Galaxy Watch 4 needs to have screen lock if you want to use it for payments

[Oceanica]

I can't believe this very annoying feature did not come up in any of the many product reviews I read / watched for the Galaxy Watch 4. As others have remarked, unlike in (say) the Galaxy Active watches where you only the Samsung Pay app required unlocking each time you used it, with the Watch 4 if you enable either Samsung Pay or Google Pay on your watch it will need to have a display lock. If you turn the display lock off, it will wipe the cards on either app and you need to reauthorise them and turn the lock back on. The 'excuse' is oh you only need to unlock it when you put the watch on, which presumably Samsung/Google engineers thought only happens about once a day. But most of us probably take the watch off and put it back on multiple times a day - to charge, to dry if our hands got wet, etc. If you don't use the pay function regularly - and working from home, I really don't - then you're having to unlock the watch multiple times a day just to have the option to very occasionally pay for something with your watch. Just not worth having.

[Potshot2k4]

It's only a few button clicks to unlock it, better safe than sorry. If it's not worth having just remove payment methods from the watch

[Oceanica]

This is absolutely not a case of "better safe than sorry". This is poor software design. It is the payment app that should require unlocking before use, as with previous models, not the whole watch. 

[Marty313]

The standard under Wear OS 2 ff. is that you have to set screen lock on the entire watch if you want to use Google Pay. I see your point, but I don't mind.

[cazinus]

I totally agree with Oceania. Having to unlock/authentify to proceed to any payment totally makes sens. However, have to unlock the watch many times per day even if you have no payment to make is boring. 

I learnt that an Apple Watch :

- is to be unlocked only if you pay something with your watch

- will not lock until you remove it from your wrist or as long as it is connected to your phone (equivalent to Smart Unlock)

I really hope that Samsung will adjust the software design otherwise the user experience will remain quite poor for those that are using the payement functionalities of the watch.

[sense1]

Just got a GW4 and yeah, this is really annoying. Entering a pin or pattern would be fine if it was just required when performing a sensitive action (i.e. using either G-pay or Samsung Pay), but to force it globally is annoying. I figured no big deal, I will turn off the lock and turn it back on for those times I need to pay using watch, but that's also messed up. Turning lock to none not only disables payment (expected), but resets/clears all your cards... you have to go through the whole process of re-adding your card, which contacts your bank etc.  There's no 'security' excuse for this behaviour, the card details should not be stored plaintext anyway, so turning back on and using the same pin/pattern could still unlock the cards. Of course if you you used a different pattern it would need to warn you... so how about just fixing the primary issue, no global lock required? A pin for payment should be a pin for payment, not a device unlock code.

In fairness this sounds like a WearOS issue, but in any case, no watch payment for me. Poor software design indeed.

[SW5]

Very very annoying. Completely agree this is a bad design or lack of testing before launch. There is no question of better safe than  sorry. Just look at the Apple watch which does not have this flaw. Does anyone think Apple got it wrong and Samsung did it better? No Samsung missed something in the design. This is a bug and needs a fix soon.  Very annoying.

[Members_sAX6nUp]

Agree. Hands down the absolut worst thing about this watch. Otherwise its pretty great. Just because of the " feature" i will not use pay on the watch....my galaxy gear3 from like 6years ago was better in this regard. 

[Members_cH4pQtj]

I do COMPLETELY agree.

Why not letting users to choose?

a. lock on wearing watch and free payments (as currently in GW4)

b. free wearing and lock on payments

I would choose B as the watch is a backup device of my mobile for payments (so I use it rarely) and I don't want to be bothered with the PIN every time I wear it

Due to the lack of option B, I decided to disable the payment...

[Matthew W]

I agree - It was so frustrating having to unlock my watch multiple times per day, that I simply stopped using Samsung Pay. I had the original Galaxy Watch and was more than happy to enter a PIN when wanting to use Samsung Pay, so I don't understand this change with Watch 4.