Samsung’s gearing up for the debut of One UI 8 Watch alongside its new Galaxy Watch8 lineup this July, and health tracking is clearly front and center. A limited beta program opens this month, giving select Galaxy Watch owners an early look at these upgrades before they roll out to older models.
The update brings four health-focused features designed to fine-tune sleep habits, boost fitness routines, and even track antioxidants in your skin. Bedtime Guidance will calculate and adjust your ideal sleep schedule based on recent patterns and send gentle reminders to help you stick with it — a useful nudge in a world of late-night doomscrolling.
Another notable addition is Vascular Load, a tool that monitors stress on your cardiovascular system during sleep. By factoring in metrics like stress, exercise, and sleep, it aims to help users spot trends and tweak habits for long-term health improvements.
For runners, the upgraded Running Coach analyzes your fitness after a quick 12-minute run and assigns a score from 1 to 10. From there, it builds custom plans for 5K, 10K, half marathons, or a full marathon — offering real-time pacing advice to avoid injury and burnout.
Perhaps the most unique new feature is the Antioxidant Index, which uses the Galaxy Watch’s BioActive sensor to measure carotenoid levels in your skin in just 5 seconds. Carotenoids — antioxidants found in veggies and fruits — help with healthy aging, and now you’ll know if you’re getting enough.
Samsung’s digital health head, Dr. Hon Pak, says the new features reflect the company’s commitment to holistic, proactive care — an approach that prioritizes sleep, exercise, stress, and nutrition as interconnected elements of well-being.
