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Stuff / News / Galaxy Watch false high stress warnings are stressing out Samsung fans

Galaxy Watch false high stress warnings are stressing out Samsung fans

Samsung is sending out an undue number of high stress warnings to Galaxy Watch owners since One UI 8 Watch was released

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 review health sensor

Samsung Galaxy Watch owners are reporting an abundance of undue high stress warnings from their smartwatch following a recent software update. Users who say they’re fine claim say they’ve been besieged by high-stress warnings since upgrading to One UI 8 Watch.

On the Galaxy Watch subreddit, a Galaxy Watch 7 owner posting under the username ‘oHomemCansado’ uploaded a snap of one of many “stress high” warnings that weren’t presented when the device was running an older version of the software.

They wrote: “After the last update, my Galaxy Watch 7 is warning me many times per day that I am with high stress level, but I’m pretty sure I’m calm, LOL. I don’t know what happened but before the One UI 8 I didn’t get these warnings (unless I was really stressed).”

Others in the thread, including users of the newer Galaxy Watch 8 devices, agreed with one poster claiming they received them “every single night” before bed. While it’s plausible these users are just really stressed but don’t know it, or being told they’re stressed is having a negative effect, most posters say the warnings only started showing up when they updated the watch.

The Galaxy Watch measures stress by using the heart rate sensor to track heart rate and heart rate variability so it’s possible the algorithm used to determine physiological signs of stress has been tweaked and low readings are triggering the alerts.

Stuff has contacted Samsung to see if it has an answer for why this is happening.

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I'm a freelance writer based in South Florida and has bylines for Trusted Reviews Wareable, Wired UK, Shortlist, Pellicle and DigitalSpy, FourFourTwo, The Observer, Empire Online, TechRadar and T3. I have authored more than 10 books on how to use technology for Flametree Publishing. I'm a podcast host for The Liverpool Way and teach yoga in my spare time.