Use automatic workout detection on your Samsung smart watch

Woman lifting weights with a Gear Sport smart watch for automatic workout detection

When you do an impromptu workout, you may forget to activate an exercise tracker on your smart watch or fitness band. To fix this, just turn on automatic workout detection. It will automatically start recording your exercise data when you start working out. You can browse our latest smart watches on our website.

Note: Available features, menu options, and settings will vary by the watch, software version, and service provider.

Turn automatic workout detection on or off

Note: You must work out for 10 minutes in order for the automatic workout detection feature to detect the related workout activities you perform.

You will need to enable automatic workout detection on your watch so it can start recording your data.

  1. On your watch, navigate to and tap Samsung Health.

  2. Swipe to and tap Settings, and then tap Workout detection or Activities to detect. If you have a Galaxy watch with Wear OS, tap the switch next to On to enable or disable automatic detection. It will be blue when active.

    Note: For a Gear Fit2 Pro, press the Power key, and then tap Settings to access Workout detection.

  3. From here, make sure the switch for Alerts is turned on, and then tap Activities to detect. On Galaxy watches with Wear OS, you will simply see a list of the workout activities.

    List of activities for Auto detect workouts on a Samsung Galaxy Watch
  4. Now, select your desired workout activities to detect by tapping the switch(es) next to them. The following options are available:

    • Walking/Running

    • Cycling

      Note: This workout is not available for autodetection on the Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch4, but you can add it to the Multi-workouts tile.

    • Elliptical trainer

    • Rowing machine

    • Dynamic workout (detects high-movement activities)

    • Swimming

For a Galaxy Fit or Fit2, open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone. Tap Health settings, tap Workout detection, and then make sure the switch is turned on. Next, turn on the switch for the desired workout activities.

If your workout isn't automatically detectable by your watch, you can always start your workout within Samsung Health.

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