Samsung has officially extended software support for its latest smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will receive five major Wear OS updates, the longest support timeline yet for an Android smartwatch. This new policy puts Samsung ahead of Google and on par with Apple.
Samsung expands Wear OS updates to five versions
Until now, Samsung promised four major OS updates and five years of security patches for every model released since the Galaxy Watch 4. With the new generation, the company adds one more OS upgrade. The Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will get five major OS upgrades and five years of security support. This means these devices, running Wear OS 7 with One UI 9, could reach Wear OS 12 with security patches until 2031.
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Comparison with competitors
Google, with its Pixel Watch line, offers only three major OS updates. Samsung effectively doubles the OS support compared to Google, offering two extra years. This helps offset the higher price of Galaxy Watches over Pixel Watches. Moreover, the new policy matches Apple's support for the Apple Watch, which also guarantees five years of software updates. In a context where wearable technology evolves rapidly, software transparency and reliability are crucial, as demonstrated by the recent lawsuit against OpenAI for erroneous ChatGPT advice.
The role of the Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset
The Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset powering the new Galaxy Watches likely plays a key role in enabling this extended support window. By contrast, the Galaxy Watch 8 family, based on the Exynos W1000 processor, remains at four major updates and five years of security. The new policy is not expected to apply retroactively to older models.
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Release timeline and future updates
Samsung currently updates its Galaxy Watches with quarterly security patches. Major new features arrive once a year through a One UI or Wear OS update. This differs from Google's approach, which delivers additional features via quarterly Pixel Drops. With the Pixel Watch 5 reportedly staying on the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 platform, Google is unlikely to match Samsung's update policy in the near future. For more details on Wear OS, see Wikipedia.
Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/galaxy-watch-9-raises-the-bar-for-wear-os-updates
