Getting Started Questions From a Smartwatch Newb....

[Brew Swayne]

Picked up my first smartwatch the other day...Galaxy S3 Frontier (no carrier). Overall, I'm finding it to be pretty straight forward on how to use, but I still have questions. So here we go...

1. Is the Samsung Galaxy App store the only source apps for this device, or can I also find apps for it in the Play store? I never download apps for my phone from the Samsung App store because any app worth having is available in the Play store and the "exclusive" apps in the Samsung App store are usually pretty bad, so if I can avoid the Samsung App store, that'd be my preference.

2. Are there apps available for Line or FB Messenger that would allow me to read and reply directly from my watch? From what I've seen so far, Line only allows me to read the most recent message I've received and I can only reply with an emoji. Lame.

3. Is there a way to rotate the watch face 180 degrees? I wear my watch on my right wrist, so the speaker gets muffled by the top of my hand whenever I bend my wrist up. So I'd like to reverse the wristbands, but would also like to not have my watch face upside-down. Is this possible?

4. Is Google Play Music able to be used on this watch?

5. Can anyone recommend a reputable site/dealer that sells quality nylon/cloth wristbands for this watch? I've already got a nice titanium band on order for when I want to dress it up a bit, but I need a band for daily wear. I'm not a fan of the silicone band that comes with it at all. It's sticky and makes my wrist sweat. I feel like I'm wearing a giant freakin swatch watch.

6. If there's any "hidden" features or tips and tricks I should know about, please post.

Thanks.

 

[Onkel Per]

Congratulation​ with your new smartwatch. I'm sure you will enjoy using it.
1. S3 is running Tizen OS and not android wear, so I think the only place to find apps for the watch is the Samsung Galaxy App store.

 

[cwbcpa]

Picked up my first smartwatch the other day...Galaxy S3 Frontier (no carrier). Overall, I'm finding it to be pretty straight forward on how to use, but I still have questions. So here we go...

1. Is the Samsung Galaxy App store the only source apps for this device, or can I also find apps for it in the Play store? I never download apps for my phone from the Samsung App store because any app worth having is available in the Play store and the "exclusive" apps in the Samsung App store are usually pretty bad, so if I can avoid the Samsung App store, that'd be my preference.

2. Are there apps available for Line or FB Messenger that would allow me to read and reply directly from my watch? From what I've seen so far, Line only allows me to read the most recent message I've received and I can only reply with an emoji. Lame.

3. Is there a way to rotate the watch face 180 degrees? I wear my watch on my right wrist, so the speaker gets muffled by the top of my hand whenever I bend my wrist up. So I'd like to reverse the wristbands, but would also like to not have my watch face upside-down. Is this possible?

4. Is Google Play Music able to be used on this watch?

5. Can anyone recommend a reputable site/dealer that sells quality nylon/cloth wristbands for this watch? I've already got a nice titanium band on order for when I want to dress it up a bit, but I need a band for daily wear. I'm not a fan of the silicone band that comes with it at all. It's sticky and makes my wrist sweat. I feel like I'm wearing a giant freakin swatch watch.

6. If there's any "hidden" features or tips and tricks I should know about, please post.

Thanks.

1. The watch is running Samsung's​ own software so the Samsung app store is it.

2. I use Facebook messenger a little but not line. I'll m not sure how much you can do with either beyond receiving messages.

3. I don't think you can since that would make the numbers on the bezel upside down.

4. Yes. I use Google music and I can control it from my watch.

5. I don't but since any 22" band will work I would just do a Google search.

6. I don't have any specific tips but there are a ton of YouTube videos out there. Search for Gear S3 and watch videos.

Enjoy your watch and good luck!

 

[Brew Swayne]

Thanks for the info.

Ok, so other watches that are branded as "Android Wear" would likely have more compatibility with more Android apps then? Am I understanding that correctly? Admitedly, I didn't do a ton of research on watches before buying. I have a Note 4 phone (will likely upgrade to the Note 8 later this year if they don't explode), so a Samsung smartwatch seemed to be the logical choice as it would pair well with my phone.

I really like the watch so far, and it's not like I'm looking for anything that would resemble a full Android experience on my watch, but at the same time, if an Android Wear watch would give me a few more options, then that might be the way to go for me.

My only "real" complaint so far is not being able to respond to messages through Line or FB Messenger. It's not likely that I actually would be using my watch to respond all that often, but if I have my phone on the charger and I get a message, it'd be cool to reply direct from my watch instead of going to wherever I happen to have my phone plugged in at the time.

