How does the Apple Watch fit in/integrate with your daily life/workflow?

[The Cockney Rebel]

As per the title, really?

I had to return something to a store a couple of days ago, and the watch got quite active. I was marching, and had quite a few notifications on the watch (email & such) and I found it very convenient to just glance at the watch, and carry on with what I was doing.

What about you? How does the Apple Watch fit in with your daily life?

Wishing you all well.

 

[xxBlack]

I don’t use it much as a smartwatch. Just fitness therefore I ordered an Epix pro and see how it goes. Only occasionally (!) I send a iMessage to my GF. F.e. Currently on vacation and I went to the bar to get some drinks and I wrote my GF if she want something too.

Once a month maybe one short call but that’s it. Rest is fitness tracking and while running listening to music

 

[Shirasaki]

Well, I just use smartwatch as a watch.
Thats how it fits. Everything else is cherry on top.
Of course things like NFC is very helpful too.

 

[BenGoren]

Basically, my Ultra is my smartphone and my 13 mini is a pocket-sized tablet with a scary good camera.

Not an exaggeration.

Today’s watches have at least superficially comparable feature lists the original smartphones — but the UI has been polished to the point that things that are possible on the small screen are actually usable. I don’t think anybody will argue with me when I state that an Apple watch is a significantly better smartphone than the original iPhone — and let’s not forget how revolutionary and fantastic and extremely useful that original iPhone was. So, all the stuff we were originally supposed to be doing with the original iPhone (checking the calendar, sending short messages, checking the weather, using the calculator, setting timers, that sort of thing) I now find myself almost always doing on the watch. Plus more, of course, that original smartphones couldn’t yet dream of — all the activity tracking, a fair amount of map navigation, looking up random bright objects in the night sky, contactless payment, plenty more.

Most of the time my phone is in my hands these days that I’m not using it as a camera, I’m using DuoLingo to learn Japanese. Most of the rest is reading, either newspapers in Safari or ebooks. And most of what’s left over is split between email and “I just happen to have my phone in my hand so of course I’ll use it instead of the watch.”

And I’m not at all shy about leaving the phone in the backpack. If I forget to grab the phone on my way out the door when I leave home, I’m extremely unlikely to regret the fact, let alone turn around and go get it.

b&

 

[Indianwin2001]

I don’t use it much as a smartwatch. Just fitness therefore I ordered an Epix pro and see how it goes. Only occasionally (!) I send a iMessage to my GF. F.e. Currently on vacation and I went to the bar to get some drinks and I wrote my GF if she want something too.

Once a month maybe one short call but that’s it. Rest is fitness tracking and while running listening to music

You’re going to love the Epix Pro. Enjoy.

 

[xxBlack]

You’re going to love the Epix Pro. Enjoy.

Can’t wait till I’m back home but I have a weird feeling that I will stick with the ultra. I‘m so used to the AW (using one since 2018) that round smart/fitness watches look weird.

But I thought I give it a chance. I hate the notifications on the AW. I love and hate the rings at the same time. They motivate me but on rest days I always get a message „look at your rings“ like damn yesterday I rode for 120 km + hit the gym (3.900 active calories) and now it’s 8 am the next morning

 

[Indianwin2001]

Can’t wait till I’m back home but I have a weird feeling that I will stick with the ultra. I‘m so used to the AW (using one since 2018) that round smart/fitness watches look weird.

But I thought I give it a chance. I hate the notifications on the AW. I love and hate the rings at the same time. They motivate me but on rest days I always get a message „look at your rings“ like damn yesterday I rode for 120 km + hit the gym (3.900 active calories) and now it’s 8 am the next morning

Yea. You could run an ultra marathon on Monday but you better “ close your rings” on Tuesday. Lol. Ridiculous.

 

[Howard2k]

Can’t wait till I’m back home but I have a weird feeling that I will stick with the ultra. I‘m so used to the AW (using one since 2018) that round smart/fitness watches look weird.

