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.

[Members_opVgtB3]

Hi All, 

Any idea when this bug will be fixed? 

[nattmoir]

I don't mind watch lock when I charge it or put it off. What grinds my gears is that it activates the lock even when I still have it on my hand, but for some reason it thinks I put it off. It has heart rate sensor ***** it can check that I never put it off

[Naxen]

Why in the bloody blazes does it require you to re-enter the pin/pattern when you access Spay anyway? I feel like this feature exists solely to waste time and test our patience.

[LK2009]

Please remove PIN every time to unlock my phone. We can use PIN only when using SAMSUNG PAY or activating NFC. Please very annoying, or I have to remove Samsung Pay or I have to handle my nerves. I better choose removing Samsung Pay. Please take this problem very seriously    

[gotovamsee]

It is awkward to reveal my pin/pattern more often in public due to this once in blue moon NFC payment that I dont know if I use again. This feature spoiled my experience of wearing a smart wartch also because it hardly shows my watchface anymore.

The feature is useless and annoyong on GW4.

[rob46554]

Yep, I've just bought the watch and have now just found this out. I am now really really disappointed and it has basically now ruined my whole excitement of just buying this watch!!!!

[Jaibe87]

Honestly, this is really poor user experience. My Galaxy Active 2 was better than this crappy 4. What else is dumb is that your health stats don't show on the watch face unless you unlock your watch!! 

Android phones only need a pin when accessing the card why would the watches be any different? WearOS sucks hard and Samsung products are utter gimick tech... Over it.

[Oceanica]

It's just not worth using SPay (or Google Pay - same issue) on the Watch 4. Way too much hassle and loss of usability in exchange for what is only a very occasional benefit for most of us: being able to pay for things with your watch. I've also switched off the LTE functionality as it was causing the Watch 4 to go into meltdowns (I am sadly on my 4th Watch 4 as I was unable to return them for a refund, only for a replacement). I think a lot of us have concluded that the Watch 4 is an inferior product to the Galaxy Active 2.

[Jediahcorn]

AGREED! Samsung, I hope your team is actually reading this: had I known this, I would've kept my previous generation Samsung Watch 3 that did NOT do this. You need to think about this logically... why put a gateway to get into the watch itself: security. Okay, fine... but we are talking watch apps here folks. It's not that serious. If someone is going to go after your information, you think they're gonna target your watch? I work in cyber security and this is not a reality. The gateway needs to be before things that ARE impactful, so anything that uses NFC, and any other app THE USER deems should also be behind this security gateway (like a pattern, pin, password, thumb, face, eyeball, etc.). Then and only then should the device be asking for authentication. It's very assuming and honestly, lazy, for you to decide what should be behind these passwords in the first place and then to just decide 'fkit' and blanket the entire watch behind a gateway really feels like a slap in the face, from my personal user experience.

These five extra unnecessary taps that I have to make when I'm responding to someone via text on my watch (which I do often), or checking on my Amazon packages' tracking status on my watch (again, a lot), or checking in on my cameras around my house when I'm not home on my watch (cuz I like to creep on my dogs), or controlling a multitude of smart home devices from my watch (I think you see my point) becomes a lot of extra unnecessary taps! Cuz you bet your sweet cakes I use my watch to pay for darn-near everything, so I need that. At this point I think you can tell that I'm probably in a very small and very nerdy slice of the customer pie here, but I'm still a deliciously caramelized apple chunk in this pie, heck it! We count too!

In closing: TLDR; Inside the 'Lock' menu within the settings, change it so that when you tap that menu and are given options on what KIND of lock you want (pattern, pin, etc.) maybe also then have a list below of all of the apps on your watch that you WISH to have said lock. Keep apps like Samsung Pay and Google Pay inside this 'Locked" category and just make it so they cannot be moved out of that category. It will be a good visual representation for the user and also provide them with further assurance that they WILL be prompted for their chosen lock when trying to use Samsung Pay or Google Pay.

I know, extra coding, but wouldn't it be worth it?! Think about it!

[lucas58]

Hello all!

Facing the same situation here. It's a very weird behavior from the watch that you need to lock it ALL only to secure your payment information.

Please, Samsung, pay attention for this interaction on your updates.