Samsung announced that its forthcoming One UI Watch 4.5 update will add new accessibility features to its Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic smartwatches. The settings will essentially allow users to adjust audio and visual settings, including colour adjustments and rebalancing stereo audio.
Will the update include users who have a hard time distinguishing colours?
For users who may have a hard time distinguishing colours, the update will allow them to tweak the display with various colour filters.
Samsung is also introducing settings so users can increase contrast to make fonts more readable, disable transparency and blur effects, and remove any animations.
Are there any updates for People who are hard of hearing?
People who are hard of hearing will be able to adjust the balance between left and right audio outputs to a Bluetooth headset. However, Samsung says in the fine print that this feature won’t work during phone calls.
The company will also let you extend how long touchscreen taps last and disable repeated taps, and the update allows users to decide how long volume controls and notifications appear on the screen.
Are there any other updates?
As for settings, Samsung is consolidating accessibility options into one menu so they’re easier to find. If there’s a feature you commonly use, you can also forgo the menu entirely and program a shortcut to the watch’s home button. Samsung will also let you create a “favorites list” of your preferred watch faces for faster access.
To make typing on an smartwatch display easier, the Galaxy Watches will add new writing inputs to their QWERTY keyboards, like swipe to type, handwriting, and dictation. Samsung says the new keyboard will let users easily switch between those different input methods, depending on what’s most convenient for them moment-to-moment. For instance, if you are dictating a text aloud, you can then switch to handwriting for extra privacy.
Finally, the Galaxy Watch lineup will get dual-SIM support — provided it’s paired to a dual-SIM Galaxy phone. If so, you can set which is your preferred SIM card, and that’ll be automatically synced with the watch. That way, users can make and take calls from two separate numbers.
When is the update expected to roll out to users?
Samsung says One UI Watch 4.5 is slated for the third quarter of this year and will also be available on any future Galaxy Watch series. It is expected to be on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. The company generally holds an Unpacked event in late summer, and that’s historically been when Samsung unveils any new smartwatches before they ship in the fall.
