I recently purchased a Galaxy Watch 4, after being advised by Samsung that it would pair with my Samsung tablet. After trying all manner of recommendations, the watch still will not pair with the tablet and will not function properly.
For users like myself, who do not have a compatible Samsung phone with which to pair a Galaxy Watch to,
it would be very useful to have the ability to pair it to a compatible tablet, or any other Samsung device that meets the minimum software/hardware requirements.
That is correct you can only pair a smart watch with a Mobile device. Iām sorry you got bad information about the tablet. You do not need a Samsung mobile phone most Android or iOS phones will work you just need to download the wearable app to those devices.
Since this is a end product question it will be removed shortly but if you need any additional information on pairing your device to a non-Samsung phone Iāll try to help.
Thank you for your reply, however I must urge you to leave this post open.
I am a developer wanting to make an app for the Galaxy Watch 4, and I cannot do this thanks to these limitations.
I truly believe that support for tablets would greatly benefit many developers such as myself, who either find a tablet more comfortable to work on, or who simply do not have a compatible phone.
Both Android Studio and Watch Face Studio require Windows (or for WFS macOS). Neither will run on an Android device so you canāt make an App for Galaxy Watch4 with a tablet.
But there is no need to have any mobile phone to run an App from Watch Face Studio on your Watch for testing.
Can someone please explain why a tablet isnāt possible to connect with the galaxy watch? What is lacking? I have a Huawei M6 8.4 tablet, that in all respects is a large phone and use it as such. All the apps are phone apps, which can be annoying since Android is set to a standard screen size. Get out of that ratio and the app screens get all messed up. Anyway, the only thing I know of that holds it back is the lack of NFC. I have not seen anywhere that NFC is required for the two devices to connect, I have only seen wifi and bluetooth mentioned in the startup process. At present, I have only been able to pair the watch 4 to the M6 by bluetooth. Not a very functional connection. It would be great if someone would turn out an 8" āphabletā with the specs of the S-Ultra, without being a foldable. For now, the Huawei M6 Turbo is the best in class in this arena, that Iāve found, if you want Android. Like the guy who introduced this topic, I had only read that IOS was not supported. I never considered other versions of Android were also not capable. I would like to understand this inability within Android. What are the true mating requirements.
Since writing my initial post, I have learned a bit more about the situation.
As it turns out, Galaxy watches seem to be mostly, if not fully compatible with tablets.
In the Wearables app, there is a function that checks what type of device you have, to determine what you can connect to.
Since this is a simple flag in software, it is possible to trick the app into thinking your tablet is a phone, and voila!
You can now connect to your watch with seemingly full functionality, minus any phone-related activities that the tablet itself does not support.
Iām not sure why Samsung refuses to allow their watches to connect to tablets, but unless Iām missing something, it seems like an incredibly easy thing for them to enable.
So, to be clear - HOW do you trick the app to recognize a tablet? I have a tablet that I would like to use because my old Android phone is dying and the only thing I use it for is connecting to Samsung wearable products. HELP!
This is important to me. Iād like to use a standalone watch7 and galaxy tab together. Its healthier for how i like to use technology without being too distracted.
I think samsung did not make even the galaxy watch ultra standalone.
Although there is no reason for it, you canāt log into samsung without a secondary device, you canāt log in google and canāt load into most apps anyway.
There is no valid reason for it, but they only want to sell the 800ā¬ watch along with a 800+ā¬ smartphone. I have decoded the samsung wearables app, there is literally isTablet() methods within the files that basically goes : if ātabletā stop working.
Even if itās not the intended primary/normal use, there should be an official way to make it work via developers option or something. I also argue this is one of the best setup you could ever hope for : tablet at home, watch on wrist. DONE.
When we now have LTE tablets aswell, there is really no reason to keep this rule up. Samsung, use the developers you pay or hire me to do something uselful.
Hello @rsepierre,
You do not need to have Samsung Mobile to connect your Galaxy watch. Galaxy watch is not Samsung restricted. If you have a mobile device, the watch will work whatever the OS is.
Yes, Tablets will not work for Galaxy watches as Ron said earlier.
