This new app may free Galaxy Watch owners from Samsung's phone-locked features

If you’re frustrated by the way that the Galaxy Watch locks out certain features depending on your region or smartphone, you’ll be glad to hear that there’s a new app that aims to address this — along with providing an on-device companion that summarizes your wellness data.

Dante63, whom you may know as the developer who created a patched version of Samsung Health Monitor to unlock certain features in unsupported regions, has released a new app called GeminiMan Wellness Companion. While still in its early stages, the app supports a variety of useful features.

This includes the ability to record an ECG on your Galaxy Watch, with reports and AI analysis available to view on the phone app.

Besides recording your heart rhythm and rate, the app also provides details such as the confidence of the reading. When comparing my readings to the Samsung Health Monitor app, both apps were able to identify when my heart rate was high. However, GeminiMan flagged two recordings as having an abnormal rhythm, while Samsung’s app did not.

One difference I enjoyed between the apps is the ability to create custom notes in the GeminiMan app. This allows you to record whether you were experiencing certain symptoms during your measurement. For me, this is helpful because my heart rate is usually higher during migraine attacks, which was reflected on my measurements over the past two days. However, Samsung Health Monitor only allows me to select from certain fixed symptoms, so I usually have to choose “Other” with no ability to elaborate.

You can also create more than one profile on the app, which can be helpful if you want to use the same watch to get a measurement for someone else.

Since health data is only saved to your device, you have the ability to back up the data using encryption. You can also export your ECG reports to a CSV or PDF, depending on the chart type you select.

It’s worth noting that ECG measurements are not where the app plans to end its functionality. It’s still in its early stages, with ECG part of the first development phase. Phase two will bring blood pressure recording to the app. Meanwhile, the third phase will expand it into a broader wellness platform, incorporating data such as blood oxygen, heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep, and skin temperature. You can see the full development roadmap on the GeminiMan Wellness Companion GitHub page.

Personally, as someone who loves the Galaxy Watch 8 for sleep tracking but is frustrated by its smartphone lock-in for specific features, I’m excited to see where this app heads next.