Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 already had the makings to be one of the best smartwatches, but switching from Samsung's Tizen software to Wear OS will make it even better

I know what you're thinking: what's up, Kate, Wear OS smartwatches are terrible The software is riddled with glitches and the fitness features are uninspiring To think that abandoning the perfectly good Tizen platform is a good thing is delusional

Let me be clear: I don't expect Samsung to make this move But when leaker IceUniverse tweeted last week that the company was moving from its own wearable OS to Google's Wear OS, I started to get my hopes up

Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) has a bad reputation; while it is popular among smaller smartwatch makers like Fossil and TicWatch, devices powered by Wear OS are not as powerful as Apple's watchOS or Samsung's Tizen OS, which offer processors and advanced fitness tracking features were lacking

And that is precisely why Samsung should enter the market Samsung produces the best Android phones using Google's smartphone software, so why can't they do the same with Wear OS? Samsung has a chance to make the Galaxy Watch the best Wear OS smartwatch ever

Of course, Samsung cannot do it alone Google needs to revamp its wearable platform behind the scenes, introduce a wide range of open source options, and solve the pesky bloatware problem Google and Samsung also need to come to terms with developers and ensure that all apps available in the Tizen store are also listed in the Wear OS store compromises need to be made on Google Fit vs Samsung Health, Google Assistant vs Bixby We'll see

There is no question which AI butler we prefer, but negotiating health services may be more complicated While Samsung's Health is high-performance and widely compatible with Samsung TVs and Galaxy phones, Google Fit is making significant strides in changing the wellness game As of this month, Pixel phones can read heart rate and respiratory rate The obvious solution would be to offer both services and allow users to choose which one to default to

We have barely touched on the hurdles that would need to be overcome for a Samsung Galaxy Watch with Wear OS to become a reality So, again, it probably won't happen The reason I am hopeful has less to do with which platform is currently preferred and everything to do with compatibility [The Galaxy Watch can technically be used on Android phones and iPhones But in practice, it doesn't Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3 is not much different from my Apple Watch Series 6 in that it really is designed to work with Samsung phones iOS apps are even available, which means you have to have a Galaxy phone for it to work properly and ECG monitoring I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes, because some important features like ECG monitoring won't work

If the next Galaxy Watch will have Wear OS, I will use Wear OS more than previous models Wear OS may also make the Galaxy Watch more attractive to Pixel smartphone users who are waiting for the Google Pixel Watch It might

I cannot and will not speak for the everyday user of the Galaxy Watch I just want to tell you that a) the switchover is still a ways off and you probably don't need to worry about it, and b) on the off chance that it does happen, it won't be too bad Really