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Apple Watch use
- Thread starter circatee
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When I first got the AW, I tried to use apps on it but that proved counterproductive (that'll likely change come wOS 3). Now I simply allow notifications come to me on the AW.
I put it on when I get up and it stays on my wrist until I go to bed. If anything, I use it more now than when I first got it 
I'm the same. Use it more now and very happy with it.I put it on when I get up and it stays on my wrist until I go to bed. If anything, I use it more now than when I first got it
Would definitely miss it if I forgot to put it on. And I love not having to mess with my phone so much. Particularly when sitting down. No more awkwardly wiggling the phone in and out of a tight pocket.
Yes.Do you use your Apple Watch as much now, as when you bought\received it?
Curious, and nosey
I've tried going back to my regular watches, even just for fun, and I still end up wearing my AW most of the time.
First thing on in the morning, last thing off at night. Use it constantly - time, monitoring local weather, stocks, activity, news alerts, messages, mail...
The only thing that would compel me to take it off is an Apple Watch 2.
The only thing that would compel me to take it off is an Apple Watch 2.
Congratulations. You're in the 1%...
Computerworld (Jul 22nd 2016 edition) said:
Not bad at all.
Full article linked here: Wristly confirms 94% Apple Watch customers are ‘satisfied’
I bought a 42mm silver Sport model about a month ago and have been using it constantly, to the point that it's become an essential part of my daily tech lifestyle. The funny thing is, this is my third time around with owning the Watch. I owned my first two AW's last year, before WatchOS 2 came out. I guess I just never fell in love with it the first two times and the price was hard to swallow at that time. Fast forward a year- I just switched back to iPhone from Galaxy S7 in June and knew that I wanted a smartwatch because I had been using the Gear S2 with my S7. Coming back to the AW was a godsend, the differences in the user experience between the S2 & AW are like night & day. I have also found that customizing the AW makes a huge difference, I bought some third party bands off Amazon and have been so pleased with them.
I use it MORE now. When I first got it I put it on before I got out of bed in the morning and took it off to put it on the charger before going to sleep. Now I wear one 24/7 except when in the shower! I bought a second one (I wanted a pink one!) So now I even wear one when sleeping.
I've been wearing mine since I got in last May. I don't use many third party apps, instead preferring to simply use the built in apps. The notifications for email, messages, reminders, etc. is very handy since my phone is usually in my bag or in a pocket.
One place the watch shines for me is when travelling. I have a separate watch face set up just for travel. I start with the Modular face and add my airline app as the large center complication. It's handy for things like boarding times, gate changes, notification of delays, etc. Local weather, hotel app, time in home time zone, and date round out the other complications. Open Table and Uber complications might also be added, depending on where I'll be.
One place the watch shines for me is when travelling. I have a separate watch face set up just for travel. I start with the Modular face and add my airline app as the large center complication. It's handy for things like boarding times, gate changes, notification of delays, etc. Local weather, hotel app, time in home time zone, and date round out the other complications. Open Table and Uber complications might also be added, depending on where I'll be.
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Yes... I probably use it more as time goes on, but it doesn't feel that way because using the watch throughout the day has become so second-nature.
The only time I really think about it is when I use it for something that is not routine. For example I just got back from a week+ vacation so I used the watch for travel for the first time. I had installed the Alaska Air app to my iPhone, as well as the free Flight Stats. I enabled Flight Stats as a glance so I could swipe up to see if my flight was on time and what gate it would be at. I had used the Alaska Air app to check-in, and it saved my boarding pass to the Wallet app. That caused the QR code for my boarding pass to appear on my watch as a notification as the boarding time approached. I just had to tap it on my watch so they could scan it at the gate! I thought that was cool because I didn't have to know or learn how to use that feature. It just showed up when I needed it. That's the way a seldom-used feature should work! I only use maps on occasion, but I did use maps and turn-by-turn instructions while traveling quite a bit. My rental car had a GPS in the dash, but it was not as easy to use as Maps on the iPhone and watch.
Of course my routine usage is still the core usage of notifications/reminders, text messages, time, timer, calendar, weather, grocery lists, Apple Pay and activity/workout tracking. A few months ago we bought our first smart lights (a Philips Hue kit) so now I regularly use my watch to control our lights as well.
I suppose a flip-side to this question is: Do you still use your iPhone as much now as you did before you got the Apple Watch? I do still use my iPhone quite a lot, but not nearly as frequently during the day. Since I don't need to get my iPhone out to glance at information or take care of a simple task, it spends more time tucked away.
Sean
The only time I really think about it is when I use it for something that is not routine. For example I just got back from a week+ vacation so I used the watch for travel for the first time. I had installed the Alaska Air app to my iPhone, as well as the free Flight Stats. I enabled Flight Stats as a glance so I could swipe up to see if my flight was on time and what gate it would be at. I had used the Alaska Air app to check-in, and it saved my boarding pass to the Wallet app. That caused the QR code for my boarding pass to appear on my watch as a notification as the boarding time approached. I just had to tap it on my watch so they could scan it at the gate! I thought that was cool because I didn't have to know or learn how to use that feature. It just showed up when I needed it. That's the way a seldom-used feature should work! I only use maps on occasion, but I did use maps and turn-by-turn instructions while traveling quite a bit. My rental car had a GPS in the dash, but it was not as easy to use as Maps on the iPhone and watch.
