The Galaxy Gear was a decent first attempt by Samsung at a smartwatch, but it was ultimately crippled by a lack of support for app notifications. That’s set to change, though: SamMobile says that an update to the Gear Manager now brings rich notification support.
The Gear can now display in-depth notifications for just about any app installed on the companion smartphone. Gear owners will be able to enable and disable individual apps, and a dedicated notification center will keep track of anything that has been pushed over to the watch. The update is being pushed out through the Samsung App Store right now.
It’s a nice improvement overall, but it doesn’t change the fact that the watch can still only be paired with a limited number of Samsung smartphones. Support for other Android handsets could be the feature that will spark genuine consumer interest, but we’d be very surprised to see that happen with a software update. Maybe Samsung will reconsider its stance if it ever releases a second-generation watch.
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