{"id":575062,"date":"2026-08-05T01:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/575062\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T01:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:42:12","slug":"4-apps-i-always-install-on-my-samsung-galaxy-watch-that-nobody-talks-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/575062\/","title":{"rendered":"4 apps I always install on my Samsung Galaxy Watch\u2014that nobody talks about"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The biggest perk of owning a proper Wear OS smartwatch is access to the Google Play Store. Now, as a Samsung Galaxy Watch user, you&#8217;ve probably already installed the usual suspects\u2014Spotify, Google Keep, Google Maps, and the like. However, that&#8217;s just scratching the surface\u2014there are plenty of great apps waiting to be discovered. Here are four apps that rarely get talked about but are so good that I always install them on my Samsung Galaxy Watch.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m currently using a Galaxy Watch 8 Classic. Before that, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/ways-to-repurpose-an-old-samsung-galaxy-watch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">I used a Galaxy Watch 4<\/a>. These apps work on both models, as well as most other Wear OS smartwatches.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"420\" height=\"420\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"samsung galaxy watch8 classic\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785894130_307_samsung-galaxy-watch8-classic.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785894130_307_samsung-galaxy-watch8-classic.png\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tBrand \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSamsung<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tOperating System \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWear OS<\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-description default\">The rotating bezel is back, offering satisfying control in a redesigned body. It\u2019s a blend of old and new, though not everyone will love the Ultra-inspired look.<\/p>\n<p>                        Sectograph<\/p>\n<p>            A clock and a calendar combined<\/p>\n<p>While some might think that I\u2019m exaggerating when I say that Sectograph is the one app that convinced me to buy a smartwatch, it\u2019s actually true. I first stumbled across the app back in 2022 and used it as a widget on my phone\u2019s home screen. But the app really <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/finally-found-the-perfect-watch-face-for-my-smartwatch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shines as a watch face<\/a>, so I bought a discounted Galaxy Watch 4 in 2023 just to use it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s essentially an analog clock that helps you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/time-is-a-flat-circle-and-now-so-is-my-daily-planner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">visualize your calendar events as time-boxed segments<\/a> on the clock face. It gives you a very intuitive and quick look at which event is currently active, which one is coming up next, and how long until it starts. It also has a small digital clock with the current date in the center if you find it difficult to tell time using analog hands.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of setup, all you need to do is install the app on both your phone and your watch using the same account, connect it to the calendar where all your events are stored, and that\u2019s about it. Sectograph will display every event for the day directly on the clock face.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/i-built-a-wear-os-watch-face-without-knowing-how-to-code\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img width=\"440\" height=\"248\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Spot on Pixel Watch 4\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/spot-on-pixel-watch-4.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/spot-on-pixel-watch-4.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/i-built-a-wear-os-watch-face-without-knowing-how-to-code\/\" title=\"I built a Wear OS watch face without knowing how to code\u2014Gemini did the heavy lifting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tI built a Wear OS watch face without knowing how to code\u2014Gemini did the heavy lifting<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">This is what happens when you ask Gemini to build a watch face from a screenshot.<\/p>\n<p>                        Stratum<\/p>\n<p>            2FA codes on your wrist<\/p>\n<p>Next up is Stratum, formerly known as Authenticator Pro. It&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/your-accounts-arent-as-safe-as-you-think-the-danger-of-sms-2fa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2FA app<\/a> similar to Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. You pair your accounts with it, and whenever you&#8217;re logging in, you simply open the app to retrieve your 2FA code.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve personally always used Google Authenticator, but it&#8217;s not available for Wear OS. After thorough research, I found Stratum to be the next best thing\u2014possibly even better. Unlike Google Authenticator, Stratum is completely free and open-source, with a strong emphasis on security.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the main reason I keep my 2FA app on my watch is because I find it much more convenient. Whenever I need a 2FA code on my phone, I have to reach for it and hunt down the app in an app drawer where hundreds of distracting apps compete for my attention. Having my codes readily accessible from my wrist streamlines the process and makes the overall experience far less distracting\u2014especially since my watch doesn&#8217;t have social media or other distracting apps.