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The Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro are Samsung’s latest smartwatches and just like with the previous models, they can be a bit of annoyance to set up. That doesn’t mean they’re hard to set up, though. Merely a little more convoluted and time consuming than they probably should be. Luckily, we’ve prepared a guide to help walk you through the steps of setting up your brand-new smartwatch.
So if you do need a little assistance, this guide is for you. The Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro are running on Wear OS 3 with One UI Watch 4.5 software layered on top. And you might think you need to use the Wear OS app here. But that isn’t the case. Check the steps below to get started and set up your Galaxy Watch 5 or Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.
How to set up your Galaxy Watch 5 or Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
As we mentioned above, setting up the watch is not hard to do. But if you’ve never used one of the Galaxy Watches before, not to worry. The setup is pretty easy if you know what you’re doing.
Power on the watch
First, start by powering on the watch after you’ve removed it and the charger from the box.
Connect the watch to the charger
Once you’ve powered the watch on, we recommend connecting it to the charger for the duration of the setup process. Just in case there’s not a lot of battery on the watch to start with. Which can sometimes be the case. Connecting the watch to the charger is not mandatory though. As Samsung doesn’t require you to do so for the setup to work properly.
Download the Galaxy Wearable app
Launch the Play Store and download the Galaxy Wearable app to your device. Once the app is installed, launch the Galaxy Wearable app.
Swipe up on the watch and follow the on-screen prompts
As soon as you power on the watch you should see a “Welcome” message, along with a little arrow that indicates you need to swipe up on the watch display. Swipe up and then follow the on-screen prompt. Which is to continue the process in the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone.
Tap the start button in the app
When inside the app, tap the start button that should pop up. This will be there if this is your first time using the Galaxy Wearable app. The app will then scan for nearby devices.
Tap on Galaxy Watch 5 or Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
If the app finds your device, it’ll list them on-screen. Tap on the watch name of the model you purchased.
Read the permissions and continue
On the next screen, the app will list off all the permissions that it needs access to for it and the watch to work as intended. Read them over real quick then hit the continue button at the bottom.
Accept the pairing request
Once the app begins trying to connect to your watch, it will send a pairing request to connect. You should see a code on the watch screen and will need to make sure that code matches up with the pairing request on your phone. Tap the pair and connect option to allow pairing.
Create or login to a Samsung account
If you already have a Samsung account, it’s at this point you will need to login with your credentials. If you don’t have one yet, create the account to move to the next step.
Allow access to the Galaxy Wearable app
Allow the Galaxy Wearable app to access and manage your watch. If you tap allow (which you’ll need to do for the process to complete) then you’ll be allowing access to contacts, the ability to make phone calls, send SMS messages and more.
Agree to automatic updates and the sending of diagnostic data
Both of these things are optional. We do recommend agreeing to the automatic updates though. This way when your watch has new software to install, it’ll just do so and you’ll never have to worry about it being behind on updates and security. Once you’ve decided, tap continue.
Read and agree to the Google terms of service
Read through Google’s terms of service on this next page, then tap the checkboxes for the things you want to agree to. Then tap the agree button. The app will then “get your watch ready.” Let this process finish which should only take a minute.
Select the Google account you want to sync
Now select the Google account you want to sync to the watch. If you only have one, then it should automatically surface it. If you have more than one, tap on “choose another account” then select the correct one. Then tap continue to let it sign in. If you have security protocols set up for your Google account, you’ll need to verify to let the watch sync to it.
From here the app will begin to finish up the setup process and that should take a few minutes. You’ll see on the phone screen when it’s complete. And that’s it! Now all that’s left to do is walk through the tutorial on the watch itself, then start customizing it to your liking and installing any apps you may want to use.
We’d also recommend checking out the “Tips” section of the Galaxy Wearable app to get some useful information on using the watch. In fact we recommend poking around the other parts of the app as well.