Allow Galaxy Watches to be paired with tablets

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. I’m 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 I’ll try to help.

Ron
Moderator
Samsung Developers Community

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.

Hi,

I’ll leave the thread open but…

Both Android Studio and Watch Face Studio require Windows (or for WFS macOS). Neither will run on an Android device so you can’t 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.

Ron
Samsung Developer Relations

Can someone please explain why a tablet isn’t 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" “phablet” 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 I’ve 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.

You can connect a Wear OS watch to a iPhone that isn’t a big issue.

I can make a few guesses as to why it isn’t allowed but you probably have your own guesses.

Ron
Samsung Developer Relations

Hi!

I forgot this post was even still up, haha.

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.

I’m not sure why Samsung refuses to allow their watches to connect to tablets, but unless I’m 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!

Like @r.liechty_SDR said as long as its a phone it should pair? No need samsung brand.

@williswalker3 time to get a new phone. U need one eventually?

Also why not search for phone emulator then can run on a tablet