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bjjp2

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 13, 2005
196
401
Just got a new job and for the first time have a work phone and a personal phone. As I understand it the only way to use my watch with both devices is to unpair and re-pair. If this doesn't get changed I will probably not be buying any more Apple Watches even though I really like mine.
 
Activity and Health apps would be a problem. Also how do you handle 3ed party apps and data collected that are on one iPhone but not on the other?
 
I have 2 phones as well and forward all my personal phone calls to my work phone because it is newer and has more storage etc. Then I just need to carry one phone (work phone) and have my apple watch paired to the work phone.

Even texts and emails are simplified by having them all on one phone instead of 2 phones and 2 separate text and emails on separate devices. not to mention notes and reminders etc.

I can still turn off the forwarding if need be - but rarely do.

May not work for you - but works great for me - just a thought!
 
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I'd be hesitant to do my personal business on a work phone as employers usually will have "ownership" over anything and everything you do on a company owned device...
 
I'd be hesitant to do my personal business on a work phone as employers usually will have "ownership" over anything and everything you do on a company owned device...
....and unethical, plus having your Health data could lead to unintended or misinterpreted legal issues.
 
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I'd be hesitant to do my personal business on a work phone as employers usually will have "ownership" over anything and everything you do on a company owned device...
....and unethical, plus having your Health data could lead to unintended or misinterpreted legal issues.
+1 for this. Most enterprises forbid connecting non-company electronics to their infrastructure. @bjjp2 make sure you're not exposing yourself - confirm with your IT department if this is allowed. (be a silly thing to be written up for or worse - lose your job for!)

I really don't see Apple doing this (providing dual phone access for personal and work). In order to comply with most corporate standards, the enterprise data would need to be isolated from personal apps on the watch. This would add a lot of complexity to the file system and WatchOS (and I really don't see a lot of people wanting to do this).
 
I have 2 phones as well and forward all my personal phone calls to my work phone because it is newer and has more storage etc. Then I just need to carry one phone (work phone) and have my apple watch paired to the work phone.

Even texts and emails are simplified by having them all on one phone instead of 2 phones and 2 separate text and emails on separate devices. not to mention notes and reminders etc.

I can still turn off the forwarding if need be - but rarely do.

May not work for you - but works great for me - just a thought!

I can't do that because one is international and one US

+1 for this. Most enterprises forbid connecting non-company electronics to their infrastructure. @bjjp2 make sure you're not exposing yourself - confirm with your IT department if this is allowed. (be a silly thing to be written up for or worse - lose your job for!)

.

Not a problem with my workplace to also use as a personal phone and no "ethical" problem doing so.
 
We are stuck with the single host limitation until Apple transitions from a device-centric architecture to a web-centric architecture.

"Hello Apple. The 90s is calling. It wants its Palm Pilot back."

"There is this nifty thing called the Internet. It's that thing Al Gore invented. It can host all kinds of information and give us device independence. You know, an Internet of Things."
 
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We are stuck with the single host limitation until Apple transitions from a device-centric architecture to a web-centric architecture. "Hello Apple. The 90s is calling. It wants its Palm Pilot back."

Or the watch become untethered.
 
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I think that multiple phone pairing would be awesome! There are many homes where there are more than one apple watch but different owners, that way you can switch colors.
 
Just thinking how this would work...

So, when you put the watch on, you'd have to select a user first, before keying in that user's pin code? That would then "log you in" to that user's account on the watch where it would remain until you removed the watch from your wrist?

Isn't that what a lot of folks have wanted from iPads for years? Multiple user accounts.
 
Just thinking how this would work...

So, when you put the watch on, you'd have to select a user first, before keying in that user's pin code? That would then "log you in" to that user's account on the watch where it would remain until you removed the watch from your wrist?

Isn't that what a lot of folks have wanted from iPads for years? Multiple user accounts.
Multiple user accounts is about allowing.......well multiple users. What does that have to do with this tread? The OP and others are asking for multi pairing, not multi user. Also since the :apple:Watch is the most personal of all iDevices why would Apple offer multi user accounts on it?o_O
 
Multiple user accounts is about allowing.......well multiple users. What does that have to do with this tread? The OP and others are asking for multi pairing, not multi user. Also since the :apple:Watch is the most personal of all iDevices why would Apple offer multi user accounts on it?o_O
Multi phone pairing would, by default, permit multi user pairing (because the watch wouldn't be able to tell that the phones were owned by different people).

