Apple Watch Tips and Hidden Features: Handoff, AirPlay, and More

[MacRumors]

The Apple Watch is a brand new product platform for Apple, offering a significantly different experience compared to Apple's already established platforms, iOS and Mac OS. As the device is getting onto more and more wrists over the coming days, weeks and months, we've collected a bunch of helpful tips to help users acclimating to Apple's brand new platform in this video.

We've also highlighted some of the tips from the video, below.

Fast switching between apps - If you need to bounce between two apps, or one app and your watch face, it can become fairly cumbersome and take some time. Instead, it's easier and quicker to simply fast switch between apps by double tapping the Digital Crown. Double tapping a second time goes back to the last thing you were doing. This way, you can spend some time on the watch face, quickly zoom over to the Music app to select a new song, and then double tap again to go back to the watch face.

Use Siri to launch apps - The app icons on Apple Watch can be fairly small, and their tiny touch targets can make it difficult to accurately choose which app you want to launch. An easier way to launch an app is to use Siri, which can be launched by either saying "Hey Siri" or holding down the Digital Crown. Once that's done, a user just has to say "launch" or "open" followed by the name of the app.

Handoff Any Apple Watch Notification Back to the iPhone - It was already known that the Apple Watch would be able to handoff app activities from the Watch to the iPhone, but it can also be used to handoff any push notification back to your iPhone. Users can go back through the Apple Watch notifications they missed by swiping down on the watch face and hand those off at a later time. The original iPhone app doesn't even have to be built to support it.

AirPlay Controls - Using Force Touch in various apps on the Apple Watch can yield new ways to interact. One of the more useful (yet hidden) ways Force Touch changes an app is within the Music app, where Force Touching while playing a song, allows you to choose your iPhone's Airplay target for your music. This Airplay option isn't available from any other screen in the Music app except for the song-playing screen.

You can also play music straight off your Apple Watch. Choosing "Source" from the same menu, lets you play music straight off your Apple Watch to any Bluetooth target.

Battery and Control Center Glances - On the watch face, swiping up reveals your Glances, which are quick looks at your various apps. They let you do certain things without having to open your app, and there are some Glances from Apple that can make using the Apple Watch a lot easier. The Battery glance allows you to check your battery percentage and manually start Power Reserve mode, while the Control Center glance allows you to turn on Airplane mode, Do Not Disturb, mute sound and ping a sound on your iPhone if you can't find it.

Taking a Screenshot - One of the social phenomena emerging from the first week of the Apple Watch is people showing off how they've customized their watch faces and how they've arranged their home screen. Taking a screenshot is the best way to show off how personal users have made Apple's most personal device, and to do so all one has to do is click the Digital Crown and the button underneath that at the same time.

You can watch the above video for even more tips and tricks, and if you've just got your Apple Watch and need help setting it up we've got a guide to help you get it up and running. Additionally, you can head over to our forums, where new Apple Watch users are discussing Apple's newest device and sharing their home screens and watch face customizations.

Article Link: Apple Watch Tips and Hidden Features: Handoff, AirPlay, and More

 

[macduke]

These articles are good—keep them coming! They'll help keep me satiated until my Apple Watch arrives in June!

 

[swarmster]

Huh, I'm surprised I didn't notice the double-click thing. That's neat.

I do wish, though, that there was a way to set the default Music source to the Watch. Not only do you have to go in and select Watch every time, but it's so aggressive at prioritizing the phone that it will completely stop playing in the middle of a song as I turn back onto my street when finishing up a run.

 

[apple_iBoy]

I'm still not sure how I feel about the San Francisco typeface used on the Watch. Something about the leading and the tracking in these screenshots doesn't sit well with me. I haven't see it on a Watch screen yet.

 

[Dennison]

I gotta say, I'm surprised every day that I learn more about this watch. I'm impressed with everything everybody's saying about it, and all that it can do, so I can't wait to get mine in just north of a couple weeks.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the San Francisco typeface used on the Watch. Something about the leading and the tracking in these screenshots doesn't sit well with me. I haven't see it on a Watch screen yet.

