Samsung isn’t expected to unveil a new smartwatch at this week’s Unpacked event, but the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic have not been forgotten. Starting February 9, both smartwatches will support new health and fitness features such as personal interval training, sleep training, and the ability to set body composition goals. Yes, it also promises better app compatibility for the new Wear OS platform, but you’ll still have to wait a bit to get the Google Assistant working.
Sleep tracking has been an area where Samsung’s lagged a bit compared to more fitness-oriented trackers. On that front, Samsung is adding a sleep coaching program that seems to take some inspiration from chronotypes — in a nutshell, it’s basically what your natural circadian rhythm is. Traditionally, people are categorized into four chronotypes associated with animals (lion, dolphin, bear, or wolf), but it seems like Samsung’s gone a step further and expanded it to eight types. After tracking your sleep patterns for a week and completing two sleep surveys, Samsung says it assigns you one of eight animals representing a sleep type. Afterward, you’ll have the option of a four-to-five-week program that aims to help you improve sleep quality via things like checklists, sleep articles, meditation, and reports.
One of the marquee health upgrades for the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic was a shiny new 3-in-1 biosensor that enabled body composition readings. It was impressive, as that had been the purview of smart scales and specialized equipment at either your doctor’s or at a gym. That said, what you ended up getting was a readout of numbers that may not have made a lot of sense for beginners. Now, Samsung says its partnering with Centr to provide “body composition insights.” (If you’ve never heard of Centr, its claim to fame is that it’s Thor beefcake Chris Hemsworth’s fitness app.) For example, if someone puts on weight while also gaining body fat and muscle, it might provide extra context on why that’s normal. Galaxy Watch 4 users will also get a 30-day trial to the app