It appears Galaxy Watch 3 features will soon start trickling down to Samsung's older wearables, beginning with the Galaxy Watch Active 2. At least, that's what can be inferred from the latest version of the Watch Active 2 Plugin app that made its way to the Google Play Store earlier this week. First spotted by avid SamMobile reader Albert Ribas who tipped us off on Twitter, the update adds support for Tizen 5.5, the very same operating system build that the Galaxy Watch 3 runs out of the box and is largely reliant upon to create a cutting-edge smartwatch experience.
We don't know what the changelog will look like – while it's unlikely every single software novelty introduced with the Galaxy Watch 3 will make its way to Samsung's older wearables, it's reasonable to assume a good amount of them will. After all, offering stellar after-sales support has pretty much been the company's M.O. in the wearable space for years now. For example, the three-year-old Gear S3 and Gear Sport received Bixby, sleeping mode detection improvements, Always On Display refinements, and many other features that originally debuted with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 as part of a software update that Samsung pushed out this spring.
Samsung continues to put every other manufacturer to shame in terms of device updates
What remains to be seen is whether the original Galaxy Watch ends up getting updated to Tizen 5.5 as well. That does seem like a highly probably scenario; after all, the device only turned two last month, which is hardly ancient from the perspective of an industry leader that Samsung is on the after-sales support front.
Wearables aren't the only consumer electronics category wherein Samsung is going above and beyond to provide its customers with stellar software support that significantly prolongs the lifespan of its devices. It was just last month that Samsung raised the bar for Android updates by committing to three generations' worth of major OS upgrades for the vast majority of its contemporary handsets, even including many Galaxy A-series mid-rangers.
