When connected watches came out ten years ago, manufacturers tried to make real miniaturized smartphones. A particularly large number of applications such as mobile phone games, task management systems and Internet browsers have emerged.
Since then, most players in the industry, whether it’s Google, Apple or the watch makers themselves, have realized that it’s impossible to ask smartwatches to offer the same utility as a smartphone with a much larger screen. The main uses are now focused on sports and health data, but also on some features that certain applications offer, such as listening to streaming music, contactless payment or finding routes.
For example, Google doesn’t offer a version of its Chrome browser for connected watches. However, this does not prevent one of its main partners, Samsung, from providing an internet browser for its watches equipped with the Google system.
As reported by the site SamMobile, which specializes in news from the Korean manufacturer, Samsung has in fact made available to its Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 users a new application called Samsung Internet that will allow them to surf the Internet directly from their wrist .
An application already offered on Tizen watches
This isn’t the first time for Samsung, as the company has already offered a similar application on its connected watches launched before 2021 and is based on its own Tizen operating system. The idea is simple, to allow users who want to surf the web to scroll through pages and interact with them using a virtual keyboard.
While this feature offered on Samsung connected watches may appeal to some users, it is unlikely to really be adopted by the general public for long-term use. Keep in mind that the Galaxy Watch 5 offers a 1.2- or 1.4-inch display, compared to the 6-inch minimum of the latest smartphones offered in 2023. Aside from the circular shape of the watch screen, some of the text at the top and bottom of the display is removed, affecting reading comfort.
After all, there’s a reason Google never offered Chrome on Wear OS: smartwatches aren’t miniaturized smartphones.
