If you’re only using a smart watch to get the time, you’re missing out on a lot of the capabilities you paid for. You don’t need to use 47 apps all the time, but just a few key apps can help you day-to-day and make you feel like you’re living in the future.

These apps are compatible with the Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active, Galaxy Fit, Gear S3, Gear S2, and Gear Sport.

Hands Free Driving Directions: Navigation

The navigation app is probably one of the most useful Galaxy Watch apps of all. It’s especially useful when you’re walking the city streets and need an easy way to navigate to a new location.

  • Extremely useful.

  • Never get lost.

  • Accurate directions.

  • Standalone GPS mode drains the battery.

  • Awkward watch interface.

It works in concert with the Gear Navigator app installed on your phone. This is especially useful while using walking navigation mode in Google Maps. Your watch will provide you with turn by turn directions at every street corner.

Track Your Time: Timer

There are many times throughout the day when a timer can come in handy. Maybe you’ve ordered a pizza and need to wait 15 minutes before picking it up. Or maybe you’re working hard on a project and need to remember a meeting in 20 minutes.

  • Simple to use.

  • Convenient timer available any time.

  • Many different uses.

  • Limited features.

  • Very simple graphics.

  • No way to log timed events.

Whatever the reason, it can be very convenient to tap your watch and get a reminder whenever you need.

Improve Productivity: Calendar

The Calendar app that comes on the Galaxy Watch is an absolute necessity. It syncs with your Google Calendar so that you can have your daily schedule easily within reach, even when your phone isn’t.

  • Easy to view agenda.

  • Quickly add new events.

  • Doesn’t require a phone app.

  • Limited calendar features.

  • Awkward to type events on watch.

  • Difficult to read events on watch.

Tap on any of the calendar days to view the daily agenda.

You can scroll up and down through your schedule by swiping your finger up or down on the watch face. Then you can tap on the event to view the details.

Best for Runners: Map My Run

Map My Run is offered as a standalone app from Under Armor. It’s a useful app for tracking and logging your running sessions, with very little effort.

  • Effective distance reporting.

  • Integrated mapping tool.

  • Log exercise to your account.

  • Many features require internet access.

  • Can drain the watch battery.

  • May not last your entire run.

With a Galaxy Watch, you can install the Map My Run app on your watch and leave your phone in the car while you head out on your run. To use the app on your phone for logging a run, you’ll need to turn on Location in your watch settings.

Once you do, you can start the run from your watch and it’ll log:

  • DistanceCalories burnedPace (including max and average)DurationHeart rate (including average)Max paceLocation and path of run

Once you return to wherever you left your phone, you can save the logged running session to your phone, and then to your cloud Map My Run account.

Monitor Your Health: Heart Rate Graphic

There are a number of heart rate monitoring apps available for the Galaxy Watch, but one of the best is the Heart Rate Graphic app.

  • Accurate heart rate monitoring.

  • Logs heart rate history.

  • Aesthetic heart rate graph.

  • Very short heart rate log.

  • Simple app with only one purpose.

  • Not 100% medically accurate.

It’s one of the few that offers not just your present active heart rate, but also a log of your heart rate over the last 240 seconds (4 minutes).

The app displays your active heart rate and total time the app has been logging your heart rate. Under this is the screen-wide chart that displays the four-minute log of your heart rate.

It’s a useful way to make sure your heart rate stays in a target zone during your workouts.

Track Exercise: GymRun Workout Diary

The GymRun smartphone app is a great app all on its own. It lets you quickly log your gym workouts, regardless of the exercise.

  • Quick to log exercise.

  • Long term log.

  • Built-in timer.

  • Limited number of exercises.

  • Awkward to use during workouts.

  • No website option.

The companion GymRun Workout Diary app for your Galaxy Watch is a useful add-on to the app. It lets you leave your phone in your gym bag, and you can log your entire workout right on your watch.

The main screen offers three families of exercises to choose from:

  • Chest and BicepsLat and TricepsLegs and Abs

When you tap on any one of these, you can swipe your finger across the watch screen to scroll through the available exercises.