I think San Francisco is beautiful. Although I've actually gotten to try on several Apple Watches in stores. The screen is absolutely awesome, almost feel like it's better than my iPhone 6's display.

 

[hoits2000]

Not sure if this is known yet but I just noticed this on day 4 of having it. In a notification like a text you can click it and then select reply but today I noticed that if you click the text icon in the notification it takes you to the text in the iMessages app. I like it that way better so I can see the list of messages in the conversation..

 

[mjs402]

Handoff also works between the Mac and the Watch... I posted this before too, seemingly it was ignored.

 

[lombax54]

Handoff also works between the Mac and the Watch... I posted this before too, seemingly it was ignored.

This is beautiful news...

 

[Tycho24]

Handoff also works between the Mac and the Watch... I posted this before too, seemingly it was ignored.

Thank you SO much!!
This is the 1st time I've seen this, or even heard it mentioned. Great scoop!
I have another reason to be excited, sometime in the May 13-27 timeframe, lol.

 

[usarioclave]

Has anyone gotten the remote to pair with a gen3 apple tv? I try to pair and it shows on the TV, but the watch just stays on the "Add Device" thing.

 

[Aldaris]

For what it's worth, this was a great video with some great easter eggs, like the emoji/heart color change.

 

[ardchoille50]

Can't wait to get my Apple Watch!

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I'm still not sure how I feel about the San Francisco typeface used on the Watch. Something about the leading and the tracking in these screenshots doesn't sit well with me. I haven't see it on a Watch screen yet.

Unless you're viewing these on a small display, you're likely seeing these screen shots at several times actual size. As you've already noted, context does matter.

Apple Watch Human Interface Guidelines: Color and Typography

 

[cr2]

Handoff also works between the Mac and the Watch... I posted this before too, seemingly it was ignored.

Thanks for pointing that out. It will be very helpful. Can you give a little details before we forget the feature. Thanks in advance.

 

[alphaod]

I like these articles. Means I'll be an expert once I actually get the watch instead of looking like a n00b the whole time.

 

[JoeMichaelV]

Is there a hidden option where you can send a reply on another language without changing Siri's main language just like if you had an international keyboard on your iPhone? Or maybe just send it as an audio reply.

 

[MH01]

Some good tips there I was not aware of

 

[starnox]

Has anyone gotten the remote to pair with a gen3 apple tv? I try to pair and it shows on the TV, but the watch just stays on the "Add Device" thing.

I didn't have to pair mine, they just showed up when I went into the remote app on my watch. For both my 3rd and 2nd gen Apple TVs.

 

[Chrjy]

The app icons on Apple Watch can be fairly small, and their tiny touch targets can make it difficult to accurately choose which app you want to launch.

I thought exactly the opposite, I'm incredibly surprised how accurate it is, I've yet to accidentally open a wrong app.

 

[The Bogeyman]

Has anyone gotten the remote to pair with a gen3 apple tv? I try to pair and it shows on the TV, but the watch just stays on the "Add Device" thing.

Your Apple TV and iPhone must be connected to the same wifi network for it to work. What I did the first time I connected to it was to use the Apple TV's own remote to wake it up and then it appeared in the watch app. After that, I have found that as long as your phone is connected to the wifi, you can control your Apple TV from the watch, including waking it up every time.

Hope this helps you. Good luck!

 

[Menopause]

Handoff also works between the Mac and the Watch... I posted this before too, seemingly it was ignored.

Nice find!

 

[Rogifan]

I thought exactly the opposite, I'm incredibly surprised how accurate it is, I've yet to accidentally open a wrong app.

Can't one use the digital crown to zoom in and make the icons bigger?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

The black/white interface accentuated with colors is one of the best uses of flat design that I've ever seen. Much better looking than Android wear on a small screen.

 

[Rogifan]

And Unbox Therapy did a test on the stainless steel watch and found the sapphire was equivalent to that of traditional watchmakers, which they thought was impressive considering the shape of the Watch.

http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/27/apple...f-classic-sapphire-watches-video/#more-377313

 

[grimmace]

Still in "Processing Item" mode.