Samsung lied/misled on ECG & blood pressure watch features so here's how to enable it

After a few initial issues with my active2 that my SO got me a couple years ago i decided to keep it in the age of covid just to have some additional health monitors even if not all that accurate.

samsung promised these things were coming.

i got busy and a few weeks back i was like 'wait where's my ecg?' and went googling only to find out they rolled this out LAST FALL ONLY if you also own a Samsung Galaxy phone. thats right. you read that right - they don't even let you install this on some of their own phones.

well that's about 100 kinds of horseshite. frick you samsung i guess i missed the fine print somewhere along the way. i bought a frickING ANDROID so i could pick whatever fricking phone and fricking watch i wanted and they would all work together.

because the watch is doing all the monitoring work and the phone app is only aggregating, interpreting & presenting the data its CRAP they are blocking this on some phones. there is no reason other than greed not to let all phones that work with this watch to enjoy these features.


-- DEEP BREATH --


so i turned to my good ol XDA-DEV resource and bada bing they have instructions to turn this on with any android phone. my oneplus8T can now connect to watch and utilize these features.

since nothing is ever easy in CAD's world i thought i would post the process and links for anyone interested in these features for their watch who don't own a samsung galaxy phone. it looks daunting because its about 217 steps but if you follow along carefully its not that bad and you'll end up with both the phone app installed (easy, just run the APK at the link provided) and the watch app (pretty involved..but uneventful as long as you take your time).




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Instructions:

* You need a PC or Mac (instructions I used are for PC) that you have full control over because you'll have to disable your firewall, virus checker, etc. temporarily
* Active2 or Galaxy watch
* Your phone
* Your home network

First, everything you need is shared on this google drive (download now before it disappears if you're serious about doing this)

Google Drive with all the goodies

The text version of the instructions are contained on that site but the youtube video is even better since some of the steps can be confusing and the video makes everything crystal clear:

How to install ECG feature on your watch

VERY IMPORTANT!! there are some watches that don't work (faulty sensors) so before you get too far down the path only to find out your ECG isn't working, follow the steps below ON YOUR WATCH to ensure your watch button sensor is working properly. If not, you'll need to get a replacement from samsung or return the watch wherever you bought it for a new one.

samsung support forums

quote:

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Any L-0 value other than 0 means something in the ECG isn't working.

If anyone else wants to check:

Type *#0*# on watch keyboard (in the Phone app)

Tap 7 Times on testmode

Scroll down and tap on "2TEST"

Put your finger on the top button and wait to get "L-0" value

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of course CAD has one with the bad sensor so i'm taking this back to costco to swap and i'll try the new one out before i leave the store.