Joe Maring / Android Authority
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 8 series officially hit store shelves last Friday, and from what we’ve seen so far, Samsung’s newest wearables are likely among the best Wear OS watches you can buy this year.
I’ve been wearing the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for the last few days, and while I’m nowhere near ready to review it, my first impressions have been positive. I’ve long been a fan of Samsung smartwatches, particularly those with rotating bezels. As such, going back to that with the Watch 8 Classic has been an absolute treat.
However, as much as I’ve enjoyed my time with the Watch 8 Classic so far, there’s one issue that almost ruined my first day with it. If you have a Galaxy Watch 8 (either the regular model or the Classic one), there’s a notification setting you’ll want to fix immediately.
What do you think about Samsung’s default notification setting on the Galaxy Watch 8?
9 votes
I like it. The fewer notifications, the better.
33%
I hate it! I want to see all my notifications by default.
22%
I don’t care, it’s an easy thing to change.
33%
Other (let us know in the comments).
11%
Where did all my notifications go?
Joe Maring / Android Authority
When I strapped on the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic last Friday, things were off to a great start. The watch was comfortable, the bezel was as satisfying as I had hoped it would be, and having six tiles on a single page felt like a cheat code.
But after a couple of hours, I noticed something odd: I wasn’t getting any notifications on the watch. I hadn’t received a single Gmail notification or anything from Telegram — despite one of my group chats being particularly chatty. What did I do wrong?
For years now, Samsung has taken an infuriating approach to smartwatch notifications. By default, on the Galaxy Watch 8 (and other Samsung smartwatches), only a select few apps — such as Samsung Calendar, Google Messages, Reminder, and Assistant/Gemini — have notifications enabled. Meanwhile, notifications for all of your other applications are disabled.
As such, when your phone receives notifications from WhatsApp, Slack, Threads, Google Tasks, or any other applications, your Galaxy Watch doesn’t show you any of them. If you rely on your smartwatch to receive important notifications throughout the day, that can lead to a lot of missed messages, emails, etc.
How to fix your Galaxy Watch 8 notifications
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Once I remembered this, I dug through the Samsung Wearable app on my Galaxy Z Flip 7 and found the settings I needed to enable these notifications on the Galaxy Watch 8. Thankfully, once you know where to look, getting it configured requires just a few taps:
- Open the Samsung Wearable app.
- Tap Watch settings.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap App notifications.
- Scroll down to Phone apps.
- Tap Allow all or tap the toggles next to the apps you want to receive notifications from.
All in all, it took about 30 seconds to do this, and my Galaxy Watch 8 Classic has since delivered all of my notifications as expected. But it really shouldn’t be this way.
Nowhere in the setup process for the Galaxy Watch 8 does Samsung let you know that the majority of your app notifications are disabled. At the very least, there should be a screen alerting you to this. But more importantly, Samsung needs to provide an option during setup that allows folks to choose which route they want to go: keep most of their notifications turned off, or allow all of them.
It took me a while to remember this, and that’s coming from someone who has reviewed Samsung wearables for over a decade. I know for a fact that my mom, or any other “normal” user, would just assume something was broken when they noticed their watch wasn’t showing all their notifications.
I get the argument of notification overload and only wanting to allow a select few app notifications on your smartwatch. That said, blanket disabling almost everything right out of the gate is absolutely not the correct approach.
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
For all the things Samsung is getting right with the Galaxy Watch 8 series, it’s frustrating that something as simple as notifications continues to be bungled year after year. This doesn’t have to be an issue, and the more it persists with Samsung’s smartwatches, the more annoying it gets.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8
Bright display
Powerful health features
Gemini built-in
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic
Rotating bezel
Bright display
Best software features
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