Wifi password keypad

[uservhdSZMJuE6]

On the Galaxy Watch Active 2 it appears to be impossible to enter a WiFi password with special characters other than ".,?!". I called the Samsung customer support and they were not able to suggest how to do it other than to change the WiFi password to not have special characters which is not acceptable. I have to believe that someone else has noticed this and might have found a work-around, or how to get a bug ticket generated to fix it.

[userjYtfoTda0t]

On my Galaxy Watch I can switch to the special characters keyboard (by rotating bezel 3 klicks).

Are you saying that GA2 doesn't alow you to do that on the WiFi input screen or is the problem that you can input the characters but it won't work with # or _ etc?

[uservhdSZMJuE6]

On the Galaxy Watch Active 2 the 'rotating bezel' is a firmware emulation of the bezel. I tried wiping my finger around the edge of the watch to activate the 'bezel' action and there is no change in the keypad. Note that the 'keyboard' on the Watch Active 2 is really a telephone keypad where the digits 2 through 9 are equivalent to what is on a telephone keypad (i.e. 2->abc, 3->def,...), with an added up-arrow to enter CAPS and a space icon where the # button would be to enter a blank space. The 1 button is where the special characters are located, but only this set of 4 characters {.,?!}. To get a letter you press the button 1 or more times to sequence through the choices, and a long press gives the number on the button. That is all logical except that Samsung forgot that there are many more than 4 special characters that could be in a WiFi password. A real keyboard emulation would solve the problem.

[uservhdSZMJuE6]

This photo may make it clearer...

[userjYtfoTda0t]

Does your electronic becel work for other things?

Your page is similar to my first page. Turning becel 1 click shows a keyboard with only numbers. One more click brings sub page 1 to 5 with many special characters.

I didn't think the functionality in GA2 was that much reduced.

[uservhdSZMJuE6]

When I am at the main watch face and wipe my finger around the edge of the watch (i.e. rotate the bezel) it cycles through the apps and when I am in the Samsung Health app it cycles through the health choices: steps, workouts, sleep, etc. When I am at the WiFi KEYPAD there is no bezel action, but I do feel the haptic feedback that tells me I am triggering the 'bezel' sensor. Does the Galaxy Watch have a keypad similar to the photo I posted?

[userjYtfoTda0t]

Yes, as first page. GW can not swipe to other pages, but turning becel 1 click clockwise shows a keyboard with only numbers. One more click brings sub page 1  of 5 subpages with many special characters (# _ etc).

Do you have those pages available in other text input modes (like SMS, search in Contacs etc)?

[uservhdSZMJuE6]

When I go to contacts it presents two button icons at the top: Add and Search. Search brings up the same kypad as when entering a WiFi password, with the same limitations and lack of bezel support. The Add option is more interesting. I brings up the choices: Name, Phone and Save. The Name icon activates a graphical text entry screen, but Phone brings up that same limited function keypad, but in the case of entering a phone number the alpha support is gone and the extra telephone characters are added. It appears that the GW and GWA2 are very different in their internal firmware. I preferred the slimmer style of the GWA2, but it seems that I gave up a lot of the features of the GW, or it could be that the BT version of the watch has these limitations by design.

[userjYtfoTda0t]

The GW Bluetooth version also have several pages of the keyboard to choose from. Maybe someone else with GWA2 can confirm your findings?

(The selected keyboard on my GW is "Samsung Standard" and it's the only option. Maybe check if there are alternatives to download or change language to english UK or update language to see if that makes a difference.)

[uservhdSZMJuE6 · Accepted solution]

I solved the problem by loading an alternate keyboard. I saw some suggestions on a web page, but the one they recommended was not in the app store (is there a difference in the apps available for GW vs GWA2?), so I installed GearKey. The keys are a little small for my fat (I wear size XL gloves) fingers, but after a bit of training, and with my pinkie finger, I was able to tap out the WiFi password, including all the special characters.