Changing the screen brightness on Wear OS devices is essential for optimizing both battery life and screen visibility under various lighting conditions. Whether you own a Samsung Galaxy Watch, a Pixel Watch, or another Wear OS device, adjusting the brightness is straightforward once you know the steps. This guide covers the methods for the most popular Wear OS watches running Wear OS 3 or 4 and highlights additional brightness settings to enhance your user experience.
How to Change Screen Brightness on Wear OS
We examined four prominent Wear OS watches: the Galaxy Watch 6, Pixel Watch 2, Ticwatch Pro 5, and OnePlus Watch 2. Despite having different user interfaces and settings, they all share a similar process for adjusting screen brightness:
- Swipe down from the top of your Wear OS watch display.
- Tap the sun icon.
- Adjust brightness based on your watch model:
- Galaxy Watch 6: Slide your finger along the arc to adjust brightness.
- Pixel Watch 2, Ticwatch Pro 5, OnePlus Watch 2: Tap the + or – buttons to switch between brightness settings. You can also toggle Auto brightness on or off.
The Galaxy Watch 6 offers a unique feature called Adaptive brightness, which can be activated from the settings. To enable this, tap and hold the brightness icon to access Display settings, then toggle adaptive brightness on.
For further customization on the Galaxy Watch 6, you can rearrange your quick settings icons. If you want to move or re-add the brightness icon, swipe down, then swipe left until you find and tap the + icon. Drag the brightness icon to your desired location or tap the + sign to add it back to the menu.
The Pixel Watch 2 includes a Sunlight Boost mode for enhanced brightness in outdoor settings. To enable this feature, swipe down from the watch face, tap the Settings cog icon, select Display, and toggle Sunlight Boost on or off.
For nighttime use, consider utilizing Sleep or Bedtime mode, which dims the screen and disables Raise to Wake. On the Galaxy Watch 6, access this mode by swiping down to Quick Settings, tapping the Checkmark icon, and selecting Sleep. The Pixel Watch 2 offers a similar function through the Moon & stars icon in Quick Settings.
Adjusting your smartwatch’s screen brightness is simple, but leveraging adaptive brightness or Sleep/Bedtime mode can save you from frequent adjustments. Optimizing screen brightness can also help extend your Wear OS watch’s battery life. For more tips on maximizing your smartwatch experience, check out our guides on the Galaxy Watch 6 and Pixel Watch 2.
By following these steps, you can ensure your Wear OS device is always set to the optimal brightness for any situation.
