Samsung has announced owners of the original Galaxy Gear in the US can now update their smartwatch to Tizen. The Tizen update originally rolled out to the Galaxy Gear in May, and it is now making its way stateside. The update will switch the OS from Android to Samsung’s own, and bring features like improved battery life, option to store music on the watch, sleep tracking, ability to change the wallpaper and fonts, and voice commands in the camera. As a result of the move to a new OS, some existing apps might stop working, and users will have no option but to wait for those apps to get updated to work with Tizen.
Being an update that brings a new OS, it can only be downloaded from Samsung’s Kies program on a computer, and will wipe all existing data on the watch (which means you should backup any data, such as photos, before initiating the update.) If you’re wondering if you should make the switch to Tizen, check out our preview of the update running on the original Galaxy Gear by hitting the play button on the video below.