Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Watch and Gear S3 receive new firmware updates

Samsung has surprised owners of its pre-One UI Watch smartwatches with a new round of software updates. Spotted by Tizen Help, the updates have arrived for the Gear S3, Galaxy Watch and the Galaxy Watch 3, which are six years, five years and two years old, respectively. Theoretically, the Galaxy Watch 3 should still receive software updates for a while yet, but it is unusual for Samsung to continue updating the Galaxy Watch and Gear S3.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the three updates do not contain any new features. Instead, Samsung has focused on resolving various GPS issues that are still present in the trio. According to Tizen Help, Samsung has released the update as R800XXU1GVG1 for the Galaxy Watch and R845FXXU1EVG1 for the Galaxy Watch 3. Conversely, the build number for the Gear S3 is unknown at this stage. However, a Redditor has confirmed that the update addresses the same GPS stability issues.

Unfortunately, Samsung has not outlined when software support will end for the Galaxy Watch or the Gear S3. Seemingly, the pair are on annual software releases, with the Galaxy Watch last receiving a software update in early 2021. Still, development communities remain for Samsung's older smartwatches. For example, a developer has managed to port Wear OS 2 to the Gear S3 with some success. Hence, there remains life in the Gear S3 yet, and not just from Samsung's sporadic updates.  

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