20 Tips Every Apple Watch Owner Should Know
Whether you just ordered the Series 5 or have owned an Apple smartwatch for years, you can use these handy tips.
Though not as powerful as an iPhone or iPad, the Apple Watch is quite a versatile gadget for something packed into such a small package.
Depending on which model or type of Apple Watch you own and where and how you’d like to use it, you can listen to music, track your workouts, monitor your heart rate, and view your photos. And like the iPhone and iPad, the Apple Watch includes an array of settings and options you can tweak to coax it to work and act the way you want.
Listen to Music
With an Apple Watch running watchOS 4.1 or higher, you can listen to albums and playlists created on your iPhone, to stations on Apple Radio, and to any music from Apple Music (if you’re a subscriber). You can also listen to audio apps such as Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio.
First, set up your earbuds, headphones, or speaker via Bluetooth. Open Apple’s Music app to swipe through your library of albums and playlists. From the player, you can pause, resume, skip ahead, go back, and control the volume. Apple Radio comes as its own separate app, where you can tune up Beats 1 and certain news and music stations.
To listen to music-streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio, you’ll have to download their apps on your iPhone through the App Store on the Watch app. Each app is slightly different, but the process is similar — just fire up the app to access your stations or library. With a paid subscription to a service like Pandora, you can typically do even more through your watch, such as listen to music offline.
Listen to Podcasts
Apple has its own Podcasts app that will allow you to download podcasts on the iPhone and listen to them on Apple Watch. You just need watchOS 5 or higher. And if you have an LTE-enabled Apple Watch, you can listen to podcasts without hopping onto a nearby Wi-Fi network.
Open the Podcasts app on your watch to swipe through the latest available podcasts. You can also access your library of subscribed podcasts or individual episodes. From the Podcast player, you can pause, resume, jump ahead 30 seconds, go back 15 seconds, alter the speed, and change the volume.
You can also play podcasts from your phone using your watch as the controller. And if you’re not crazy about Apple’s Podcasts app, try out some third-party apps, such as Downcast, Overcast, and Pocket Casts.
Track Your Workouts
The Apple Watch shines for its health and fitness abilities, so one of its handiest features is the ability to track your workouts. Using the built-in Workouts app, you can track your progress at a variety of activities in and out of the gym, including biking, walking, hiking, jogging, rowing, elliptical, stair stepper, swimming, and even yoga.
The app will let you shoot for a specific time, distance, or number of calories or just record a free-flowing workout. As you perform your activity, the app shows you your time, calories burned, distance traveled, and your heart rate. When you’re done, the results are sent to the Activity app where you can view the latest stats on your watch and track a history of your workouts on your iPhone.
Monitor Your Heart Rate
Using the built-in Heart Rate app, you can monitor your heart rate at any time. Open the app, and it will measure and display your current heart rate. As long as your watch is in display mode, or you glance at the face, measurements are periodically taken to record your rate.
Tap the arrow in the upper left, and the app displays your current rate, your resting rate, your average rate, and specific rates based on your activities. You’ll also discover third-party apps that monitor your heart rate with more bells and whistles than you’ll find in the built-in app.
Take an ECG
With an Apple Watch Series 4 or 5, you can take an electrocardiogram, which checks your heart rhythm and alerts you if it finds any irregularities in that rhythm, such as atrial fibrillation. This is not something you’d necessarily want or need to do on a regular basis, unless you have a heart condition or are experiencing some type of symptom.
Needless to say, if you are feeling chest pains or similar issues, don’t waste time with the app; call emergency services. But in certain circumstances, the app can flag possible issues that you certainly should convey to your doctor.
Before you can use the ECG app, you must first set it up on your iPhone. Open the Health app, tap the Health Data icon, and then tap Heart. Swipe down the Heart screen and tap the entry for electrocardiogram. Tap Set Up ECG and go through the setup process.
