I recently upgraded from a Galaxy Fit3 to a Galaxy Watch8. On the Fit3, whenever I started a timer, lowered my arm, and then raised it again, the watch would wake up and go straight back to the running timer screen.
On the Watch8, however, this behavior is different. The “Show last app” option only works for the timer’s selection screen (where you choose the duration), but once the timer is running, the watch treats it as a widget/tile. As a result, when the screen turns off and I raise my wrist again, the watch goes back to the watch face instead of showing the running timer.
This makes the built-in timer much less practical, especially for quick daily tasks, workouts, or cooking, where users expect to glance at the timer without extra taps.
I would like to request that Samsung adjusts the timer app so that the running timer is treated as a proper app and can remain the last app displayed when the wrist is raised, just like it worked on the Galaxy Fit3.
The intended behavior of the new watch software is to show timers in the Now Bar rather than full screen. While you cannot revert to the legacy behavior, you can adjust display settings to lengthen the automatic timeout and keep the app open longer before the display dims.
Alternatively or additionally, you can enable "raise wrist to wake" so that your timer will be visible in the now bar every time you look at the watch, even if it isn't full screen.
Also: The community section of this app is a user-to-user tech support forum. To submit feedback to samsung, you will need to visit the support tab.
Thanks for clarifying how the Now Bar is supposed to work. I can confirm that the timer does appear there, but I’ve noticed a limitation:
When I have an exercise in progress, the Now Bar prioritizes showing the workout duration, which means I can no longer see the timer countdown.
As a workaround, I added a small timer shortcut to my home screen, which displays the remaining countdown while it’s running. This helps, but it isn’t ideal as the text is small and I lose a valuable shortcut that I would prefer to use for something else in my daily routine.
It would be a big improvement if Samsung allowed the running timer itself to stay on screen (or at least be prioritized in the Now Bar alongside workouts), similar to how it worked on the Galaxy Fit3.
I can't be the only one who wants my customized workout screen always on during exercise?! Then i can take a quick look with a twist on my arm. With the present Now bar function we need to use two hands and tap the small Now-bar!