So imagine Bob and Jane (married) share a gold Edition and take turns wearing it. (I think this is what macdragonfl is referring to?) That would raise the possibility that Bob would be able to see and affect Jane's data via the watch, because the watch wouldn't know who was actually wearing it that day. Hence the need for each user to identify themselves via pin code the moment they put the watch on.
 
Multi phone pairing would, by default, permit multi user pairing (because the watch wouldn't be able to tell that the phones were owned by different people).

So imagine Bob and Jane (married) share a gold Edition and take turns wearing it. (I think this is what macdragonfl is referring to?) That would raise the possibility that Bob would be able to see and affect Jane's data via the watch, because the watch wouldn't know who was actually wearing it that day. Hence the need for each user to identify themselves via pin code the moment they put the watch on.

Yeah, just unpair and re-pair for those occasions. I actually wore my wife's 38mm for a week that way. I don't really hear anyone actually sharing a watch on a regular basis so it's most certainly not common.

Multi watch (rather than user) pairing is way more common and Apple has already solved that.
 
Just thinking how this would work...

So, when you put the watch on, you'd have to select a user first, before keying in that user's pin code? That would then "log you in" to that user's account on the watch where it would remain until you removed the watch from your wrist?

Isn't that what a lot of folks have wanted from iPads for years? Multiple user accounts.

Yes it would be multiple user accounts. As, JayLenochiniMac stated you could re-pair which in his situation wearing for a week would be ok. But what if you wanted to change every day. We have a silver and a gold, will probably pick up a ss when they are on clearance when the new ones come out. Re-pairing would be cumbersome to do on a daily basis. Also it would affect apple pay on the watch. So both multiple user with a choice of multiple phones for people that have or want to use work phones would be ideal. We were at dinner with other friends last night that all have AW's. One friend also brought up a good point when we were discussing this. It should be as easy as changing a band. It would encourage more multiple watch homes to buy new models, shapes and colors as they come out. I seldom wear my other watches since I got AW. Before AW I switched depending on purpose, dress and style. In our group, a small sample for sure only 3 couples thought it would be a great feature. Your example of iPad is another that should have had multiple users a long time ago. It's funny that Apple brought that to the Apple TV, but not the iPad. It would seem that iPad would have been first as people with children could set up custom for each child.
 
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I have a 6s plus and Apple Watch. My latest job I got an iPhone 6 so it's a downgrade.

I just forward work calls to my personal phone and use outlook for company exchange email to separate my personal and work email. Only thing I can't get is SMS from work phone but not really a big deal since we use Skype for business and exchange for 99.9% of communications. I still always pack my work phone with me when going out in company car or on a job site in laptop case so it's here if I really need to use it to make a call. My job rarely uses the phone part of the iPhone so I can get away with doing this.
 
I'd be hesitant to do my personal business on a work phone as employers usually will have "ownership" over anything and everything you do on a company owned device...

....and unethical, plus having your Health data could lead to unintended or misinterpreted legal issues.

Policies can vary a lot n this. I used to have a Blackberry that work provided and allowed me to use as a personal device, but they had a solid policy for avoiding the need for separate work and personal devices. The contract with the cellular provider was in my name. I just got a monthly stipend to pay it and I was responsible for any additional charges. The only data they had access to was my employee email that went to the device. Source: I was the Blackberry Enterprise Server administrator. It's not that we would ever need to access the device to get the email (that would be accessed directly from the mail server). I just needed be able to disable or remote wipe the email if the device was lost or stolen. My next employer was the complete opposite: municipal government with a de minimis use policy. You better believe the employer had access to everything on their managed devices. Heck... It was all subject to public records requests as well!

My current employer doesn't provide mobile devices to most employees. We use VOIP (specifically Skype for Business) which I can have ring on my iPhone or iPad if I need to. If my employer did give me another device I would probably just forward the calls and texts to my personal device as long as I wasn't violating any policies by doing so.

The IT department I am in uses Slack for communication anyway. If something gets posted to our Alerts channel that I need to see immediately, it appears as a notification on my iPhone and Apple Watch. The only staff who get company cell phones (usually iPhones) are those who spend a lot of time traveling or in the field.

Sean
 
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