To perform an electrocardiogram with your Apple Watch, open the ECG app. Make sure your watch is on the wrist you’ve already established in Settings, then tap OK. Hold your finger on the Digital Crown. The app will count down as it takes the ECG. After 30 seconds, the results pop up to display your sinus rhythm and heart rate.
If all is well, tap Done. If not, you can add any symptoms you’re experiencing, or contact your doctor or emergency services if you suspect something serious is going on.
Detect a Fall
The Apple Watch Series 4 and 5 come with another safety feature — fall detection. Should you take a hard fall that potentially renders you unconscious or unable to move, your watch can automatically call emergency services.
To set this up on your iPhone, open the Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, swipe down, and tap the entry for Emergency SOS. Look for the option for Fall Detection and turn on the switch. If you fall, the watch will alert you. If you fail to respond, the watch will tap your wrist, sound an alarm, and then notify emergency services.
Call Emergency Services
You can also call emergency services directly from your watch if you’re in any kind of pain or trouble. Press down on the side button for a few seconds until you see the screen for Power Off, Medical ID, and Emergency SOS.
You can either slide the button for Emergency SOS to the right or continue holding down the side button. After a short countdown, your watch calls emergency services. If you start the countdown by accident, release the side button. If you start an emergency call by accident, press down on the screen and then tap End Call.
As an added feature, you can add an emergency contact through the Medical ID screen in the Health app on your iPhone. That person then receives a text with your location after the emergency calls ends.
The cellular version of the Series 5 supports international calls to emergency services, regardless of your carrier or where you live, so if you’re an American visiting London, for example, and need help, the watch will call 999 in an emergency, not 911. This also applies to fall detection.
Use Apple Pay
Want to pay for something using Apple Pay but don’t have your iPhone? You can settle the bill using your Apple Watch. Assuming Apple Pay is already set up on your phone, it automatically works on your watch as well. To activate it, double-tap the side button. Swipe the screen to choose the card you want to use. Hold your watch near the reader, follow the prompts, and the transaction should go through. You can also use your Apple Card with Apple Watch, though this must be set up first.
Talk to Siri
Yes, you can talk to Siri on your watch. And with a Series 3 or higher, Siri will even talk back to you. Long-press on the Digital Crown, and Siri will appear, awaiting your command or question. However, you can also get Siri’s attention by voice.
To set this up on your watch, go to Settings > General > Siri. The first option for Hey Siri lets you say “Hey Siri” after you’ve tapped on or raised your watch to take it up out of sleep mode. The second option lets you raise your watch to your mouth where you can then say “Hey Siri” to chat with the voice assistant.
Talk to Someone With Walkie-Talkie
With watchOS 5 or higher, you can talk with another Apple Watch wearer via the Walkie-Talkie app. Open the app from the Home screen (the one with a black walkie-talkie encircled in yellow).
Swipe down the list of contacts and tap the name of a person to invite them to talk. Wait for that person to accept your invitation. On the flip side, you can accept an invitation from someone else.
To kick off a Walkie-Talkie call with a contact, tap the person’s name in the app. Once the connection is established, hold down the Talk button to talk to the other person. Release the button to let the other person respond. Continue the conversation this way, holding down the Talk button when it’s your turn to say something and then releasing the button to listen to the other person.
Find Your iPhone
Lost your iPhone? You can probably find it by calling it from another device, but if another phone isn’t handy, you can use your Apple Watch. Swipe up from the bottom of your watch face to access Control Center. Look for the icon that looks like a phone with audio waves emanating from it. Tap that icon, and as the icon turns blue, your phone will emit a pinging noise that you can follow to track it down.
Remotely Snap a Photo on Your iPhone
You can take a photo with your iPhone using your watch as a remote control. To do this, position your iPhone for the shot, then open the camera app on your watch. The two devices will automatically be connected. Tap the timer in the lower-right corner to time the shot for three seconds, or tap the shutter button to take it immediately.
Press down on the screen to access other options, such as Flash and HDR. After you’ve taken the shot, tap the thumbnail in the lower left to see the picture.
