Samsung’s Gear S2 smartwatch will work with other Android phones

Like another company that shall not be named, Samsung kept its last iteration of smart wearables locked to its own ecosystem. So while owners of an HTC, Motorola, or LG smartphone may have wanted to use one of Samsung’s non-Android Wear wearables, it simply wasn’t in the cards.

There’s a big change on the horizon, though. As confirmed by Android Central, Samsung’s newest smartwatches running Tizen, the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic, will work with non-Samsung devices right out of the box. Of course, there are some things to consider, like differing APIs which will make some features not work at all (the dialer is specifically named in this instance), as well as a few hangups here and there.

It sounds like it won’t be a perfectly seamless experience, but at least it’s not locked down anymore.

On top of that, you’ll need to be running a device that’s loaded with Android 4.4 or later, and your phone will need to have at least 1.5GB of RAM. There will be a companion app to help control the Gear S2, too, but no word on a launch date just yet. It’s also unknown at this time whether or not Android users will be able to download that companion app from the Play Store.

What do you think of Samsung’s change of heart?