are several ways to enhance one’s experience of wearing the watch, and here are some hidden Samsung Watch hacks for the same.

Customize the functions of the side buttons
For first-time users of the Galaxy Watch, it can be a little difficult to navigate the user interface. Remembering the function of different buttons and on-screen gestures may be confusing. One may not fully utilize their Galaxy Watch’s capability if they forget what a long-press gesture or a tap does on each button. But Samsung has made things easier by allowing users to customize the buttons directly out of the box.
All that is needed to do is go to Settings from the home screen. Find the Settings quick action tile, go to Advanced Features, and then tap on the Customize Keys option. Here, one can set what different gestures on the buttons can do. For example, for the home key of Galaxy Watch 5 or Galaxy Watch 6, one can set up the press-and-hold gestures to open up the power menu or wake Google Assistant. Similar customizations can be done for the back button.

Customize notifications
By default, Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 give notifications from all apps. It is possible that one may lose an important notification or may be constantly interrupted by frequent incoming notifications. An easy solution to this is to customize the notifications. One can easily choose which apps on their phone may send notifications to the smartwatch.

To do this, head over to the Galaxy Wearable app in the Android phone. Here, tap on the Watch settings and go to the Notifications. Then, tap on the App Notifications options. A list of apps will be displayed; select the ones from which notifications are needed on the smartwatch.

Get the smartwatch to save precious battery
All smartwatches have a feature-rich OS with always-on display mode. Add in the continuous tracking of heart rate and other health parameters, the battery of a smartwatch rarely lasts a full-day usage. However, Samsung offers a way to save battery power with its Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6. This can be done with the Watch Only mode. Just go to the Settings app and tap on the Battery option. Here select the Watch Only option. With this enabled, the watch will last even a full-day of usage even with 5% of battery power.

Use wrist gestures for alerts, calls, and quick controls
One of the things that Galaxy Watches makes it easier is to answer calls with just a flip of the wrist. However, this feature is disabled by default. So users are typically unaware of it. To enable this feature, one needs to ensure that the smartwatch has cellular connectivity, or it must be connected to a phone through Bluetooth. Once this is done, hand gestures can be enabled to answer calls through the Settings app. One can go to the Advanced features and head over to the Gestures option.
Here, one needs to tap on the option for Answer Calls and toggle it on. Now, whenever a call is received, one needs just to shake their watch-wearing arm twice. Similarly, enabling the Dismiss Alerts and Calls option to reject calls or silence any alerts is possible.

Make the smartwatch keep time with hourly chime
Along with all the high-tech features, Samsung Galaxy smartwatches also do something as simple as telling the time. This experience can be made simpler by activating the hourly chime feature. With this, the smartwatch will buzz and chime every hour, making it easier to keep time throughout the day without looking at the watch.

To activate this feature, go to the Setting app and tap on the Sound and Vibration option. Then head over to the Systems Sound Menu and switch on Hourly Chime. Now, the smartwatch will chime every hour.

Make Google Assistant the default instead of Bixby
Many Android users prefer to use Google Assistant instead of Samsung’s Bixby Assistant. While most smartwatches with the Wear OS do not have Google Assistant preloaded, Samsung Galaxy watches do. However, they still have Bixby as the default. But if one wants to use Google Assistant as the default voice assistant in the Galaxy Watch 5 or Galaxy Watch 6, it is possible to do so.

Just head over to the Settings app and tap on Apps. Go to the option for Choose Default Apps and select the Digital Assistant app menu. Here tap on Default App and choose Google Assistant. Once this is done, Google Assistant will pop up instead of Bixby whenever the home button is long-pressed.