The Galaxy Watch Ultra’s buttons can be customized; here’s how

The Galaxy Watch Ultra’s signature orange-collared quick button is its most prominent feature. It, and the two buttons next to it on the Galaxy Watch Ultra, can be altered. This quick guide will take you through the process.

What can the Watch Ultra buttons do?

Samsung’s most expensive wearable activates opted for a crown that does not rotate. Instead, it’s a simple button that opens up the exercises page, allowing the user to start a workout in just a couple of seconds. This default action shaves off a little time since it omits the tile scrubbing in previous versions.

This single button has been a point of contention amongst Galaxy fans for a couple of reasons. The main one is that it looks like a watch crown, therefore it would have made sense for it to rotate. The fact that it doesn’t is a little puzzling, given the fact that the Watch Ultra also doesn’t have a rotating bezel. Instead of one or the other, Samsung went with neither.

The other buttons we’re all too familiar with. Each Galaxy Watch version in the past several years has equipped two side buttons – home and back. They’re self-explanatory and do the same thing as on the models before. The only big change is the center quick button.

Another big thing to note is that the center quick button can activate a siren if held for 5 seconds. This is in addition to SOS, which rounds out the device as an active watch more than a dressy wearable.

How to change button actions on the Watch Ultra

The process of changing button actions is pretty simple. A page in the settings allows you to tweak the action for each. You can also adjust how the quick button activates anything at all by setting it to a double-press trigger rather than a single one. This is good for preventing accidental hits.

There are a total of four options for the quick button.

• Samsung Health app – choice between general workouts or specific routines
• Stopwatch
• Flashlight
• Water lock

To Samsung’s credit, each of the above options for the quick button are pretty well fleshed out. Short presses, long presses, and double taps all have the ability to perform different, more specific actions.

1. On your paired phone, head to the Galaxy Wearable app.
2. In the Watch ultra screen, hit Watch settings.
3. Tap Buttons and gestures.
4. In the Quick button section, choose an action, trigger, and toggle on/off the siren ability.
5. In the Home button section, choose what double press does and what holding it down does.
   • Note: This is how you can change from using Bixby to Google Assistant.
6. Under Back button, choose what a short press does.

Once you have those options configured, you’ll have a device that’s a little more tailored to you. The three-button configuration is a nice one for tuning what the hardware Watch Ultra can actually do in day-to-day life.