I changed one Galaxy Watch setting and notifications finally made sense

Dibakar Ghosh is a tech journalist at How-To Geek with over a decade of experience using and writing about open-source software, Linux, Android, AI, and personal productivity. He writes about software, operating systems, and tools that help people get more from the technology they already use.

I bought my Galaxy Watch thinking it’d make me more productive. I could keep up with my messages, get reminders to move if I’d been sitting for too long, and stay accountable with all my to-dos just a wrist raise away — basically, I could stay on top of all the crucial information without having to reach for my phone and get distracted by everything happening on that big screen.

Little did I know that the Galaxy Watch itself would end up becoming an even bigger distraction machine, constantly buzzing with notifications I didn’t care about. Sure, I could put it in DND mode, but that’s not practical 24/7. Also, at that point, what’s even the point of having a smartwatch in the first place?So here’s what I did.

I finally stopped letting every app buzz my wrist

Decide what apps reach your wrist instead of letting the apps decide for you

While the fix was hiding inside one simple setting, it wasn’t necessarily a simple one. I wasn’t able to fix my notification troubles by pressing a single toggle — I had to press 45 toggles in total. Now, in case you haven’t already guessed, I’m talking about manually toggling individual app notifications on and off.

Now, before you click away, let me tell you that this is the most effective solution to the notification problem. It gives you granular control over your notifications, so you can decide which apps are important and should be allowed through and which ones are redundant and should be blocked entirely.

To access the setting, simply open the Settings app on your watch and head to Notifications> App Notifications. You’ll see a list of all the apps whose notifications can appear on your watch. That said, if you don’t want to do this from the tiny screen on your watch, you can open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone and go to Watch Settings -> Notifications -> App Notifications.

It took me around an hour to get everything sorted, but your mileage may vary depending on how many apps you have installed.

How app notification filtering works combined with the rest of the settings

Get a quieter wrist without missing the things you actually need

The Samsung Watch, by default, has a notification setting called Smart Device Selection. It basically sends notifications to the device you’re actively using, whether that’s your watch or your phone.

This means that if you’ve put your phone to the side, it won’t bother you with notification sounds, but it will still collect those notifications. All of them will be forwarded to your watch instead. But by disabling notifications for individual apps at the watch level, you can essentially filter out all the redundant, distracting stuff while making room for the things that actually matter.

This, in my opinion, is a far better notification setup, especially compared with the phone-only version of app notification controls. On your phone, if you disable an app’s notifications, you essentially lose that incoming information altogether. Sure, notifications from most apps are usually annoying, but sometimes they’re useful, and I don’t want to miss those.

And of course, when you’re really busy, you can simply enable Do Not Disturb mode to block out all distractions. As you may already know, Samsung lets you sync DND between your watch and phone, so that’s another welcome “smart” feature.

Your smartwatch is only smart if you program it to be

The default settings on your smartwatch are designed for the masses, not for your specific needs and requirements. So, if you really want a smart and personalized experience, it’s worthwhile to spend that extra hour or two optimizing everything. You only have to do it once, and your gadgets will pay dividends for a long time to come.