Samsung has made some pretty great strides in the smartphone software support department over the last few years, rolling out major new updates for its high-end and even mid-range models considerably faster than ever before, but when it comes to long-term support, the company's Android handsets still have nothing on its Tizen-powered smartwatch family.
Due to their significantly older hardware, these two wearable devices are obviously not capable of doing every single thing the fall 2019-released Galaxy Watch Active 2 can do, but you're still looking at an extensive list of add-ons and performance enhancements.
Tipping the scales at a hefty (by smartwatch standards) 100MB+, the latest over-the-air update for the Samsung Gear S3 and Gear Sport brings Bixby assistance to the table to replace the soon-to-be-discontinued S Voice service. Of course, the digital assistant's wrist functionality is fairly rudimentary, but anything is better than S Voice. Some of the stuff you'll be able to do without using your hands now includes starting an exercise and asking the time difference between your location and a travel destination.
As for Galaxy Watch Active 2-borrowed features, some of the most notable ones are a bunch of new emoticons with a wider range of skin tones, easier access to apps running in the background, and an Always on Display tweak allowing you to read the screen with more ease while charging your smartwatch or setting it in the battery saving mode.
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The lengthy changelog wraps up with a few other handy user interaction enhancements, aiming to improve sleep mode recognition, icon order customization in quick panel, and the intuitiveness of the pre-installed Timer and Stop Watch apps.
In case you're wondering, the Gear S3 is almost four years old, while the Gear Sport was commercially released back in 2017. To put that in perspective, the Gear S3 is older than the Galaxy S8, and the Gear Sport essentially saw daylight at the same time as the Galaxy Note 8, both of those handsets looking doomed to live out the rest of their days running Android 9.0 Pie.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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