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/your-accounts-arent-as-safe-as-you-think-the-danger-of-sms-2fa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img width=\"440\" height=\"248\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"iPhone with OTP message\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/iphone-with-otp-message.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/iphone-with-otp-message.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/your-accounts-arent-as-safe-as-you-think-the-danger-of-sms-2fa\/\" title=\"Your accounts aren&#039;t as safe as you think: The danger of SMS 2FA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tYour accounts aren&#8217;t as safe as you think: The danger of SMS 2FA<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">Your email two-factor authentication isn&#8217;t much better, unfortunately. <\/p>\n<p>                        SimpleWear<\/p>\n<p>            Control your phone from your watch<\/p>\n<p>SimpleWear lets you control your smartphone from your smartwatch. Now, if you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/i-finally-paired-my-galaxy-watch-with-a-samsung-phone-and-realized-what-i-was-missing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pair your Galaxy Watch with a Galaxy smartphone<\/a>, you might not strictly need this app\u2014Samsung already provides a layer of seamless integration that lets you control your phone from your watch and vice versa. That said, there are still a few niche features in SimpleWear that you might find useful.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with the basics, you can use SimpleWear to toggle your phone&#8217;s Wi-Fi, location, flashlight, and Do Not Disturb mode, control the volume and media playback, lock the screen, and more. You can even initiate phone calls from your watch.<\/p>\n<p>However, the feature I like most is the ability to launch any app installed on your phone directly from your watch. Say your phone is docked beside your desk, and you don&#8217;t feel like reaching for it. You can simply launch the app you want from your wrist. Once it&#8217;s open, you can use SimpleWear to turn your watch into a touchpad for your phone, letting you control the app and navigate it from a distance.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/i-finally-paired-my-galaxy-watch-with-a-samsung-phone-and-realized-what-i-was-missing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img width=\"440\" height=\"248\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Galaxy Watch with Galaxy Phone\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/galaxy-watch-with-galaxy-phone.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/galaxy-watch-with-galaxy-phone.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/i-finally-paired-my-galaxy-watch-with-a-samsung-phone-and-realized-what-i-was-missing\/\" title=\"I finally paired my Galaxy Watch with a Samsung phone and realized what I was missing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tI finally paired my Galaxy Watch with a Samsung phone and realized what I was missing<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">Some nifty features are locked behind a phone requirement.<\/p>\n<p>                        WearMouse<\/p>\n<p>            Use your watch as a wireless input device<\/p>\n<p>If you like the idea of using your smartwatch as a touchpad, you&#8217;re going to love WearMouse, which turns your watch into a full-fledged wireless input device. It&#8217;s truly cross-platform, so not only can you use it to control your smartphone, but also your desktop or laptop. It supports all the major OSes, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.<\/p>\n<p>As for features, you can use it as a gyro mouse\u2014move your hand around, and the cursor follows\u2014or as a touchpad by dragging your finger across the watch screen. You can also turn your Galaxy Watch into a virtual keyboard for the connected device.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of which, I should mention that I&#8217;ve used the on-watch keyboards on the Pixel Watch and Apple Watch, and Samsung&#8217;s keyboard on the Galaxy Watch is simply the best of the three. You&#8217;d think typing\u2014or even swipe-typing\u2014with a big finger on such a tiny screen would be inaccurate, but it&#8217;s surprisingly precise and rarely leaves me with typos.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/use-your-android-phone-as-a-wireless-mouse-or-keyboard\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img width=\"440\" height=\"248\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A smartphone displaying the Bluetooth Keyboard &amp; Mouse app interface, placed between a physical white keyboard and mouse on a wooden desk.\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a-smartphone-displaying-the-bluetooth-keyboard-mouse-app-interface-placed-between-a-physical-white-k.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a-smartphone-displaying-the-bluetooth-keyboard-mouse-app-interface-placed-between-a-physical-white-k.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/use-your-android-phone-as-a-wireless-mouse-or-keyboard\/\" title=\"You can use your Android phone as a wireless mouse (or keyboard)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tYou can use your Android phone as a wireless mouse (or keyboard)<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">It works a lot better than you might expect.<\/p>\n<p>            Four down, dozens more to go<\/p>\n<p>There you have it\u2014four apps I always install on my Galaxy Watch that I rarely see other people talk about. But this is not exhaustive and merely the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more genuinely useful, powerful apps out there\u2014some popular, others flying under the radar\u2014and I&#8217;ll highlight a few more in a future article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest perk of owning a proper Wear OS smartwatch is access to the Google Play Store. Now,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[330,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-575062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gadgets","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}