Best Uses of the Watch within the Apple Ecosystem

[SkipperGlen]

The Apple Watch is in part a stand alone device (Watch, built-in apps) and in part an extension of other devices (e.g. Cell Phone). What the watch has that other devices do not is near instant accessibility and a non-intrusive notification (Taptic engine). How do we best take advantage of this new technology?

It seems to me that all of the App developers were in a huge rush to be first and cash in, probably encouraged to do so by Apple, but many of these initial apps may be lacking in quality and/or suitability for the wrist.

The purpose of this thread is to identify AW/iPhone configurations that work well and to identify Apps that are well suited to the wrist. We have a creative community and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

 

[zmunkz]

I am sorry, I really do not follow the grammar or vector of your question.

Are you asking which specific apps we think work best? Or are you asking philosophically what sorts of apps should be on the wrist? Or are you asking if the new style of notification is conducive to a new kind of app?

 

[Azzin]

The Apple Watch is in part a stand alone device (Watch, built-in apps) and in part an extension of other devices (e.g. Cell Phone). What the watch has that other devices do not is near instant accessibility and a non-intrusive notification (Taptic engine). How do we best take advantage of this new technology?

It seems to me that all of the App developers were in a huge rush to be first and cash in, probably encouraged to do so by Apple, but many of these initial apps may be lacking in quality and/or suitability for the wrist.

The purpose of this thread is to identify AW/iPhone configurations that work well and to identify Apps that are well suited to the wrist. We have a creative community and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

If only someone had thought of this already, lots of people had contributed to it, and it had been made a Sticky thread at the top of the forum to prevent people opening the same thread over and over again...

 

[SkipperGlen]

Azzin:
Thank you for posting the link. A good reference for how to use the watch for folks who aren't going to read the rather extensive manual.


zmunkz:
I'm really most interested in seeing the how to best use the watch as part of the larger Apple ecosystem: Watch <--> iPone <--> iPad <--> Mac. I don't see the Watch as an iPhone on my wrist. It's not a good input device for text, and quite a modest output device for text and graphics; both due to the screen size.

For me, using the watch successfully will mean how much stuff I can keep off of the watch, not how much I can put on it. I only want really important notifications, not a watch that is constantly demanding my attention. From a design point of view, if an interaction with the watch can't be completed in 2-5 seconds, it's probably better done on the phone.


Everyone:
Any suggestions for a better thread title and/or description are welcome.

 

[SkipperGlen]

Apple Watch & E-mail

I have found two different ways to effectively limit how much e-mail makes it to the watch. The first way is fairly course-grained and that is by e-mail accounts. The "Custom" settings for e-mail allow you to select which e-mail accounts show alerts on the Watch. Obvious options are:

• Use a special email account for things important enough to forward to the watch.
• Use a business account.

Neither of these approaches seems very practical to me for long-term use, although they may be very useful for spots in time. A more useful mechanism is to use the "VIP" settings in Mac Mail to determine what is forwarded to the watch. Again, not perfect. Smart mailboxes might be a better interface in the future, if they were to be supported.

----------

I am sorry, I really do not follow the grammar or vector of your question.

Are you asking which specific apps we think work best? Or are you asking philosophically what sorts of apps should be on the wrist? Or are you asking if the new style of notification is conducive to a new kind of app?

Yes. The three questions you pose are, of course, distinct but they are closely related. I am most interested in the last two; the answer to the first should follow from those.

 

[Rok73]

You're holding it wrong.

 

[adammull]

The Apple Watch is in part a stand alone device (Watch, built-in apps) and in part an extension of other devices (e.g. Cell Phone). What the watch has that other devices do not is near instant accessibility and a non-intrusive notification (Taptic engine). How do we best take advantage of this new technology?

It seems to me that all of the App developers were in a huge rush to be first and cash in, probably encouraged to do so by Apple, but many of these initial apps may be lacking in quality and/or suitability for the wrist.

The purpose of this thread is to identify AW/iPhone configurations that work well and to identify Apps that are well suited to the wrist. We have a creative community and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

I've found maps to work well. Start them on my iPhone and then it goes to the wrist. Put the car in drive and all directions tap on my wrist.

It also works well to change the song that's playing on the iPhone in the passenger seat.

Ecosystem wise that's all I'm using. The Apple TV remote function works well, but the iPhone remote app is still better if you need to type something in.

 

[SkipperGlen]

Apple Watch & E-mail: Tip from an Apple Genius

1) The iPhone will only forward mail to the Apple Watch if the iPhone is locked. If it is unlocked, the assumption is that the iPhone is available to process mail.

2) When the iPhone receives mail from the mail server is determined by the following setting:

• 
  Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendars - Fetch New Data

The "Push" setting can be turned on or off. If this setting is turned off, data will only be pulled down from the server when the mail program is active. Thus, the mail will never be forwarded to the watch.

If the "Push" setting is turned on, individual accounts can be set to "Fetch", "Push", or "Manual". Note that not all mail servers can be set to "Push".

Accounts set to "Manual" will only have mail downloaded from the server when the Mail program is active. Notifications for this mail will never be sent to the Apple Watch.

Accounts set to "Push" will have their mail pushed from the server. If the iPhone is locked when this happens, a notification will be sent to the Apple Watch. This mechanism can be used to only forward mail from one account to the Apple Watch. One of the Apple accounts (me or iCloud) would be ideal for this. These accounts could then be used for email that you wish to be pushed to the watch.


Thanks for the tip Jonah!