I've got a Samsung A33 smart phone (company). Can I use an Apple Smart watch with it, and vice versa, can I use a non Apple smart watch with my iPhone 12 mini?
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Can you use any Smart Watch with any Smart Phone?
- Thread starter cheddar-caveman
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No, the Apple Watch requires an iPhone.
Yes, if the smart watch supports iOS/iPhones. The ones from Garmin and Fitbit are a couple examples that do. Google's Pixel Watch does not.
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The short version is that iStorm is correct … but it is a bit more complicated.
An Apple Watch must be initially set up and paired with an iPhone.
Network connectivity, in practice, almost always requires an iPhone at least initially. For example, cellular models require an active iPhone plan plus an active watch add-on plan; while the watch will connect to known WiFi networks by itself, it will only know about them after you’ve connected with an iPhone.
The watch can only send and receive SMS by using the iPhone as a relay. They can be on opposite sides of the planet, but the iPhone has to be able to talk to the SMS network, and the watch and the iPhone have to be able to talk to each other.
And a number of watch apps are really just front-ends for iPhone apps and require the iPhone to be nearby. The app that controls my hearing aids is like that, as is the university’s 2FA app.
All that aside … it’s often very practical to leave the phone at home and just use the watch. There are people — not many, but a non-trivial number — who almost never have their phone with them and only use the watch as their “daily driver” smartphone.
In that sense, you can use your Apple watch with any phone you like (but, again, you basically have to have an iPhone somewhere).
I don’t know about other manufacturer’s watches, but I’d be surprised if it was significantly different. There’s nothing stopping you from wearing a Fitbit and carrying an iPhone in your pocket … but don’t expect the degree of integration (activity, notifications, handoff, etc.) you get between an Apple Watch and an iPhone.
So, the expanded answer would be, “While you technically can mix-and-match watches and phones to a certain degree, you almost certainly really, really don’t want to.”
b&
An Apple Watch must be initially set up and paired with an iPhone.
Network connectivity, in practice, almost always requires an iPhone at least initially. For example, cellular models require an active iPhone plan plus an active watch add-on plan; while the watch will connect to known WiFi networks by itself, it will only know about them after you’ve connected with an iPhone.
The watch can only send and receive SMS by using the iPhone as a relay. They can be on opposite sides of the planet, but the iPhone has to be able to talk to the SMS network, and the watch and the iPhone have to be able to talk to each other.
And a number of watch apps are really just front-ends for iPhone apps and require the iPhone to be nearby. The app that controls my hearing aids is like that, as is the university’s 2FA app.
All that aside … it’s often very practical to leave the phone at home and just use the watch. There are people — not many, but a non-trivial number — who almost never have their phone with them and only use the watch as their “daily driver” smartphone.
In that sense, you can use your Apple watch with any phone you like (but, again, you basically have to have an iPhone somewhere).
I don’t know about other manufacturer’s watches, but I’d be surprised if it was significantly different. There’s nothing stopping you from wearing a Fitbit and carrying an iPhone in your pocket … but don’t expect the degree of integration (activity, notifications, handoff, etc.) you get between an Apple Watch and an iPhone.
So, the expanded answer would be, “While you technically can mix-and-match watches and phones to a certain degree, you almost certainly really, really don’t want to.”
b&