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Just wanted to start a list of the best apps that we think are available for the S2
Calculator Plus+ is a good one, it's what you'd think, a calculator, and it works. It is optimized for a round screen. So crazy that Sammy never added a calculator as a stock app.
Sent from my SM-N920P using XDA Free mobile app
That's a problem... The list is quite empty. I am returning this thing because of that and also because of:
I owned first Gear as well as Gear S in the past and quite frankly Samsung is going backwards with their watches.
There is one Pro in this one - it is good looking, I like the design.
Well - 1/2 point for the rotating bezel. It is kind of cool but I am so used to the touch controls that barely used it.
The rest of review is pretty much all Cons:
1. Lack of speaker - ok, some say it looks silly to talk to the wrist but sometimes it was useful. Why removed if all previous watches hat one?
2. Lack of apps - seriously, there is NO useful app available for this watch. I had plenty of apps on Gear S and none of them is re-written for the round watch.
3. Vibrations are barely sensed - I had it set to strong and long and miss half of the notifications
4. Screen decides on its own if it wants to light up when the notification comes. Not reliable at all
5. Previous models had option to come back to the last used app after the screen turns off, very useful for timer, stopwatch, music control. This cames back to the watch screen always. Try to skip the tracks from the watch when you have to turn the dial to the music app every time.....
6. No auto brightness. Seriously? Go out - make the screen brighter by hand. Come back, dim it by hand...
7. Straps.... out of 4 halves I found in the box (2 to make a long strap and 2 to make a short one) I was able to attach 3 of them, the 4th would not fit. And I guarantee you that after couple replacements the mount will break....
8. No sleep patterns tracking on the watch
9. Battery - that's another screw up. Samsung advertises 2-3 days... Right...I liek to have the watch set to always on. Gear S had about 40% left at the end of the day. This garbage had 18% at 11pm last night....
10. No integration with Google Now - no cards, no reminders to be set... I thought Samsung finally understood that S-Voice cannot compete with any assistant available... I guess they are too stupid to get that
11. No integration with Google Maps - Here maps are great but on the watch it is a disaster, completely useless, slow, chews through the battery.
12. No way to choose if one wears it on the left or right wrist hence when you wear it on the right the buttons are above the watch and you cover the face of it while pressing.
13. no night clock mode while charging - all you see while being charged is a blackscreen.
There is probably more flaws but I either did not discover them or do not remember. Generally the watch is going back to Best Buy and I will wait for Moto 360 Sport or LG Urbane 2
And with Samsung phones going backwards as well (S6, Note 5) Samsung lost a customer (I own Note 4 now and I had Note 1, 2 and 3 in the past)
Wow, so that last post was mostly off-topic lol. Interesting points...just not relevant for this specific thread. Better to post that in a gear s vs gear s2 thread or something like that
sefrcoko said:
Wow, so that last post was mostly off-topic lol. Interesting points...just not relevant for this specific thread. Better to post that in a gear s vs gear s2 thread or something like that
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Haha. I've seen his post there also. I guess he REALLY wants people to know how he feels!
Wow..clearly he felt his review thread wasn't enough but now he has to post his review everywhere. Move along... .
Well back on topic... A fun little app to play with is Xenozu. It's a YouTube app that let's you search and watch videos. You do have to have a Bluetooth headset attached but it works when linked to wifi. It's more novelty then anything but fun nonetheless.
Wow can we boot that guy for hating so much, it may not be the best compared to a phone, but that's because it's a watch....plus my gear s2 does have a daylight mode, I walk out side and it will adjust itself. Also, am able to use my watch with the face always on and have about 45% by end of day, I have to constantly play with it for it to die.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using XDA Free mobile app
kufel said:
1. Lack of speaker - ok, some say it looks silly to talk to the wrist...
So, what's that little hole on the side between the buttons? The one you talk into for SVoice.
2. Lack of apps
It's brand spanking new... give it time
3. Vibrations are barely sensed
Subjective... I can feel it just fine on soft/weak/low, whatever
4. Screen decides on its own if it wants to light up when the notification comes.
o_0
5. Previous models had option to come back to the last used app after the screen turns off...
I'll skip this one because I have no clue what you're talking about
6. No auto brightness. Seriously?
Outdoor mode is automatic, you don't have to touch anything and it goes into auto brightness. Seriously
7. Straps
Mine come off and snap on just fine and are very solid. Perhaps you're doing it wrong?
