In what is supposed to be a “Samsung week” with the company’s Unpacked event taking place today, the South Korean company hasn’t forgotten its smartwatch Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic. Starting February 10, both smartwatches will receive new health and fitness features, including custom interval training, sleep coaching and the ability to set body composition goals, besides better app compatibility for the new Wear OS platform.
Some interesting things are happening with the addition of a sleep coaching programme which has inspiration in chronotypes or a body’s natural preference for when to fall asleep and wake up. There are four chronotypes — lions (people who wake up by 4.30-5am in the morning and then shoot out a bunch of emails before the world wakes up), bears (most of us are bears or people who go to bed around 10.30pm and wake up 7.30am), wolves (they don’t usually get their eight hours of sleep) and dolphins (these are the people who have difficulty sleeping). But Samsung has expanded it to eight types. After tracking your sleep patterns for a week and completing two sleep surveys, the company says it will assign you one of eight animals representing a sleep type. Next, there is the option of a four-to-five-week programme that aims to help you improve sleep quality by using options like checklists, meditation and reports.
One of the big upgrades with both the watches has been the new three-in-one biosensor that enabled body composition readings. It’s an area that’s usually tackled by specialised equipment. Samsung Health will be providing body composition insights powered by Centr, a digital fitness programme curated by Chris Hemsworth, to help users transform their health, fitness and mindset. And Watch4 users will receive a 30-day trial for full and unrestricted access to Centr. This is helpful when one is, say, putting on weight while gaining muscle; the data offers a better context to the weight gain.
Combined with the advanced BioActive Sensor technology and Samsung Health Monitor app, Galaxy Watch4 measures both blood pressure (BP) and electrocardiogram (ECG), allowing users to monitor their heart health anytime and from anywhere. Since the first introduction in 2020, Samsung Health Monitor app is currently available in 43 markets globally, expanding to 11 more in March.
Finally, there is a promise of greater Android compatibility, besides Google Maps, Google Pay, and YouTube Music. Coming soon through an additional update, users will be able to stream music over Wi-Fi or LTE from the YouTube Music app on their Galaxy Watch4. This means that users can leave their phone behind and still enjoy their favourite artists as they work out on-the-go. And Google Assistant will be available in the coming months.
In case you want tune into the big Unpacked event tonight, visit www.samsung.com at 8.30pm.
