In most countries, Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 owners will get the first taste of One UI 5 Watch and Wear OS 4 sometime after the Galaxy Watch 6 is unveiled. But US and Korean Watch 4 and Watch 5 owners have had access to the major new update for Samsung's Wear OS smartwatches since early June thanks to the One UI 5 Watch beta program.
Samsung has released three Wear OS 4/One UI 5 Watch beta updates for the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 in the month and a half since the beta program kicked off. And this week, the company has started rolling out the fourth beta update. This update sports firmware version ZWG7 and brings a small list of improvements and fixes.
According to Samsung, the watches get improvements to initial speed (which likely means the watch will run faster right after turning on) and battery life. The update also fixes an error that affected brightness control using the virtual touch bezel and an error affecting watchface colors. The download size for the update is a little over 300 MB and like the previous beta firmware, this one includes security patch dated July 1, 2023.
For those wondering when Samsung will release the finished One UI Watch 5 and Wear OS 4 update for the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 lineups, we're afraid we have no solid answer. Once the Galaxy Watch 6 series goes official on July 26, it shouldn't take more than a month for One UI 5 Watch to start making its way to users worldwide, at least if we go by the timeline Samsung followed for the One UI 4.5 Watch beta program, but that's just speculation on our part.
If you own a Galaxy Watch 4, Watch 4 Classic, Galaxy Watch 5, or Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and are enrolled in the One UI 5 Watch beta program, you can download the fourth update now through the Galaxy Wearable app on the phone connected to your smartwatch.