8. No sleep patterns tracking on the watch
S-Health, oh and 24 hour activity tracking
9. Battery - that's another screw up. Samsung advertises 2-3 days...
Are you analyzing "day one" usage, straight OTB during fiddle and "hey look what I just got" time?
10. No integration with Google Now
It's Tizen, this has been known for quite some time now
11. No integration with Google Maps
Read comment for #10
12. No way to choose if one wears it on the left or right wrist...
WUT???
13. no night clock mode while charging
Big f*ing deal... you're wanting it to track your sleep patterns anyway right?
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Jus' sayin
Jus' clarifyin'
1. That's a mic not a speaker. Speaker is on 3G version
5. Previous app should be an option when reactivating watch. Viable point imo
8. As it stands, there is no auto sleep log. Should be addressed by Samsung. S-health even tells you to add a wearable for the function to work??
10 & 11. Google needs to be adopted for the watch to succeed under android I feel
12. See the point, but analogs never adjusted to which arm the watch was worn on. The user needs to adapt
Sorry to be short, it's late ;b
I assumed he meant mic and not speaker since he describes "talking to the wrist"
bkai said:
I assumed he meant mic and not speaker since he describes "talking to the wrist"
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My reply would be "Talk to the hand"
Back on topic: Parkmobile just appeared in the app store for the GS2, at least in the Netherlands. Great app for Parkmobile users.
Notifications for Gear s1 & 2
The app "notifications for gear s" is a must have. I am able to reply to facebook messenger and see my Google now cards. It's awesome.
I ony had my watch for less than a day, so obviously I'm still discovering new stuff, but so far I found:
- Calculator (free! and does the job) - this is a samsung app
- News Republic: I was pleasantly surprised to see they have a (free) companion app for the S2, this has been my main news app on my phone for ages (very customisable and looks nice, I love it)
- Gear Pong: just because why not
The Samsung Gear store is terrible by the way... Why with the stupid ugly watch faces flooding every category??? Do some clean up Samsung!
Protagoras said:
- Gear Pong: just because why not
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Wow, have You actually won even once? I couldn't, haha. Better games imo are FireFly or Colora
OK. Whining aside is there a program that will allow me to get reminders? I use Touchdown as my regular calendar and I think I can use my Samsung calendar but can't get S Voice to work off the GS2.
rogerperk said:
OK. Whining aside is there a program that will allow me to get reminders? I use Touchdown as my regular calendar and I think I can use my Samsung calendar but can't get S Voice to work off the GS2.
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Never mind! Reminders work you just have to set them on the phone. That works for me!
"I am Alive" by Kittikhun Yodrak is very useful. It's basically a toggle for screen always on. No idea why the app is so big though (7.5 MB)...
Cryps said:
Jus' clarifyin'
5. Previous app should be an option when reactivating watch. Viable point imo
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Well, at least you can configure the menu button double-click to launch last opened app.
Metronome and Guitar Tuner pls
Anyone, please... Make Metronome app / Guitar Tuner app for Gear S2. Please.........
So Ive been looking around on the Samsung Store for a watch face which displays both the Watch and Phones battery percentage on the watch face, and havent been able to find anything. Ive downloaded Gear Watch Designer to see if I could make my own watch face with these options, but cant figure out the coding. Im coming from a Moto 360 2015, and you can either find a ton of watch faces with both Watch and Phone Battery levels, or create your own through a watch face maker app on the phone, and choose these options easily.
Is there a way to do this with the Gear S2? I love the way the watch works overall with my S7e, and love that I can accurately type on it as opposed to my Moto 360 2015 which I am only allowed voice input to reply. I know the Moto 260 2015 has an app that lets you type, but its shoddy at best, and doesnt recognize my taps most of the time. But really the only feature that I really like on my Moto 360 2015 that I cant find on my Gear S2, is showing both Watch and Phone Battery.
Id rather not have to use a widget for this, as Id like to just be able to look at my watch and check the time, as well as battery levels of both devices. Sometimes I just dont get the chance to check my phone, and realize it needs to be charged, and having this info displayed on my wrist is much more convenient.
Since Im asking, I havent really done much searching, but is there a site where I can find templates for Gear Watch Designer? Im not very good at doing my own designing of watch faces, but there have been quite a few watch faces I really liked, that I just would like to reposition some of the information shown. I could do this easily with Watch Maker for my Moto, if the author allowed editing of their watch design. Was just curious if there was a repository for the Gear S2, or if there was an app similar to Watch Maker that I could use to create my own watch face, without having to use a PC.
