Ryan Haines / Android Authority
One UI 8 beta is already rolling out to Galaxy Watches, and I’m equally annoyed by and in awe of it. The reason is that I was a Galaxy Watch 4 user back in 2021, but I migrated to Google’s wearable when the first Pixel Watch launched. My decision was mostly guided by my desire to stay within Fitbit’s ecosystem, which had many years of my personal activity and health data. Since then, I’ve had the first, second, and third Pixel Watch, and I thought that this year, I’d upgrade to the Pixel Watch 4. Except that One UI 8 has so many nice features that it’s making me second-guess this decision.
Would you switch from the Pixel Watch to the Galaxy Watch? 10 votes Yes, already did that. 50 % I'm actually considering it now. 10 % Not now, but if there's enough to tempt me away. 0 % No, I'm sticking with the Pixel Watch. 40 %
I really want One UI 8’s hand gestures
Damien Wilde / Android Authority
Back in the Android Wear days, Google had rolled out support for hand gestures on its watch OS. At the time, I found the feature a bit gimmicky, but I slowly grew fond of it. For me, it was the one-handedness of it that made such a significant impact. Instead of having to wait until both of my hands were free to be able to interact with my watch and check or dismiss a notification, for example, I could simply flick my wrist. Scrolling up and down was also possible.
It’s been years since Google removed that handy (ha!) feature, and I still catch myself flicking my wrist and trying to interact with my Pixel Watch. Most times, it’s even easier for me to get my phone out of my pocket to do something only because I can use my phone with one hand, whereas watch interactions lock both of my hands together.
I still miss Android Wear's hand-flick gesture. It was a convenient way to navigate my watch with one hand.
Samsung has been offering hand gestures on its Galaxy Watches for years now, but One UI 8 takes this to the next level. The double-pinch gesture has been taken to the next level with custom actions on the watch face, music controller, as well as alarm, calendar, and reminder notifications.
That appeals to me so much. It’d allow me to do exactly what I want in each situation, like pause or skip music, dismiss or snooze alarms, and act on notifications. I’m sure Samsung will keep on improving these gestures and adding more customization to them. I’d love it if I could pause tracking my hike or swim, for example, with a double pinch, then resume it with another. I’d love it even more if the double-pinch gesture was open to third-party devs to allow us to control each app however we want. But even in their current state, hand gestures on Galaxy Watches seem so practical to me in everyday use, and for that alone, I’m so tempted to ditch my Pixel Watch and move over.
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