Samsung has confirmed that its One UI 5 Watch beta has been delayed, and there's no time frame for its roll-out as of now. The company had announced earlier this year that it had started work on One UI 5 Watch, and added that beta release for the software will be rolled out to compatible models in May. The One UI Watch beta program was launched last year for the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 lineups.
The news of the delay came earlier today from a Beta Operation Manager on Samsung's South Korean forums. According to the post (via SamMobile), the delayed rollout of the One UI 5 Watch beta is due to a problem with Google's Wear OS 4.0 release schedule and was "unavoidable." They also apologized to all Galaxy Watch users who have been waiting for the beta to open this month, and said that the company will try to roll out the software as soon as possible.
Without any ETA for the rollout, it remains to be seen when the One UI 5 Watch beta will finally be released for users in South Korea in the rest of the world. That said, the Galaxy Watch 6 series is rumored to be announced in July, so there's a chance that the One UI 5 Watch beta could start rolling out before that. Once it's ready for prime time, the update is expected to be available for the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro initially, with a wider release expected later this year.
Samsung has already announced tons of new features for One UI 5 Watch, mostly focusing on health, wellness, and safety. One of the most notable new features is the Personalized Heart Rate Zone, which will provide real-time heart rate analysis during runs. Some of the other new features are the ability to download GPX files from within the Samsung Health app, a new Sleep Insights UI for better sleep tracking, full access to Samsung's Sleep Coaching from the watch, as well as the enabling of Fall Detection for older users by default.