When Samsung launched the Galaxy Gear smartwatch earlier this year, it had limited functionality and a limited number of apps. Since then the company has rolled out several major software updates for the smartwatch which have added new features. Only recently a major update was released which makes Galaxy Gear capable of displaying notifications from all apps installed on the user’s compatible smartphone. Today’s update brings the ability to view Gmail, Facebook and Twitter messages, albeit to a certain length after which the phone must be taken out to continue reading. The update is being rolled out in stages, so it will take some time before it goes live in all regions.
The feature isn’t perfect, in the sense that users can’t go through an entire message on their smartwatch, but it does offer a glimpse which should be more than enough in most cases to determine if the message warrants an immediate response. This update also improves Smart Relay, which makes switching between the Galaxy Gear and the Samsung device much more easier. The lift and pause gesture movement to active the clock has been improved as well. Samsung has started off with three of the most popular applications, it remains to be seen if it opens up this functionality to other apps, like instant messaging clients. Galaxy Gear owners probably wouldn’t mind being able to read snippets of incoming WhatsApp messages.
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