While Samsung is still in the early stages of rolling out its Wear OS 5-based One UI 6 Watch update, Google has introduced the next version. Google released Wear OS 5.1, which could arrive as One UI 6.5 Watch to Galaxy Watches sometime next year. It will bring more new features.
Key features and updates in Wear OS 5.1
Based on Android 15 (API Level 35), Wear OS 5.1 introduces two key features that enhance your smartwatch experience. Credentials Manager makes signing into apps and services easier by offering a unified sign-in method across devices. It stores your PIN, password, and passkey and syncs them across all your Android-based devices.
The second feature allows media playback through the watch speaker as the default option. If supported by the app, users can select playback through the watch as their preferred output. As usual, the first Wear OS 5.1 build has some bugs. Google says users cannot always add an account during the setup after a device reset in the emulator.
Additionally, when users tap on a notification, the app that sent it does not open until they scroll the screen. Users may also experience issues with health services. Google will address these issues with subsequent updates. After all, this is a preview build only supported on emulators. It is meant for developers to test the new update for their apps.
Hopefully, Google will speed up the development and release a public beta version of Wear OS 5.1. Even if Google doesn’t, we expect Samsung to run beta programs for its One UI update based on the new Wear OS version. It may roll out the update as One UI 6.5 Watch or One UI 6.1 Watch. The company is currently pushing One UI 6 Watch to the Galaxy Watch 6, Watch 5, Watch 4, and Watch FE. The Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra shipped with Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch.