But I thought I give it a chance. I hate the notifications on the AW. I love and hate the rings at the same time. They motivate me but on rest days I always get a message „look at your rings“ like damn yesterday I rode for 120 km + hit the gym (3.900 active calories) and now it’s 8 am the next morning

You can just adjust your targets for your rest day. You can't make it all zeros, but you can get pretty close.

 

[Howard2k]

I use it more as a smartwatch during the day (calendar, texts, notifications) and during the evenings more as a traditional watch, though the ability to manipulate my TV/music can be handy. Apple Pay is something I use often too. And of course, fitness features and sleep tracking.

 

[Eldaerenth Faexidor]

I love it. Use it for fitness a lot. My hikes, functional strength training. Use it at work for phone calls and for listening to music and volume controle. For cooking I use it to set timers. Also use iMessage and mail a lot. And I use Apple Pay, it’s so convenient. Use the weather app a lot as well. And use it for sleep tracking. I can also unlock and open the gate at my supermarket with my watch. Lmao! Pretty versatile imo. Can’t wait for the second gen. Ultra!

 

[dj1891]

I don’t use it much as a smartwatch. Just fitness therefore I ordered an Epix pro and see how it goes. Only occasionally (!) I send a iMessage to my GF. F.e. Currently on vacation and I went to the bar to get some drinks and I wrote my GF if she want something too.

Once a month maybe one short call but that’s it. Rest is fitness tracking and while running listening to music

I just got rid of my Fenix 7 for AW 8. I'm all about fitness myself, thought i'd love Garmin and I did in some aspects on others not so much. For me I am a poor sleeper, always have been, my norm sleep is anywhere from 5-6 hours per night, Garmin doesn't like this, as a result so many of the metrics are pointless for me so turned them off, Training Readiness, Body Battery, Suggested workouts all effected if you sleep less than 8 hours.

The smart watch side of things was very very basic, couldn't reply to messages, a lot of notifications didn't even say which app sent them, all you got was this message on the screen and you had to workout where it came from, some big apps like Whatsapp or Facebook do have icons appear though.

For me i think the AW does a good job of combining the two, battery is kinda crap but with fast charge its no big problem either

 

[Night Spring]

I use it mostly as a fitness tracker. I close the activity circles everyday, track my walks with the Workout app, use it for sleep tracking, and I use the timer for cooking and laundry. I also use it to check the weather and sunset time when deciding when to go for a walk. I don't often go places I don't know, but the few times I used turn-by-turn directions on the watch, it was neat.

 

[xxBlack]

I just got rid of my Fenix 7 for AW 8. I'm all about fitness myself, thought i'd love Garmin and I did in some aspects on others not so much. For me I am a poor sleeper, always have been, my norm sleep is anywhere from 5-6 hours per night, Garmin doesn't like this, as a result so many of the metrics are pointless for me so turned them off, Training Readiness, Body Battery, Suggested workouts all effected if you sleep less than 8 hours.

The smart watch side of things was very very basic, couldn't reply to messages, a lot of notifications didn't even say which app sent them, all you got was this message on the screen and you had to workout where it came from, some big apps like Whatsapp or Facebook do have icons appear though.

For me i think the AW does a good job of combining the two, battery is kinda crap but with fast charge its no big problem either

Will be home tonight and will test it but thank you for your insight!

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

Right now I’ve been using it to track O2 levels. The background reads aren’t great, because they’re random and don’t tie in to closely with respiration and heart rate. However, you can export the data, with a little help, and it became more useful then.

I also,

• Use Siri for various things.
• Answer the phone with it occasionally.
• Look at texts, think I’ve responded maybe once or twice.
• Track workouts, such that they are these days.
• Look at the weather.
• Create and track reminders.

