Like their cousins in the Galaxy Z family, the new Galaxy Watch8 series introduced a new version of Samsung’s bespoke interface – One UI 8 Watch. This same software is now rolling out to Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra owners and brings new training and health features, plus UI refinements that offer more at-a-glance info on a watch-sized display.
Key tools for that are the Multi-Info Tiles. They are customizable, so you can pick the data that’s most relevant to you – you can choose from anything from weather info to health metrics. The Now Bar, which you may be familiar with from Galaxy phones, displays a camera controller, media controller, stopwatch and timer and so on (you can customize it from the companion app).
Speaking of health metrics, the watch can now calculate your Vascular Load and measure your Antioxidant Index. Vascular Load measures the stress on your circulatory system during sleep. The Antioxidant Index measures carotenoids (a kind of antioxidant) stored in your skin.
New features coming to the Galaxy Watch Ultra with One UI 8 Watch
Additionally, the Galaxy Watch Ultra gains support for the new Running Coach. It can build a detailed running plan for you given a specific goal – 5K, 10K, half marathon or full marathon. It starts by measuring your running performance with a 12-minute test. You can read more about the new features here.
During the Galaxy Unpacked event earlier this month, Samsung refreshed the Galaxy Watch Ultra with a new Titanium Blue color option and doubled the storage to 64GB. This new version is launching globally this week, but it’s a minor improvement over the original 2024 watch (it’s not an “Ultra 2”).
Anyway, One UI 8 Watch will be released for older models too. Last week, we saw reports of a beta build for the Galaxy Watch5 and Watch5 Pro, for example.