The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is one of the best Wear OS-powered smartwatches on the market right now. It also remains the only smartwatch series to run One UI Watch 4.5 out of the box. Besides the best-in-class hardware, the watches are expected to keep getting better over time with timely software updates. In fact, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro are now picking up the first post-launch update which brings a few stability improvements.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 series AVH2 OTA

Samsung has started rolling out a software update that weighs nearly 100MB to the Galaxy Watch 5 in the US. The update carries build number R9x5USQU1AVH2 and it is applicable to both the regular (40mm and 44mm) and "Pro" variant of the smartwatch. So far, the rollout has gone live on the US carrier models, with more regions to follow suit in the coming days.

As far as new changes are concerned, Samsung’s official changelog doesn’t go into detail about exactly what kind of improvements are in store. However, Verizon mentions that the new build fixes a particular issue with the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) feature.

Galaxy Watch 5 AVH2 update changelog:

  • This software update resolves an issue where the user couldn't receive Wireless Emergency Alert messages if the message contained more than 255 characters.

All in all, it appears to be a minor update as besides the aforementioned fix, the changelog doesn’t mention anything new. Notably, the new software version doesn't bump up the security patch level. As a result, the watches are still on the one-month-old July 2022 SPL even after this update.

The Galaxy Watch 5 is a fantastic Wear OS smartwatch with advanced wellness features.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5

The Galaxy Watch 5 is a fantastic Wear OS smartwatch with advanced wellness features.

If you own a fifth generation Galaxy Watch, keep an eye out for the new software update. To check for the update, open the Galaxy Wearable app on your Android phone and head to Watch settings > Watch software update. Alternatively, navigate to Settings > General > Watch software update on your watch and query from there.


Source: Verizon (1, 2), Samsung Update Server, Reddit