Browse Photos
You can view certain photos from your iPhone on the watch. By default, your watch displays the photos you’ve tagged as favorites, but you can change the album. To do this, open the Watch app on your iPhone and go to the My Watch section. Tap the entry for Photos and change the Synced Album to one of your choosing.
On your watch, open the Photos app to see thumbnails of all your synced photos. Swipe left or right to browse through them, and tap a specific photo to see it up close. Zoom in by tapping or turning the Digital Crown.
Organize Your Apps
Your home screen can quickly get cluttered with apps, but you can rearrange those icons in a layout that works best for you. On the iPhone, open the Watch app. In the My Watch section, go to App Layout and move your icons to different spots.
To do this from your watch, go to the home screen and press down on one of the icons until they all start jiggling. You can now move the icons to different areas. You can even press down on the home screen and choose List View instead of Grid View to see your apps in an alphabetical list.
Access Apps from the Dock
You can quickly access your favorite or most-used apps through the dock. Just press the side button and scroll through the list until you find the app you want. Apps can be added to the dock, and if you want to remove one, just swipe it to the left and tap the X.
To better manage your docked apps from your iPhone, open the Watch app. At the My Watch section, tap the entry for Dock, then tap the Edit link. You can then remove an app from the dock by tapping the minus sign, or add an app by tapping the plus sign.
Change and Customize Your Watch Face
Tired of looking at the same old watch face every day? You can easily change and customize the Apple Watch face. To see a different watch face, just swipe to the right or left of your watch screen. To set up new faces, open the Watch app on your iPhone, go to the Face Gallery section, tap a face, jazz it up with a specific color and style, and then tap Add to add it to your default watch faces. At the top of the My Watch screen, tap Edit next to My Faces. Here, you can remove faces you don’t want and change the order in which the faces appear.
Use Water Lock Mode
You can take a shower or a dip in the pool without having to take off your watch, though the water resistance of your watch depends on which series you own. If you dive in for a swim, your Apple Watch will automatically lock the screen with Water Lock mode. However, you can also manually put your watch into Water Lock.
Swipe from the bottom of the screen. Tap the icon that looks like a drop of water. That brings you back to your watch face, where you’ll see a small water droplet icon at the top. Your screen is now locked. When you’re ready to dry off, keep turning the Digital Crown to unlock the screen. Also, if you think your watch got wet accidentally, tap the Water Lock icon and turn the Digital Crown to dispel any water.
Turn on Do Not Disturb
Just like your iPhone, the Apple Watch supports a Do Not Disturb mode so you’re not bothered by phone calls, text messages, or any other notifications. By default, the Do Not Disturb setting on your watch mirrors the iPhone, though you can disable this under the General section in the Watch app on your phone.
On your watch, you can flip on Do Not Disturb a couple of ways. Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and turn on the switch. The half-moon icon appears at the top of the screen to indicate Do Not Disturb mode.
Alternatively, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to Control Center and tap the half-moon icon. At the next screen, choose whether to leave Do Not Disturb on until you turn it off, for one hour, until this evening or until you leave your current location.
Use Theater Mode
You’re at the theater and you don’t want your watch to distract you or anyone else. Turn on theater mode, which puts your watch into silent mode so you won’t be bothered by any alerts or notifications. The screen itself also remains dark even if you raise your wrist.
To enable theater mode, swipe from the bottom of the screen to Control Center and tap the icon that shows the classic theater masks of comedy and tragedy. The theater icon will then appear at the top of your watch face as an indicator. To turn off this mode, tap your watch face, go back to Control Center, and tap the same icon.
Change the Brightness and Text Size
Do you have trouble seeing the text and screens on your watch? You can play with the brightness and text size. On your watch, go to Settings > Brightness & Text Size. Tap the left or right icon on the brightness scale to lower or raise the brightness. You can also control this by turning the Digital Crown.
Tap the entry for Text Size. Tap either of the icons on the text size scale to change this, or turn the Digital Crown. If you need a bit more visibility, turn on the switch for Bold Text and then restart your watch.
Originally published at www.pcmag.com.