It's 11:30 at night, and I could have been in bed an hour ago. Instead, I have been compulsively searching for a watch face I first downloaded in April of 2016 that my Samsung Gear S2 has decided not to show record of after a reset to sync to my new Galaxy S9. So, apologies in advance if I'm too tired to be using this forum correctly. I, of course, have no photo of the watch face; only a description and the hope that when I wake up someone will know the name of it because I cannot for the life of me come up with any search terms to find it. The watch face had a spring green background and featured three animals - a bear, a rabbit, and I think a bird. They would dance, sleep, or hold flowers. One screen showed the time; you could tap to reveal the date, and tap again to show the battery life of the watch. The best way to describe the art style would be kawaii; the animals looked similar to the cat Pusheen. I've tried searching kawaii, cute, animals, spring, dancing, animated... nothing. I've had two or three phones since I first got the gear and I've somehow managed to track down the watch face every other time, but whatever I've done in the past is eluding me. Thanks in advance.
See your download in your account on Galaxy Gear app : My Apps - All
dersie said:
See your download in your account on Galaxy Gear app : My Apps - All
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For some reason it's not showing the full history of every watch face I've downloaded in the past, which is odd... especially since I've installed this one on my gear multiple times.
First let me say this is a very fine piece of Hardware and I have been researching it these last few days and got nowhere, yes I see the demo's and reviews and it's all great but...………………………… and it is a big but
and please correct me if I am wrong and take it as a question more than a statement
- I cannot get access to view the available apps unless I have a Samsung phone - which I don't
- I have done numerous searches to find what I want and come up with near enough nothing
Currently I have a Smartwatch with a single watchface that is giving me all this when I look at it
Time Day and date at my location
Time at another location
Watch Batt Status
Phone Batt Status
Weather today temp hi/lo with pic
Currency conversion of my choosing (set on phone) realtime
It shows me all messages from all my messaging apps on my phone with the text, sms, line, FBmessenger WhatsApp etc.
Incoming calls with contact details or number etc
I can set my phone on the other side of the room and fully control my music player (poweramp) with album art etc, my music is stored as mp3 on the phone so is there even a music player app for the Gear S3 that can access the music on my phone and play it controlling the phone and playing from the phone ?
I really would like to buy this watch but can it do all that, can it even do all that with separate apps if want to scroll through to get there for stuff like currency and media control (Sony Phone)
can someone please confirm
Yes I get that I am not going to get a watch face that will show me what my current one does but is it even possible using apps widgets downloaded to the phone and/or watch to at least give me the functionality I have now
And I stress I am not being critical of the Gear S3 because I really like it and I want one provided it can tick all the boxes
Probably with a Wear OS watch
dersie said:
Probably with a Wear OS watch
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yes I agree, I've been doing a lot of reading up these last few days and the Samsung Gear S3 is the best watch on the market but it fails miserably because they opted to break from Android OS (Wear), I think they were trying to become Brand Specific like Apple but that is never going to work on Android - very foolish
I have narrowed my choices down to 3, Ticwatch Pro, LG and Fossil, Ticwatch is slightly in the lead, but I have decided that it must be Android OS, just a pity Samsung S3 went a different direction, I am not going to buy a watch that only functions for 50% of what I want no matter how good the Hardware is, to me it is a fail and wouldn't take it at half the price
Geoffxx said:
yes I agree, I've been doing a lot of reading up these last few days and the Samsung Gear S3 is the best watch on the market but it fails miserably because they opted to break from Android OS (Wear), I think they were trying to become Brand Specific like Apple but that is never going to work on Android - very foolish
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Click to collapse
I think the Gear S3 is the best watch at this time.
Wear watch are really horrible. Very bad battery life (sometime not last the day), a lot of bug and hang, often the watch take long seconds to respond (when it works, often not works but do not know why ???) ..... apps are very rare do not mistake I have G-Watch, R-Watch, LG-Sport, Sony SW3, Asus ZW2, Ticwatch E) all are almost unusables. You must install app (and often faces) with the phone AND AFTER use the watch (with tiny screen) to go on Playstore WITH the watch (when it works).
With Tizen you have the "Watchmaker" app (same as Wear OS) and you can have advanced watch face. On Tizen I have note app, Google Task app, evernote app..... nothing for Wear and almost none of this kind
dersie said:
I think the Gear S3 is the best watch at this time.
Wear watch are really horrible. Very bad battery life (sometime not last the day), a lot of bug and hang, often the watch take long seconds to respond (when it works, often not works but do not know why ???) ..... apps are very rare do not mistake I have G-Watch, R-Watch, LG-Sport, Sony SW3, Asus ZW2, Ticwatch E) all are almost unusables. You must install app (and often faces) with the phone AND AFTER use the watch (with tiny screen) to go on Playstore WITH the watch (when it works).