Hello I just bought a 800ā¬ LTE capable galaxy watch ultra and a 1000ā¬ tablet. I returned my phone. I put my telephony carrier on the watch eSim. I bought what I bought because this is what I wanted. My reasons are similar to this guyās :
You ācareā about digital well being but pay high salaries for developers to prevent paying customers to not carry a distraction device everywhere they go (phone).
Iām in the process of decompiling and patching Samsung health, watch7 plugin, Samsung accessory services and galaxy wearables with custom signatures to be able to pair the two devices together.
You literally have lines of code put there intentionally that reads āif tablet : donāt connectā. Besides this itās just about getting across all the security checks. There is no missing capabilities on a tablet that would make it not compatible. Any developer from Samsung could solve this under a dayās worth of work if not an hour.
But you work against your customers.
For now I manage to connect the watch to the tablet, but then it doesnāt work because I think I didnāt add my signature to all samsung apps. This is without rooting anything so there isnāt any downsides.
Anyone else interested in making this work and dev capabilities should pm me or reply to this post.
If I make it work I will post my apps on Reddit and XDA so that people can install my unsecured sketchy apps with custom signature downloaded from the web because Samsung is working against their interest.
If I canāt make it work I will get a 1800ā¬ refund and never buy anything from Samsung again.
All you have to do as a company is not prevent customers to use what they bought.
How is it that I can pair my watch to a used iphone but not a 1000+ā¬ LTE enabled (or not) tablet from YOUR COMPANY.
Hello,
Sorry for the inconvenience. We understand your frustration.
Each and every policy has taken by Samsung after lots of analysis. Our main concern is to serve our customers/users with 100% satisfaction.
However this is not the right channel for device related query/feature request.
If you want to escalate this user/compatibility issue further, please raise an issue via Samsung Members app.
Alternatively, you can contact Samsung Customer Support. You can find the support channels available in your country at Support Home | Official Samsung Support US. These are the appropriate channels to raise user VoC.
I just send email to the CEOās office, but I guess there is little chances it getās read.
What is a āleaderā of the samsung ādeveloperā program team ? You donāt have any relations with developers ?
I think itās also your job to escalate issues. Iām sure you would find a way to escalate the matter if there was a forum post about a critical zero-day vulnerability for exemple.
This also means you are choosing not escalate this issue.
Now I would say that having someone distributing custom signed samsung apps on reddit and XDA is a pretty major security flaw. But hey I donāt work there !
Also Samsung should not be competing with me in terms of offering features to its customers. I should not be able to do a better job, I should not have to patch your apps and we should not have this discussion.
Your policies and devices are held back by 3 lines of code, you should seek to improve it and when users will be happy about the update and watch sales are up, you get a promotion.
Each and every policy has taken by Samsung after lots of analysis. Our main concern is to serve our customers/users with 100% satisfaction.
No it wasnāt. It has been like this since the first samsung watch. Now we have LTE enabled watches and LTE enabled tablets you claim are āultraā. You have analyzed 10 years ago. We are due a new analysis.
Hello,
As we have said, this is not the appropriate channel for device/user/sale related issue/queries.
This community is only designed for supporting the developers who are using Samsung SDK/Tools. And we, the Samsung Developer Program Technical Support team provides guidance to developers and designers who are integrating Samsung SDKs and/or using Samsung Tools that are available https://developer.samsung.com/.
Please contact via Samsung Members App or Samsung Customer Support as we have already shared, hopefully you will get the support faster.
If you have any development or WF design related query, please let us know. We all here to support you.
I donāt understand why the restriction is put in place.
My situation:
I bought 3 galaxy Tab S9 for my children all under the age of 12.
The tablets all came with a galaxy watch 6 lte as a promotion. (Which was why i decided to purchase)
My children do not have mobile phones as i donāt want them to at their age.
As they came together and all the same brand (Galaxy) i had expected them to all work to seamlessly.
To my surprise my children canāt use their new watches as i now know they not compatible with the tablets they came with.
This is a ludicrous situation and I canāt see a logical explanation for this restriction.
I have 3 useless watches which i was hoping to get lte contract so they are contactable and trackable without having a phone.
Please can someone within samsung push for this to be changed in the samsung wear app.