I haven’t been using it for music or podcasts lately, as the phone is with me more often now

 

[Dc2006ster]

I purchased my S7 for its health and fitness features. I still use those but as time has gone on I am increasingly finding new uses: music while I exercise, severe weather and air quality alerts, calendar reminders, email and text notifications, replying to texts, timer while cooking, finding my car keys, with Apple Pay and Stocard my wallet I have ditched a lot of cards from my wallet, GPS navigation … I am sure there are others I have missed because they are so commonplace now that I just take them for granted. So, yes, the Watch is completely integrated into my daily life.

 

[Night Spring]

I just got rid of my Fenix 7 for AW 8. I'm all about fitness myself, thought i'd love Garmin and I did in some aspects on others not so much. For me I am a poor sleeper, always have been, my norm sleep is anywhere from 5-6 hours per night, Garmin doesn't like this, as a result so many of the metrics are pointless for me so turned them off, Training Readiness, Body Battery, Suggested workouts all effected if you sleep less than 8 hours.

Wow. Not that I was ever considering a Garmin, but I find it surprising you aren't able to adjust your ideal sleep time. I function perfectly fine with 5-6 hours of sleep, and some people have been known to be fine with as little as 4 hours. I'm surprised to hear Garmin's system is so rigid about 8 hours sleep.

 

[BullHorn]

It was too annoying getting constant buzzing and notifications, to the point where I ended up just ignoring the watch, and eventually disabled all of the 'smart' features.

These days I use it strictly for fitness/health tracking. Whenever I go on a run is the only time when I would use all of the watch's features and leave the phone at home.

 

[Howard2k]

It was too annoying getting constant buzzing and notifications, to the point where I ended up just ignoring the watch, and eventually disabled all of the 'smart' features.

These days I use it strictly for fitness/health tracking. Whenever I go on a run is the only time when I would use all of the watch's features and leave the phone at home.

You can adjust the notification settings in the Watch app on the phone.

 

[JamesHolden]

I pretty much use it for fitness only. I don't wear it unless I'm working out or doing an activity where reaching my phone isn't ideal. I much prefer the larger iPhone screen for notifications, email, texting, etc. I also feel like we're inundated with notifications in general. I don't want to wear something that constantly dings/taps me.

The Watch is great for activities, though. When I'm paddling boarding, I can answer the phone or respond to a text. Very convenient. I carry an external speaker when I'm hiking or paddling. I like being able to change the music or turn down the volume from the Watch. When I'm at the gym, I control my music and log my sets and reps while leaving my phone in my gym bag.

Other than that, I use some of the basic fitness features like monitoring my heart rate when I'm working out or timing my hikes and monitoring my speed, etc. I enjoy seeing basic metrics like elevation gain/loss after a hike, but I'm generally not into tracking my health data. I don't think it's mentally healthy to be so preoccupied with all of that stuff.

In short, for me, the Watch is very useful in specific scenarios but not something I want to wear all of the time. I also don't like wearing a watch period, for what it's worth!

 

[marspark]

1. Analyzing my sleep is probably my no.1 usage of Apple Watch.
2. Then it's fun to play "Watch Odyssey" (disclaimer I'm the developer) and remind myself of being active.
3. I use the flashlight a lot when taking care of my son during the night.
4. The vibration alarm clock is a charm
5. Much easier to set a schedule with watch than taking my phone out of the pocket

 

[adildacoolset]

I mainly use it for notifications, timekeeping with a watch face that's chock-full of useful complications, Apple Music, and plenty of fitness tracking. I'm currently training for an Ironman triathlon and use the watch for all my swim and run tracking, and a dedicated bike computer for cycling tracking (it's much more convenient and safer than using a watch). I switched from a Garmin and never looked back.

 

[ArchEtech]

I use it mostly as a watch with an app that can change to nice faces. I like the ability to use it for health and sleep tracking and do regularly. I have all notifications turned off and don't want my watch bugging me, but it is nice to check things when I want to when I don't have my phone.