Galaxy Watch users might want to stay away from testing QPR1 betas
TL;DR Galaxy Watch owners are reporting problems when using Samsung's wearables with Android 16 QPR1 beta releases.
Issues include failure to pair, connections dropping, and Samsung apps repeatedly crashing.
For the moment, the only permanent solution seems to be going back to Android 16 stable.
Getting early access to in-development software can be a lot of fun. Plenty of us participate in testing programs for some of our favorite apps, both in the interest of helping to make them better and getting to enjoy a sneak preview of new features before everybody else. That extends to software platforms, as well, with Google offering its Android Beta for Pixel program — and as of just a week ago, a new Canary program for even earlier access. But this kind of testing doesn't happen without some level of risk, and that's something that wearable fans might want to keep in mind.
Any time you're testing a new version of Android, there's the potential that things are going to break. Sometimes, those failures can reasonably be expected, like issues with Wallet tap-to-pay not operating properly on beta builds. And while we tend to go into trying out software like this reasonably well informed of the potential pitfalls, apparently there's always still going to be room to surprise us.
The latest problem we're hearing about concerns Samsung's Galaxy Watch wearables and users running Android 16 QPR betas. Over on Reddit, a thread started earlier this month by user Ecstatic_Estate_6625 has only been growing and growing, with users reporting pairing failures across a number of different Galaxy Watch models (via 9to5Google).
Some users seem to get pairing to work, but then run into trouble with their connection dropping, or Samsung software crashing. 9to5Google reports that in its testing the connected phone got into a loop of trying to download Samsung's Watch Manager plugin, failing, and — you guessed it — crashing.
While we wish we had a fix to share that could keep you testing QPR1, for the moment the only real solution seems to be going back to stable Android 16. If you're thinking about picking up a new Galaxy Watch 8, maybe put off the Android beta testing until you're able to find a second phone to use for that.
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