Once you choose the exercise, you can set the weight and number of reps you’d like to do. Set the length of time per exercise, and the watch will count down the time as you exercise, and vibrate when you’re done. This app is not free; it costs $4.99.

Stop Insomnia: G’Night Sleep Smart

It’s not always easy to understand your sleep patterns and why you’re not sleeping well, but the G’Night Sleep Smart app can help.

  • Accurate sleep log.

  • Sensitive sensors log every movement.

  • Identifies sleep problems.

  • Can drain watch battery.

  • Awkward to wear watch during sleep.

  • Not 100% medically accurate.

Just launch the app before you go to bed, set your alarm, and start the sleep monitor.

The app will show a quick chart as it starts monitoring your activity and heart rate. As you go to sleep, the face will go dark, but the watch will be watching you carefully for signs of restlessness or light sleep.

Over time, you can review your sleep patterns in the app. It’ll help you gauge what bed times and wake times result in the deepest sleep.

For Your Smart Home: TizMo (WeMo Control)

TizMo is a useful app if your house is loaded with lots of WeMo smart home devices like plugs, switches, and lights. WeMo devices connect directly to your wireless network rather than using a hub, so connecting to them with an app is very simple.

  • Convenient control of smart home.

  • Supports many devices.

  • Easy to use interface.

  • Wi-Fi can drain watch battery.

  • My not support your devices.

  • Need to be on same Wi-Fi network.

The TizMo Galaxy Watch app does require you to enable Wi-Fi on your smart watch. But once you do, the TizMo scans your network and identifies all connected WeMo devices you can control from the app.

Controls are very simple. You just swipe your finger up or down to find the WeMo device and then tap the switch to toggle the device on or off.

Best for Automation: Triggers (IFTTT)

Triggers is a Galaxy Watch app that takes a little more effort than other apps to set up, but once you do you can control far more devices in your home than any other app. It costs $1.99, but it’s well worth the price.

  • Versatile app.

  • Integrates with many smart home devices.

  • Use to control cloud services.

  • Complex to configure.

  • Requires an IFTTT account.

  • Not ideal for novice users.

The Triggers app lets you set up your watch so you can trigger what’s called a “webhook” in the web-based IFTTT service. IFTTT is a very simple cloud-based automation website that lets you connect many devices and services that you can control remotely through the service.

Once you’ve set up your free IFTTT account, type webhooks into the search field, click on the Webhooks link, and set up your free webhooks account. Once you do, you’ll see a special URL with a long code at the end of it. Make a note of that code.

Next, set up the IFTTT Triggers app. When you open the app, click on the menu icon at the upper right corner and click Set IFTTT Key. In this area, enter the long code from the end of the URL your recorded above.

Now you’re ready to create triggers in IFTTT that you can trigger with your Galaxy Watch!

Here’s how you set up IFTTT triggers to control from your watch:

  • In IFTTT, click on My Applets and then click on New Applet.Click on This, and type Webhooks into the search field, and click on the Webhooks link.Click on Receive a web request.Give the Event a name. For example to turn on the office light, name it “Office Light”.Click on That, and then search for any service you want to trigger. If you want to trigger a WeMo device, you can search for WeMo and choose what kind of WeMo device you want to trigger.

IFTTT is integrated with a whole family of smart home devices you can set up to control from your watch. Using an IFTTT Webhook integrated with the Trigger app on your phone and your watch, you can control almost anything with your Galaxy Watch.

Never Forget: Gear Voice Memo

Do you have a bad memory? You don’t have to depend on your faulty memory when you own a Galaxy Watch.

  • Very convenient.

  • Audio avoid awkward typing.

  • Many different uses.

  • Memos take up watch storage.

  • No way to categorize memos.

  • Can’t offload memos to phone.

With the Voice Memo app, you can tap a record button and quickly record a memo that gets saved to your watch.

Each memo is stored in a list that you can swipe through to play it again later. Record a grocery list at home that you can listen to at the store. Or record someone telling you their address or phone number so you can save it later when you have time.

If you turn on the Speech-to-text feature, the app will instantly convert your recordings to a text note that you can view later whenever you like.

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