Galaxy Watch - screen wake up/turn off behaviour is irritating

[ConcreteLlama]

I got my Galaxy Watch on Friday and for the most part I love it. However, a couple of things really bug me about a) the consistency of the wake up gesture and b) its tendency to turn the screen off much more quickly than it should.

So for a) - sometimes I just find that the wake up gesture doesn't work at all and I have to put my arm down and then back up again until it works. This feature is one of the most fundamental aspects of a smart watch that needs to work. It is especially noticable if I'm lying down but occasionally causes issues when sitting or standing. I think it's something your engineers really need to look at as, after a quick Google, I've seen many people complain about it on the Gear S3. I hope this is looked into as the fact it was an issue back then but still hasn't been fixed is a bit of a bad sign to me...

For b) I have 2 main issues. 1 is that the screen timeout setting only applies if the watch was woken up by the buttons and not by the wake up gesture. I think it's fine to have a different screen timeout if it was woken by gesture, but it should really be a configurable option.

The other annoyance is that the screen turns off when you tilt the watch back down. I think this is OK if you've woken the watch up with a gesture but it should be possible to disable this if the watch has been woken up by buttons or the dial. 

[Cryztal]

I always have watch faces and full battery life daily. Using the Alive my battery drains almost instantly,  do therefore it is not the watch faces that drain my battery but definitely alive, which is unfortunate as I really like the Alive feature.  

[bp328i]

It's not the app I am alive draing your battery, it's what the app does. It's keeping your watch face on (basically AOD which drains the battery) and that's why I don't think Samsung added a true AOD. 

I charged my watch to 100% and turned on I am alive as soon as I took it off the charger. As you can see below I am alive has only used 1%.

I don't see any less battery drain happening if Samsung adds a true AOD because that's all I am alive does (keeps the screen awake) and I would be willing to bet Samsung won't add a true AOD because of this reason. 

[Cryztal]

That may be the case for you but it is definitely the Alive that is draining my battery.

[bp328i]

No it's not, the app does NOTHING but keeps the watch face on.

Charge your watch to 100% and turn on I am Alive as soon as you take it off the charge and wear the watch for a few hours and look at your battery stats. 

You won't be able to post a screenshot of battery stats that show otherwise. 

Galaxy Wear app - in the about watch at the top click on the battery and you will see for yourself. 

[Cryztal]

I've done all that it's definitely the alive

[bp328i]

I would love to see a screenshot showing I am alive using the most of your battery. 

[Jeffycutt]

Yes you are correct that is the only way to keep the screen on for as long as possible is by making the screen timeout 5 minutes and disabling wake gesture and then when the screen goes off it will never wake up unless you press the button for the bezel.

Ibe tried Alive and flaunt and both are only for gear not the galaxy watch....you got only 5min to remember to hit the button or bezel....lame

There are people like me who don't use LTE watches as a primary means of a communication I disable all cellular and communicative antennas and just roll with the watch and not only is the battery saved immensely but if there is an emergency I can easily turn the phone on so I do it for the fashion statement and to have the screen timeout happen so suddenly it looks stupid.

The wear OS watches simply dim the screen and then just up the brightness when there's a wrist gesture I don't know how this can't be replicated in code.

J

[Jeffycutt]

That is the only way you can do it is to disable the wake feature and then set screen timeout for 5 minutes and you're just going to have to remember to touch a button or move the bezel or it will go back 2 sleep mode

Like I have said another post I don't use my Watch as a main communicative tool I disable all antennas and just run to watch so by using this method I can have brightness at 10 and lasts the whole night

[Jeffycutt]

Yes that is true but then you have to move the bezel every 5 minutes cuz that's the maximum screen timeout you can use there are some hack apps that let you use it for 30 minutes on a gear but not on the Galaxy

[Jeffycutt]

It comes down to a choice of whether you want to use the watch as a full functional computer or if you want to use the watch as a fashion statement at high intensity brightness and colors.

1. Functionality- for functional purposes you should be running the least amount of apps as possible & the screen brightness & timeout should be sacrificed in order to keep all of your apps running and keeping you up-to-date at all times. This is Computing 101.

2. Fashion- if you're using your watch cuz you wanted to look cool and not go into some stupid black and white power saving mode for your cool yellow & orange neon watch to match your cloths then you have to do what I do---- and that is turn off all antennas--basically put it in Airplane mode-- and then you can rock your watch all night long and if you need to use it in an emergency 4 calls then you just turn on the cellular antenna ....works great for me.