Support for Samsung smartwatches with Tizen ends in four weeks

Samsung and Google merged their Tizen and Wear OS operating systems back in 2021. Since then, Tizen has only been further developed for other devices, such as smart TVs. New Galaxy smartwatches from Samsung have only been released with Wear OS for four years now, and support for Tizen on the watches is being phased out. And in four weeks, it will finally end: the Tizen store will close and it will no longer be possible to install apps on the smartwatch via the corresponding app on the paired smartphone.

The cut-off date is September 30, 2025, according to a Samsung support document. Until then, the store can still be used to transfer apps and other content, such as watch faces, to the smartwatch. As of June 25, 2025, the Tizen Store will no longer distribute free content, which is likely to affect the many watch faces created by users, among other things. At the end of September, it will also no longer be possible to reinstall purchased apps that were previously deleted from the watch. The watches will continue to work, but updates for Tizen and the apps will no longer be available.

Affected devices and remedy

According to Android Authority, the Galaxy Gear, Gear 2, Gear Live, Gear S, Gear S2, Gear S3, Gear Sport, Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active, Galaxy Watch Active 2 and Galaxy Watch 3 smartwatches were delivered with Tizen. There are several ways to transfer apps to the watch after a factory reset by replacing the battery, for example. In this sub-reddit, some procedures are shown, some of which require root access to the smartphone. A method without root for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is described in the XDA forum. And there are also instructions for the Gear S2 and S3 in another thread. That thread also contains a list of app packages and watch faces that have already been backed up from the store, including the descriptions in the store at the time.

(nie)