With Tizen you have the "Watchmaker" app (same as Wear OS) and you can have advanced watch face. On Tizen I have note app, Google Task app, evernote app..... nothing for Wear and almost none of this kind
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why not address my first post and tell me exactly (from my requirements) what the S3 can and cannot do
lets start with a live exchange rate widget or even stock quotes, I am still using a Sony Sw2 and it does everything I want it too, I actually just bought an LG Watch Urbane 2 nd Edition LTE Unlocked for 100GBP brand new, very cheap IMO
also if I buy and Samsung Gear S3 I lose 50% of the functionality because I don't have a Samsung phone and never will have
And what we lost with a no Samsung phone ? The only thing is, maybe, the Samsung Email app wich works with Samsung watch. But even with a Samsung phone I use Aquamail and not the Samsung mail. All others things works same with samsung and other phone since the S2 serie.
dersie said:
And what we lost with a no Samsung phone ? The only thing is, maybe, the Samsung Email app wich works with Samsung watch. But even with a Samsung phone I use Aquamail and not the Samsung mail. All others things works same with samsung and other phone since the S2 serie.
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I believe you are wrong about that
Remember I don't have one and was unable to look at apps because I don't have Samsung phone.....but here is what I have read
- messaging doesn't work properly
- music player (control) extremely limited
- email
- calling functionality
- limited apps but I honestly don't know this for sure because I can't access the app store to look, what I do know is that AW is 100% supported with apps for absolutely everything I would ever need
like I mentioned - stuff like currency/stock tracking doesn't exist, XE is AW enabled but doesn't exist on S3
I use Poweramp as my music player on my phone and can completely control it from my ancient Sony SW2 - go figure, this is extremely useful if I am out and want to hook my phone up to an external sound system - my phone sits meters away and I can control everything from SW from my seat, does Samsung S3 support Poweramp ?? well I don't know because I cannot access the secret Samsung app store without a Samsung Phone or SW - maybe they are hiding it
The list my friend is endless, like I said in my OP - the Gear S3 is IMO the best hardware out there but is unusable on a none Samsung setup and even if you have Samsung phone it is still limited because of lack of app support
IMO Samsung made an error not adopting Android Wear and would have dominated the market it they had
Like said, since Gear S2 Samsung apps works on all Android phone with 1.5Go RAM. Works also on IOS but limited for app wich have an android compagnon app. Messaging is like all others apps and works same way on Wear OS or Tizen OS.
Email ? wear has not really an email app, works just with notification system like Tizen OS. Same for all
Geoffxx said:
I believe you are wrong about that
Remember I don't have one and was unable to look at apps because I don't have Samsung phone.....but here is what I have read
- messaging doesn't work properly
- music player (control) extremely limited
- email
- calling functionality
- limited apps but I honestly don't know this for sure because I can't access the app store to look, what I do know is that AW is 100% supported with apps for absolutely everything I would ever need
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I have a OnePlus 6 and a S9+, currently my Gear S3 is paired with my OnePlus.
I get my messages through Google voice and Facebook messenger, both work well. The random text messages work too. With all of these I get notifications but don't have the history, which is fine IMO, I can see and reply to messages, but I don't need to start a conversation from my watch in my usage.
I can play/pause/fast forward/rewind/adjust volume. It works for what is playing already, so I can't start my podcast unless it is 'ready' in the Android system (ie, if I press the play button on my headphones and it would play the podcast/music).
Email, I get notifications for Gmail, can't start a conversation on the watch though.
I can call and recieve calls.
The apps appear to be the same.
I tried the TicWatch pro, it was good, but the health features were crap compared to the S3, plus no MST and slightly worse battery life made me go back to the S3.
Edit: I'm not sure about the watch face thing..... Maybe later this week I can set up the watch designer from Samsung and see if some/all can be added to a watch face.
_Dennis_ said:
I have a OnePlus 6 and a S9+, currently my Gear S3 is paired with my OnePlus.
I get my messages through Google voice and Facebook messenger, both work well. The random text messages work too. With all of these I get notifications but don't have the history, which is fine IMO, I can see and reply to messages, but I don't need to start a conversation from my watch in my usage.
I can play/pause/fast forward/rewind/adjust volume. It works for what is playing already, so I can't start my podcast unless it is 'ready' in the Android system (ie, if I press the play button on my headphones and it would play the podcast/music).
