Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 health features arrive for Watch Active 2 owners

By Allison Matyus Published January 11, 2021

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 just got a slew of new updates with some of the same features as the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.

Samsung announced it’s bringing popular features in its latest smartwatch to the previous-generation Buy at Best Buy U.S. like Running Analysis, Fall Detection, Smart Reply, a scroll capture feature, and more. The company said the new features would be available soon.

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These popular features came out with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, which is bigger and more expensive than the prior model, but now you don’t need to upgrade to get them.

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The Running Analysis feature provides detailed metrics on stiffness, vertical oscillation, and ground contact time to improve runners’ performance and reduce injury. Another injury-prevention feature is the Fall Detection feature, which sends an SOS notification to designated contacts if the watch detects the wearer has fallen.

The new Smart Reply feature provides suggested responses for messages to send a quick reply, and you can even access AR Emoji Stickers and Bitmoji Stickers from the watch now.

Other newly available features allow users to take a screenshot image of your smartwatch, sending it directly to your phone, and a seamless music experience to access your playlist across your devices.

Digital Trends reached out to Samsung to find out when, if ever, these features would be available in other members of its smartwatch lineup. We will update this story when we hear back.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is perhaps the Galaxy Watch 3’s biggest rival since it has effectively the same software now. However, it is much more budget-friendly than the newly released Galaxy Watch 3. It’s simply missing the higher-end hardware and physical rotating bezel of the Watch 3.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…

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