5 Things Your Galaxy Watch Can Do Without a Phone

Whether you’re wondering if you can replace your phone entirely with a smartwatch or if you can leave your phone behind on a quick trip to the supermarket, the answer to both is yes. A Galaxy Watch has all the features you need from an everyday smartphone. Some of them require the LTE model, while others also work on the Bluetooth version. You need a phone to set up a Galaxy Watch for the first time. However, once this initial setup is done, you can leave your phone at home or abandon it altogether, making a Galaxy Watch your only device.

You’ll miss some features, but you can do most everyday tasks on a Samsung Galaxy Watch without a phone. With an LTE model, you can text and call directly on your watch. Even with the standard Bluetooth model, you can still make contactless payments and use offline navigation. With some essential Galaxy Watch apps, you can also stream music and listen to podcasts right from your wrist.

The biggest disadvantage of not having a phone nearby is not being able to call or message others. If you want the same features on your Galaxy Watch, you can pay $50 more for the LTE version, which includes built-in calling and texting without the need for a phone.

With an LTE model, you can make and receive calls on your Galaxy Watch without using a phone. The audio quality is decent enough on the watch’s built-in speaker that you don’t need a phone whether you hold it to your ear or keep it close to your face. Likewise, the mic clearly records your voice if you hold the watch close to your mouth. You can even pair Bluetooth headphones to your Galaxy Watch the same way you would a phone, improving the mic quality and sound of incoming calls. Note that some carriers may not support this feature and people in some regions may not be able to use this feature either. Double-check carrier support and regional availability before purchasing a new watch.

Samsung Galaxy Watches also support text messaging through the Samsung Messages or Google Messages apps. The smaller screen can make reading and typing messages more difficult than on a phone, but some features are useful. For example, you can use Samsung’s text-to-speech or Quick Messages to send messages without having to type them. You can even use certain gestures to control text-to-speech and send messages, allowing you to contact people hands-free.

Smartwatches and music are great companions for workouts or jogging, but carrying around a smart phone can be unpleasant. You will feel it bouncing in your pocket while you run and it might fall out during exercise. Sometimes you just don’t have the pocket space to carry one, especially if you’re dressed for the gym.

Luckily, if you own a Samsung Galaxy Watch, you don’t need a phone to listen to music. Galaxy Watches support most streaming platforms and you can download their apps directly from the Google Play Store. If you have an LTE watch with an active data plan, you can stream music on Spotify or YouTube Music, or listen to an audiobook on Audible, without a phone, although YouTube Music requires a premium subscription on Wear OS.

You can use your Galaxy Watch to stream music without your phone, even if it’s not LTE or doesn’t have a data plan. To do this, you can either connect to an external Wi-Fi network or listen to music offline by downloading files locally to your Galaxy smartwatch. Music streaming platforms like Spotify can download songs if you have a subscription, and you can also use dedicated Wear OS apps like Wear Casts to download podcasts and other audio files for offline listening.

For many, traditional wallets are a thing of the past. You don’t need a large capacity to carry cash, and a thin MagSafe wallet attached to your phone is much more convenient. This convenience can be further enhanced with a Galaxy Watch, which lets you make NFC payments without having to carry a card or even your phone.

To enable contactless payments via NFC on your Samsung Galaxy Watch, first add a compatible wallet. Open the Samsung Wallet app on your smartwatch and tap the blue arrow to begin setup. You need a paired smartphone to initialize the app and add a card for the first time, but not afterward. Set up a screen lock on your watch, then relaunch the app to sync cards with the Samsung Wallet app on your phone. If no cards appear here, open the app on your phone, add a new card, then add it to your smartwatch by launching the app on your Galaxy Watch. Once done, you can launch the app directly or long-press the bottom button to open it, then hold your watch against an NFC reader to instantly pay with a card.

If you don’t like Samsung Wallet or you already have Google Wallet set up and don’t want to set up a new app, you can also add cards using the Google Wallet app. Download the app from the Play Store and follow the same steps as with Samsung Wallet. If you already have a card added to the Google Wallet app on your phone, you can add it to your watch with a single tap.

GPS tracking and satellite navigation make traveling easier than ever; Just like how navigation apps save you from having to carry around a physical map, a Samsung Galaxy Watch also lets you ditch your phone. You can use Google Maps, which comes preinstalled on modern Galaxy Watches, or download third-party navigation apps to view maps on your smartwatch. However, you’ll need the LTE model with cellular data to use online browsing without a phone, since you can’t rely on Wi-Fi when traveling.

If you don’t have the LTE model, you can still use the navigation apps on your Galaxy Watch without a phone, but you’ll need to download maps for offline viewing. To do this with Google Maps, search for a specific location, tap the three dots in the lower right corner and select Download Offline. This download will sync with your watch the next time you charge it, and you can view the map, track your location, and use common directions from your Galaxy Watch even without an internet connection or paired phone nearby.

Google’s recent efforts toward AI integration have been polarizing at best, but they do have some benefits. Sure, you can ask questions like when a certain movie is out and request tasks like creating a workout schedule, but you can also use Google Gemini to automate tasks on your Galaxy Watch. This includes setting alarms, starting timers, controlling media playback and much more. You don’t need a phone to do all this, as long as you have the dedicated app on your watch. The new Galaxy Watches come pre-installed with Gemini, which works alongside Bixby, Samsung’s AI assistant. For older watches without Gemini, you can download it from the Play Store.

As with many other features, you need a Galaxy Watch LTE or an active Wi-Fi connection to use AI on your smartwatch, as current generation Galaxy Watches cannot run AI locally. However, that may be about to change, as Google’s September update for the Pixel Watch allows it to run Gemini offline. The same feature will likely come to the Galaxy Watch 9 later this year.