Email, I get notifications for Gmail, can't start a conversation on the watch though.
I can call and recieve calls.
The apps appear to be the same.
I tried the TicWatch pro, it was good, but the health features were crap compared to the S3, plus no MST and slightly worse battery life made me go back to the S3.
Edit: I'm not sure about the watch face thing..... Maybe later this week I can set up the watch designer from Samsung and see if some/all can be added to a watch face.
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like I said - 50 functionality, I want something that will work and is fully supported not something that is going to be hit and miss, but it is by far the best in terms of HW.
Over that last few days I have come across many people saying the same thing "I wish it was Android OS" even on this forum where one of the longest threads is about exactly that - porting AW
Geoffxx said:
like I said - 50 functionality, I want something that will work and is fully supported not something that is going to be hit and miss, but it is by far the best in terms of HW.
Over that last few days I have come across many people saying the same thing "I wish it was Android OS" even on this forum where one of the longest threads is about exactly that - porting AW
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I've had WearOS, the only thing that was better (and not by much) was side loading Facebook messenger lite. Otherwise, IMO, Tizen and WearOS are very close in functionality, with WearOS winning in apps and Tizen in hardware. WearOS had more apps, but most aren't very useful, and I can program watchface in Tizen easier then WearOS. Tizen had more built in (probably do to the lack of third party apps) so things like sleep tracking works better.
Honestly, but a watch from somewhere with a good return policy and try it out, it's the only way you'll know if it works for you. I'd do this with both watches and see which works better in your specific use case.
I'm honestly not trying to persuade you one way or the other, just having used both OS's recently I want to give an accurate description as to their strengths and weaknesses.
_Dennis_ said:
I've had WearOS, the only thing that was better (and not by much) was side loading Facebook messenger lite. Otherwise, IMO, Tizen and WearOS are very close in functionality, with WearOS winning in apps and Tizen in hardware. WearOS had more apps, but most aren't very useful, and I can program watchface in Tizen easier then WearOS. Tizen had more built in (probably do to the lack of third party apps) so things like sleep tracking works better.
Honestly, but a watch from somewhere with a good return policy and try it out, it's the only way you'll know if it works for you. I'd do this with both watches and see which works better in your specific use case.
I'm honestly not trying to persuade you one way or the other, just having used both OS's recently I want to give an accurate description as to their strengths and weaknesses.
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Thanks for the reply and I do understand, I'm in buying mode and have been reading and looking for hours upon hours just absorbing info on all the options, I started this thread for that exact purpose and it is turning out the way I wanted - input from experienced people that is helping me get through the clutter, I have order a watch that I managed to get at a reasonable price 100 sterling for an LG Urbane 2nd addition so no huge investment, the LG sport is a better watch but 2-3 times the price, so I will get it in a couple of days and see how I go with that, unfortunately I won't have my new phone until Sept (Xperia XZ2 Premium) so I will have to manage with my dated Xperia Z1 but it should give me an idea of what I'm dealing with
again thx for taking an interest in my thread you have been very helpful
had my first day with the LG and wow absolutely superb, helped along with the App watchfaces which is also superb
funny I set the watch up and charged it and went out, I actually thought there was something wrong when it showed 100% battery for 2 hours and then started to very slowly drop, I am now 8hrs in and still have 67% battery which I think is impressive, and I had an always on face with lots of widgets, very impressed
New to the forums and first post but had a question before I give up and grab a Garmin.
Trying to change the display faces while in running mode on my watch using S Health. Not committed to S Health program if theres another stand alone no phone needed program. By display faces I mean the info thats shown on screen one (change the large display of run time to pace specifically). Also if anyone knows how to keep the display on while running I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks everyone.
EDIT - Going to try out Endomondo since I can customize the data fields. Fingers crossed its accurate as a stand alone
SBpunk said:
New to the forums and first post but had a question before I give up and grab a Garmin.
Trying to change the display faces while in running mode on my watch using S Health. Not committed to S Health program if theres another stand alone no phone needed program. By display faces I mean the info thats shown on screen one (change the large display of run time to pace specifically). Also if anyone knows how to keep the display on while running I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks everyone.
EDIT - Going to try out Endomondo since I can customize the data fields. Fingers crossed its accurate as a stand alone
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You can customize the data fields in S health as well, just go to S health/training and next to the exercise is the option to customize all you want. I use it everyday and after the 4.0.1 update is working great.
Also if you want to keep the screen on I think is not possible because you can burn the screen... in that case use the wristband gesture to turn it on.