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Many Google apps are available on Samsung Galaxy watches. You can also set shortcuts to replace default Samsung apps.
Samsung Galaxy watches may be the best smartwatches for Android phones. However, they are indisputably Samsung, which may not be your cup of tea. There are a few ways you can make your Samsung watch more like a Pixel Watch.
Thankfully, the days when Samsung watches didn’t have access to Google apps and the Play Store are over. That started with the Galaxy Watch 4 in 2021. Still, these watches have plenty of preloaded Samsung apps and their One UI skin. Let’s do something about it.
Get rid of Bixby by Google Assistant
Samsung Galaxy smartwatches come with the company’s voice assistant, Bixby. This is one of the main pain points for Google fans. Bixby can do many of the same things that Google Assistant does, but that doesn’t matter if you’re already invested in the Google ecosystem.
In the past, you had to resort to hacking methods and third-party apps to get Google Assistant on a Samsung watch. You don’t have to do that anymore. Google Assistant is officially available and can be assigned to the Home key for quick access. Say goodbye to Bixby.
RELATED: How to install Google Assistant on Samsung Galaxy smartwatches
Sync Samsung health data with Google Fit
One of the best features of a Samsung smartwatch is its fitness tracking. It can track typical activities, but it also has automatic exercise detection, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and much more. Samsung Health is really just a good fitness app.
You can install Google Fit on your Samsung watch from the Play Store, but you may not want to. Samsung Health is more deeply integrated with the watch’s sensors, which means it’ll give you access to more data and be a bit more accurate.
However, if you’ve been using Google Fit for a while, or just like how it organizes your data, you can sync it from Samsung Health. All you need is a handy app called “Health Sync”. You can also sync with Fitbit if you want.
RELATED: How to sync fitness data from Samsung Health to Google Fit
Check your Google calendar
Google Calendar is one of the few Google apps that cannot be installed on a Samsung watch. Fortunately, that doesn’t really matter. If you use Google Calendar on your Android phone, it will automatically sync with the calendar app on the watch, no setup required!
Also, notifications from the Google Calendar app on your phone will appear on your Samsung watch. So even if you don’t use the Calendar app on your watch, you’ll never miss a reminder of an important event.
Create a shortcut to Google Wallet
Samsung Pay is the default mobile payment app on Samsung watches, but you can also install Google Wallet. However, Samsung Pay is stuck on the Back key long press shortcut. The good news is that there is another shortcut you can use for Google Wallet.
Staying on your phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app and select “Watch Settings.”
Open “Advanced Features.”
Now you can choose “Google Wallet” for the “Double Press” home key.
Give it that Pixel watch look
Finally, you can even make your Samsung Galaxy smartwatch look a little more like Google. The easiest way to find Google-themed watch faces is through a search on the Play Store or through an app called Facer. Facer is a watch face repository with tons of user created watch faces.
Just install Facer from Play Store on both your phone and watch. Set “Facer” as your watch face and choose your Galaxy Watch model during setup in the phone app. Now you can search “Google” or “Pixel” and set the face you want from the app.
Google apps available for Samsung Galaxy watches
To finish off, there is a decent list of Google apps that you can install on a Samsung Galaxy Watch. Not all of these make sense to actually use – Google Contacts isn’t any better than the default Contacts app – but you might want to check them out.
There you go. Just because your watch is made by Samsung doesn’t mean it can’t feel like a Google watch. In fact, your Galaxy Watch could be better than the Pixel Watch.
RELATED: Google is not Apple and should stop trying to be
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