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Apple Watch tips

bbates123

bbates123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 2, 2010
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Haven't seen a tips thread posted here in a while so I thought I'd post a few of my own for whoever might not know about some of this...

Tip #1: Swipe up from the bottom of the watch to pull up Control Center. #1 feature that I use there is ping iPhone. Whenever I can’t find my iPhone I ping it from my watch…makes the iPhone beep. Also quite handy is the flashlight function…useful in the middle of the night if you’re looking for something. The watch can throw a surprising amount of light. Some other cool stuff there like walkie talkie.

Tip #2. Pressing the button on the lower left (below the crown) pulls up the Dock. Here you can add your most frequently used apps, say Messages or Music so you don’t have to scroll through the whole list of apps you see when you press the crown. You can edit the Dock list by going into the watch app on your phone and selecting Dock.

Tip #3: While wearing a mask you can unlock your iPhone using FaceID if you have an Apple Watch. Just go into Settings > FaceID and Passcodes…scroll down to “Unlock With Apple Watch” (I think this only works with Series 3 and higher)

Tip #4: Different faces for different times of the week. I like to use the Infograph Modular face but there are complications that I only use during the week (such as Up Next - Calendar) and during the weekends (such as Spotify). I created two similar faces with slightly different complications that I can swipe between depending on the day. This may seem obvious but I'm guessing some folks might not have thought about this.

What am I missing?
 
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My favorite tip: you can automate changing watch face by time of the day or even location. Says you’d like to have one face for home, another for work and another one for gym. Just set 3 automations. One using your home location to change to home face, another using your office location to change to office face and last one using your gym location to change to gym face.
it’s very easy and works reliably.
 
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matrix07 said:
My favorite tip: you can automate changing watch face by time of the day or even location. Says you’d like to have one face for home, another for work and another one for gym. Just set 3 automations. One using your home location to change to home face, another using your office location to change to office face and last one using your gym location to change to gym face.
it’s very easy and works reliably.
Click to expand...
OK, that's handy and I didn't know that. Do you have a link to instructions somewhere?
 
matrix07 said:
My favorite tip: you can automate changing watch face by time of the day or even location. Says you’d like to have one face for home, another for work and another one for gym. Just set 3 automations. One using your home location to change to home face, another using your office location to change to office face and last one using your gym location to change to gym face.
it’s very easy and works reliably.
Click to expand...
i didnt know this, im going to have to look into this.

my tip. Holding down the side button will alert SOS and call the police, ping your last location....i woke up one morning to my watch calling the police ( i guess i was applying enough pressure on my side to press the button) luckily they understood and says it happens a lot. Regardless, it was the best alarm clock ive ever had lol
 
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matrix07 said:
My favorite tip: you can automate changing watch face by time of the day or even location. Says you’d like to have one face for home, another for work and another one for gym. Just set 3 automations. One using your home location to change to home face, another using your office location to change to office face and last one using your gym location to change to gym face.
it’s very easy and works reliably.
Click to expand...

Oh does that work now without having to confirm it every time? When they first added this feature, everytime i entered a location i had to confirm it first, which was a major limitation that basically made it useless...
 
bbates123 said:
OK, that's handy and I didn't know that. Do you have a link to instructions somewhere?
Click to expand...
It’s a feature introduced in watchos 7 but hardly anyone knows. 🙂

and it’s very easy. Go to Shortcuts. Create an automation. If you want to use location choose that (you can choose arrive or leave) and use the location you want. Then for action just search watch face. Set it to the one you want. (you have to create the watch face you want to use BEFORE you create an automation).
 
matrix07 said:
It works automatically. You don’t have to confirm anything. Just check off Ask Before Running.
Click to expand...

Does anybody know a good app paid or free for nice watch faces? I tried a few and everytime I touched a complication on my watch it told me to open up the app on my device to update. I tried 3 different apps and none of them would allow me to open up complications, like the original Watch app faces do.
 
bbates123 said:
Sadly there's no option to do an automation based on the days of the week (i.e. weekdays vs weekends
Click to expand...
That's not true though. There is. Just select weekly and there will be option for you to choose each day of the week you want.

(I'm not sure why Apple felt the need to hide such important UI. It confuses people and really NOT intuitive)
 
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matrix07 said:
That's not true though. There is. Just select weekly and there will be option for you to choose each day of the week you want.

(I'm not sure why Apple felt the need to hide such important UI. It confuses people and really NOT intuitive)
Click to expand...
Ah, thank you!
 
Some other tips I have learned over the years:

Force-Quit Apps

  1. Press the Digital Crown to display all apps.
  2. Tap the desired app.
  3. Press and hold the Side Button.
  4. When the Power Down menu appears, release the Side button.
  5. Press and hold the Digital Crown until the app goes away and the watch face returns.
Other Control Center tricks:

  1. You can force touch the WiFi button to turn off/on WiFi or choose another wireless network.
  2. You select the battery level button to see your AirPods battery levels as well if paired.
  3. Change the order, or hide some buttons in the Control Center by tapping the Edit button at the bottom of the list. The icons will begin to jiggle, and show a red minus sign to hide an option. Drag and drop the icons into your preferred order, or tap the red minus button to remove the option altogether.
 
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bbates123 said:
Haven't seen a tips thread posted here in a while so I thought I'd post a few of my own for whoever might not know about some of this...

Tip #1: Swipe up from the bottom of the watch to pull up Control Center. #1 feature that I use there is ping iPhone. Whenever I can’t find my iPhone I ping it from my watch…makes the iPhone beep. Also quite handy is the flashlight function…useful in the middle of the night if you’re looking for something. The watch can throw a surprising amount of light. Some other cool stuff there like walkie talkie.

Tip #2. Pressing the button on the lower left (below the crown) pulls up the Dock. Here you can add your most frequently used apps, say Messages or Music so you don’t have to scroll through the whole list of apps you see when you press the crown. You can edit the Dock list by going into the watch app on your phone and selecting Dock.

Tip #3: While wearing a mask you can unlock your iPhone using FaceID if you have an Apple Watch. Just go into Settings > FaceID and Passcodes…scroll down to “Unlock With Apple Watch” (I think this only works with Series 3 and higher)

Tip #4: Different faces for different times of the week. I like to use the Infograph Modular face but there are complications that I only use during the week (such as Up Next - Calendar) and during the weekends (such as Spotify). I created two similar faces with slightly different complications that I can swipe between depending on the day. This may seem obvious but I'm guessing some folks might not have thought about this.

What am I missing?
Click to expand...
To add to tip#1: hold down the button and your phone will also flash the torch to help you to find it :)
 
Another tip that just came to me. If you’re in a situation where you don’t want a sound coming from the watch, says you’re in theatre watching play and forget to turn on Theater mode or you simply having conversation with someone, and you get phone call or alarm just rings you can mute those sound quickly by simply cover the watch with your hand. This way you don’t reject the call or end the alarm but simply mute it quickly.
 
Have ordered a Series 7 AW and it's my first Apple Watch. How many watch faces are there to choose from when setting up your S7 watch? Have tried to find a video that simply shows the possible options but haven't seen one that shows that.
 
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