While the Galaxy Watch 6 is shaping up to be one of 2023’sbest smartwatches, the older Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 models are still hanging around, with many of us deciding not to upgrade just yet. One of the best things about Samsung’s wearables is how long they’ll get new features for, with four years of OS upgrades promised. That commitment to support continues now as the watch faces from the Watch 6 are brought to older models via an app update.
All of Samsung’s accessories, from wearables to earbuds, are controlled through the Galaxy Wearable app. When you link an accessory to the app, it downloads a plugin specific to that model, including everything needed to make it work with your phone. The plugins for the Watch 4 and Watch 5 were updated recently, adding the new watch faces.
To look at the new watch faces, check that you’re running the correct version of the plugin for your device. That’ll be 2.2.11.23080951 for the Watch 4 and 2.2.12.23082651 for the Watch 5. If needed, you’re able to get the updates from APK Mirror for theWatch 4andWatch 5. With that out of the way, open the Galaxy Wear app and open the watch faces menu.
There are five new watch faces to check out, starting with Fluid Number and Photo Sticker. Fluid number fills the screen with a large digital clock and makes room for one complication. Tapping the screen when the device is awake will make it ripple, living up to the name.
Photo Sticker will look familiar if you own a Galaxy Z Flip 5 as it’s based on one of the lock screen clock styles from that phone. You can choose any image you like, pick a layout, and combine it with four complications and an emoji. Sadly, you can’t swap the emoji for an additional complication.
Sleep Coaching will theme itself based on the sleep animal Samsung Health has assigned to you, and the bars will change based on certain metrics, like how much sunlight you’ve gotten during the day.
Stretched Time lines the face with oversized numbers and has room for four complications. There are many color options available for this one, more than most, so it’s fun to experiment with.
Finally, we have Perpetual, which won’t be for everyone. The outer ring lists each month of the year and highlights the one we are currently in, and the next ring lists the day of said month. The final ring is split between the current hour and what day of the week it is. Behind all of this is a star-filled background showing the moon’s current phase and where it is in its current cycle.
These faces make excellent additions to the Watch 4 and Watch 5, and should keep us occupied until the One UI Watch 5 update based on Wear OS 4 arrives. That will overhaul much of the experience and bring some genuinely welcome features like swapping phones without resetting your watch. That update will arrive shortly, maybe as soon as this week.
