Can my primary number ring on both my phone and the watch?

[skatergirl]

How does this work?

Thank you!

 

[kieso]

Yes if they are paired by Bluetooth both will ring. When away from your phone I'd recommend manually forwarding your calls to your watch with *72. If you use the auto call forwarding it uses *92 which lets your phone ring about 4 times before it gets forwarded

 

[skatergirl]

Thank you! I was worried that I would have to forward my calls and texts when my Note was with me and then not have the option of using my phone to answer.

So, an example:

I have my phone and watch paired bluetooth. My dog runs of the house and down the street. I go running after her and my husband runs in a different direction ... because my dog is dang fast and it takes more than one of us to catch her, lol. My phone stays on my desk. I assume at that point my phone unpairs from the watch but I can still make a call from my watch with its dedicated number to check to see if the dog has been caught?

Or .... I decide I want to leave the house for a few minutes without my phone. Then I would forward my number while I am going to be away from the phone.

I can't imagine the second example happening too often because I like having my camera with me at all times. That said, I love the fact that I will be connected in the event my phone is missing or I have an emergency like the dog running out of the house and I have to run without grabbing my phone.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Thank you! I was worried that I would have to forward my calls and texts when my Note was with me and then not have the option of using my phone to answer.

So, an example:

I have my phone and watch paired bluetooth. My dog runs of the house and down the street. I go running after her and my husband runs in a different direction ... because my dog is dang fast and it takes more than one of us to catch her, lol. My phone stays on my desk. I assume at that point my phone unpairs from the watch but I can still make a call from my watch with its dedicated number to check to see if the dog has been caught?

Or .... I decide I want to leave the house for a few minutes without my phone. Then I would forward my number while I am going to be away from the phone.

I can't imagine the second example happening too often because I like having my camera with me at all times. That said, I love the fact that I will be connected in the event my phone is missing or I have an emergency like the dog running out of the house and I have to run without grabbing my phone.

You're exactly correct.
I leave my phone at home often, sometimes all day. The first time I did it I freaked because I forgot I'd left my phone at home on purpose and thought I'd lost the darn thing.
Oh and if/when you get a ghost vibration on your wrist, with or without having the watch on, you're not the only one that gets it

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[BarryH_GEG]

Manual call forwarding is a PIA. You have to remember to disconnect it every time your Gear re-connects to your device via BT. People on VZW and Sprint have no choice because for some reason CDMA (vs. GSM) Gear's don't fully support auto call forwarding. To me at least, not having to worry about how and when my Gear and device are connected is one the most liberating features.

AT&T allows you to set the duration before a call is forwarded ranging from 30 to 5 seconds. The default is 20 which is way too long because by the time the call hits your Gear the caller's given up. I'm at 10 seconds and that's fine but means once a call hits your Gear with a second or two of latency built in you have a short time to answer it. If AT&T offers this I'd imagine other carriers must offer something similar.

Noobs keep in mind you have two different and discrete VM systems - one for the host device and one for the Gear. If a call's forwarded to the Gear and someone leaves a message it's on the Gear's VM not your phones. The VM's that show up in the Gear's notifications have different icons for both the phone and Gear so you know where a received VM you received resides. For those using Visual Voicemal, disable the host phone's notification of regular VM via GM and enable Visual Voicemail. Otherwise you get voice mail notifications on your Gear that you have to delete by long-pressing them and hitting the "x" in the upper right corner rather than just deleting (or bulk deleting) them.

 

[mountainbikermark]

I don't do manual call forwarding. For emergencies my family usually sends a text asking me to call them anyway. They're so text heavy I'm not even sure if my kids remember how to initiate a phone call anymore lol

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[geekaren]

Gear S is the perfect smartwatch for dog owners... you can just run out the door if your pup needs to get out urgently, and not worry about bringing your phone even for planned walks.

I was out walking my dog about a month ago, ran across the neighbor's dog on an unauthorized adventure, called my neighbor (on my Gear S) to let him know I had his dog -- he had no clue I called via my watch.

 

[RC_Cola]

Hi Barry,
Can you please walk us through the steps on how to change the duration time before a call is forwarded.

Thank you

 

[skatergirl]

Such great information on this thread. Thanks to everyone. I hope there are even more replies with more great information.

 

[BarryH_GEG]

Hi Barry,
Can you please walk us through the steps on how to change the duration time before a call is forwarded. Thank you

That's easy, call 1 (800) 331-0500 which is AT&T's Mobile support number. It's a network setting and not one the user has access to. When I changed mine the CSR couldn't find anyway to bring the delay down beyond 20 seconds because lower options were grayed out. I told her others did it before me and she put me on hold and found a sub-menu that allowed her to select any of the setting times. You may have to be persistent depending on the quality of your CSR.

 

[foxbat121]

You can change it yourself if you are on AT&T or T-Mobile: Change How Long Your Phone Rings Before Sending Calls to Voicemail. Please note the auto-forwarding uses the same conditional forwarding as voicemail, just to different numbers. In my experience, change the voice mail delay changes the auto-forwarding delay for Watch S as well.

 

[BarryH_GEG]

You can change it yourself if you are on AT&T.

I saw that and tried it but it didn't work; at least via my Note 4. That's why I ended up on the phone.

 

[Jamez Avila]

Why not just set the "remote connection" on the Gear S which will forward any texts you receive when not paired via bluetooth and then you can use the "auto call forwarding"??

 

[Dankees]

You're exactly correct.
I leave my phone at home often, sometimes all day. The first time I did it I freaked because I forgot I'd left my phone at home on purpose and thought I'd lost the darn thing.
Oh and if/when you get a ghost vibration on your wrist, with or without having the watch on, you're not the only one that gets it

Support Our Troops !!!
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Beast Mode 4

Do you need to have a SIM Card installed to do this?

 

[dabombcra]

You need a Sim Card of you want to use this as a standalone phone. I always have my phone on me so I don't have the need for a Sim. I can answer calls through the watch as long as it is near my phone.