Samsung hasn’t given up on Tizen smartwatches completely!

Fall detection has been improved, new watch faces have been added, and group challenges have been updated for the Galaxy Watch models.

When Samsung announced that it was ditching Tizen in favor of Wear OS 3, it promised that it would not abandon older Galaxy Watch models. As part of One UI 4, Samsung has announced new watch faces and health features for the Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Watch Active, and Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Fall detection isn’t new to Samsung smartwatches, but with today’s update, you’ll be able to adjust the sensitivity of the feature. You can “choose to detect a fall when you are standing still,” according to Samsung’s press release. Samsung’s fall detection feature was previously intended to detect hard falls while running or moving. When the feature is activated, an SOS message is automatically sent to pre-selected contacts. The feature, however, is only available on Samsung’s newer Tizen watches and will not be available on the original Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Watch Active.

Group Challenges, a small health feature update, allows you to keep track of the competition from your wrist. All four smartwatches will also get ten new watch faces that debuted with the Galaxy Watch 4 this summer. When it comes to when all of these updates will be available, Samsung claims that Bluetooth devices will be the first to receive them, with the LTE rollout following later. You’ll also need to update your Galaxy Wearable app and Galaxy Watch plugin, according to Samsung.

These aren’t groundbreaking updates, but it’s good to see Samsung hasn’t abandoned its Tizen smartwatches — especially since the Galaxy Watch Active 2 and Galaxy Watch 3 were still new when Samsung announced its Tizen abandonment. In Wear OS 2, Google has been steadily adding and improving features, such as Gboard and a redesigned Play Store. Given how difficult the transition to the new unified Wear OS 3 will be, it’s especially important to see Samsung and Google support older hardware. Only Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatches currently support Wear OS, and only a small number of existing Wear OS watches will be eligible for an upgrade in 2022.