 

[lv2bsilly]

Thanks for the info.

Ok, so other watches that are branded as "Android Wear" would likely have more compatibility with more Android apps then? Am I understanding that correctly? Admitedly, I didn't do a ton of research on watches before buying. I have a Note 4 phone (will likely upgrade to the Note 8 later this year if they don't explode), so a Samsung smartwatch seemed to be the logical choice as it would pair well with my phone.

I really like the watch so far, and it's not like I'm looking for anything that would resemble a full Android experience on my watch, but at the same time, if an Android Wear watch would give me a few more options, then that might be the way to go for me.

My only "real" complaint so far is not being able to respond to messages through Line or FB Messenger. It's not likely that I actually would be using my watch to respond all that often, but if I have my phone on the charger and I get a message, it'd be cool to reply direct from my watch instead of going to wherever I happen to have my phone plugged in at the time.

#2

I can reply to Messenger on my Frontier LTE. On mine, the message page only shows the "like" button, but I can hit the 3 dots to the right side of the screen and reply from there. I'm not sure if my LTE model is diff from yours.

 

[Brew Swayne]

I guess there's a difference in functionality of carrier connected devices and regular wifi devices because I actually just double checked and I don't even have FB messenger on my watch and can't find it in Sammy's app store. Could have sworn I saw it there out of the box, but I must have been mistaken.

 

[Brew Swayne]

Oh, here's another question/observation....

On my phone I don't use the stock email app. I use typeapp. I've noticed that the unread message badge on the actual email app on my watch is not syncing up with my phone in a timely manner at all. I can receive an email on my phone, read it and then reply or delete it but on my watch, it's still showing as a new, unread email. I figured there might just be a slight lag and that within a few minutes or so, my watch would catch up, but that's not happening. Several hours later, my watch still has the unread badge and the message is still showing in the email app on my watch eventhough I deleted or moved it to another folder hours ago.

Is that normal? Perhaps a product of using a 3rd party mail app? Or is something not right here?

 

[lv2bsilly]

I guess there's a difference in functionality of carrier connected devices and regular wifi devices because I actually just double checked and I don't even have FB messenger on my watch and can't find it in Sammy's app store. Could have sworn I saw it there out of the box, but I must have been mistaken.

I don't have Messenger installed on my watch, I just get the notifications and I can reply from that. I enable the notifications in the "Apps" section of the Gear S3 app on my phone. Not sure if you have dont that yet

To answer your question about your email, Yes, that happens to me too. I use K-9 mail and I will read and delete the email fromt the notification on my S3, but if I go into the actual email portion of the watch, it still shows unread and some of the other things you describe..

 

[Brew Swayne]

Ok, so here I am 1 week into it and I think I must have a defective watch because I am not getting any notifications on this thing.

I've gone into the Gear app on my phone and selected which apps I'd like to receive notifications for. I've kept it simple to start with....Phone, Text, Email, Voicemail, Hangouts, Line, FB Messenger.

If I had to guess, I'd say 10% of notifications from those apps are being pushed to my watch. And I think I'm being generous with that.

Defective watch? Are there any known sync issues with the Note 4 phone? Does the Gear app have known issues? That definitely wouldn't surprise me. Sammy makes really nice products and hardware, but man they suck something awful with software/app development, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if their Gear app was full of bugs.

 

[lv2bsilly]

Ok, so here I am 1 week into it and I think I must have a defective watch because I am not getting any notifications on this thing.

I've gone into the Gear app on my phone and selected which apps I'd like to receive notifications for. I've kept it simple to start with....Phone, Text, Email, Voicemail, Hangouts, Line, FB Messenger.

If I had to guess, I'd say 10% of notifications from those apps are being pushed to my watch. And I think I'm being generous with that.

Defective watch? Are there any known sync issues with the Note 4 phone? Does the Gear app have known issues? That definitely wouldn't surprise me. Sammy makes really nice products and hardware, but man they suck something awful with software/app development, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if their Gear app was full of bugs.

By chance, do you have the "show while using phone" setting turned off in your Gear Manager app on your phone. It will keep your watch from getting notifications while you are using your phone.

 

[Brew Swayne]

Haha...yeah, that was it. Thanks.

 

[lv2bsilly]

Haha...yeah, that was it. Thanks.

Oh good! Glad I could help