Of course my routine usage is still the core usage of notifications/reminders, text messages, time, timer, calendar, weather, grocery lists, Apple Pay and activity/workout tracking. A few months ago we bought our first smart lights (a Philips Hue kit) so now I regularly use my watch to control our lights as well.
I suppose a flip-side to this question is: Do you still use your iPhone as much now as you did before you got the Apple Watch? I do still use my iPhone quite a lot, but not nearly as frequently during the day. Since I don't need to get my iPhone out to glance at information or take care of a simple task, it spends more time tucked away.
Sean
I'm curious as to how people use their ⌚️for exercise purposes. Lately I've noticed the ⌚️ was very slow to credit me with cals burned from walking around, which it seemed to do with ease when I started out using it about a year ago. Today I had several jobs to do around the city centre and I knew I would be doing a fair bit of walking so I opened up the workout app and set it to outdoor walk and I've attached my results, which I'm quite impressed with. Do other people use the workout app like this when they are heading out for, say a walk in excess of five minutes or do you let the ⌚️ automatically calibrate your exercises. Just curious. Or am I cheating.
I'm curious as to how people use their ⌚️for exercise purposes. Lately I've noticed the ⌚️ was very slow to credit me with cals burned from walking around, which it seemed to do with ease when I started out using it about a year ago. Today I had several jobs to do around the city centre and I knew I would be doing a fair bit of walking so I opened up the workout app and set it to outdoor walk and I've attached my results, which I'm quite impressed with. Do other people use the workout app like this when they are heading out for, say a walk in excess of five minutes or do you let the ⌚️ automatically calibrate your exercises. Just curious. Or am I cheating.
I will usually start a workout anytime I think I will be doing significantly more than my usual daily activity. Of course the calories and exercise minutes will get recorded whether I start a workout or not, but I think the information gathered in workout mode is probably more accurate, and perhaps it does update more frequently (although I haven't noticed any issues with the watch being slow to credit activity outside of workout mode).
I think the important thing to consider is what metrics you want to get out of the Activity and Health apps in the future. Activity will let you filter past workouts by activity type, so I think the important thing is to just be consistent. I live close to work and I walk or bike every day to and from work (sometimes I bike home for lunch as well). The distance each way is only 1.5 miles. I don't bother creating workouts for these short trips even though it's hilly and I get my heart rate up. I think it would just drive me crazy to start and stop the workouts every morning, afternoon, and sometimes at lunch. Now if I ride my bike 10 miles round trip to meet a friend for lunch I record it as a workout because that's in addition to my usual daily activity. Same if I go for a fast one hour workout ride on my lunch break. The only problem is that when I compare those workouts in the future I might wonder why I rode so much faster on one lunch break compared to another. But I'm not training for racing anymore (not since the early 90's). If I was still training for racing I would probably record only my real training rides as workouts, so I could compare workouts where I know I was trying to go hard.
Sean
Thanks Sean, that does make perfect sense when I read it via-a-vis recording activity outside normal daily routine or energy expenditure. I noticed that lately the ⌚️ was slow to register my daily routine and credit me for it and I was wondering was ⌚️possibly getting smarter or getting accustomed to my routine and forcing me to work that bit harder to have exercise recorded. But yes your post does make a lot of sense so thanks for that.
You might be right... maybe you're baseline activity level is increasing. How that red ring gets calculated is a bit of a mystery to me
In the end I think you just go with what makes sense to you and try to keep it consistent. When I first got the watch I recorded every 1.5 miles walk or bike ride to and from work as a workout because I do get my heart rate up. After a few weeks I stopped because it was so easy to forget to start or stop a workout for such a short routine trip... so I felt like I wasn't being consistent. My calendar now has fewer green workout dots, but at least when I glance at it I can definitely see which days included activity beyond the usual. At least it makes me realize that I need to work out more
Sean
That's so true. I don't know how many times I forgot to stop a workout. Great advice thanks so much. But I do think the ⌚️ has got more intelligent about my use over the last year. I just sometimes feel I am not working as hard as the ⌚️ thinks I should be. Suppose that's a good thing.
I wear it all the time including whilst sleeping (for sleep tracking). I keep it charged up whilst showering or if I'm going to be sat down for a while. I leave my phone in the bedroom or living room usually, so now by wearing the watch I don't miss calls or any urgent notifications. I also use it for fitness tracking to replace the Nike Fuelband I wore for 3 years so I'm used to this kind of thing on my wrist!
Probably the same amount of use now.
It's mainly a way for me to check notifications quicker/easier that I get on my Phone.
Reading texts at a glance, upcoming calendar events/meetings, checking activity rings.
Using it to make or receive phone calls was not very good in my experience. It worked but there's no way I would purposely choose to use the watch over the phone or my Bluetooth headphones. Call quality on either side was rather meh.
I bought a dock to put on my nightstand so when I get in the bed, it goes on the dock beside the phone.
If I get version 2.0 with my next phone I may end up with the docks that hold and charge both devices rather than having two seperate.
It's mainly a way for me to check notifications quicker/easier that I get on my Phone.
Reading texts at a glance, upcoming calendar events/meetings, checking activity rings.
Using it to make or receive phone calls was not very good in my experience. It worked but there's no way I would purposely choose to use the watch over the phone or my Bluetooth headphones. Call quality on either side was rather meh.
I bought a dock to put on my nightstand so when I get in the bed, it goes on the dock beside the phone.
If I get version 2.0 with my next phone I may end up with the docks that hold and charge both devices rather than having two seperate.