Samsung releases FIFA World Cup 2022-themed update for Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro

While Samsung is not an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2022, the company has sought to bring a flavour of this year’s tournament to the Galaxy Watch5 series with its latest update. According to the company’s changelog, the November 2022 update introduces a new ‘Ball’ watch face, an overview of which we have provided below. As with other One UI Watch interfaces, the Ball watch face contains a few customisation options, with nearly 40 colour combinations to choose from, as well as options for setting a complication and hand colours.

As the screenshot below highlights, Samsung has included some obvious nods to flags of nations that have qualified. For animation, all flags appear to contain identical animations, with each ball rolling left or right depending on which way you move your watch. Additionally, this month’s update contains new stability codes that Samsung describes as improving notifications and device behaviour.

The AKV7 update also moves the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro on from the July 2022 set of Android security patches. In their place arrives November 2022 patches, likely just a week before Google replaces these with newer security patches. Hopefully, the four-month gap between security patches is not a sign of things to come with the Galaxy Watch5 series. With Samsung having added next to no new features to One UI Watch since introducing the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro in August as well, it seems that the company’s smartwatches are not receiving the same level of software support as its recent smartphones. 

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