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How to Use Walkie-Talkie in watchOS 5
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News Flash: Without WiFi or cellular, you cannot communicate with others wirelessly.
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Compared to initiating a call, you can talk right-away without having to wait for the other person to pick up and the other persons hears you right-away in real-time (the latter is also the difference to an audio message). Compared to keeping a FaceTime call open, the Walkie-Talkie auto-mutes you, you only transmit while keeping your finger on the talk button.
An example were the same differences apply are office intercoms compared to phone calls.
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So yet another setting to have to hunt for and change before going into a meeting or other quiet place or anywhere you just don't want to be bothered? iPhone muted...check. Apple Watch on DND...check. Theater mode on...check. Walkie-Talkie app set to "unavailable"...check. WOW. That's a lot. Why would it ignore the global settings of the watch?
This app will become just a nuisance for most people once the newness wears off. I grew to hate Nextel phone users with their walkie-talkie conversations everywhere, and this, too, will start rubbing people the wrong way.
Yes you can communicate without WiFi or cellular. That is called talking to one another.
All right, I kid.
I think this is an awesome idea! I’ve always wondered why other mobile phone companies didn’t pick up on the walkie-talkie idea after Nextel disappeared. Even Apple’s yellow color scheme is an obvious nod to Nextel.
Some ideas....
- There should be some sort of “recently established contact” option, where you can yay/nay the immediate audio, if you haven’t parlayed with the other person within a certain amount of time. This would be similar to the “open to previous app” option on the watch, and you could set the timer to 1/2/5/10 minutes, etc. That would at least allow some way to gatekeep who comes blaring over your watch, without sacrificing the immediacy of a walkie-talkie system when you need it/want it.
- When you’re ready to temporarily close the line of communication, you could even immediately swipe it Hot or Cold, to send that convo back into standby mode, where you wouldn’t automatically get their response blaring over the watch.
- I agree that it seems silly that the W-T feature would supersede the Do Not Disturb feature.
- Also, yes, this feature should be made readily available on the iPhone. 1) It would increase the user base that you could walkie-talkie with, while 2) Demonstrating why having an Apple Watch makes using the feature so much easier than an iPhone. Prior to getting an Apple Watch, the major question I asked myself was, “Why do I really need this? What’s the benefit over my phone?”
I’m sure haters are going to hate on people who publicly walk around walkie-talkie-ing...but it’s a very public demonstration of the Apple Watch, and you’d probably start to look like a social dope pulling out your iPhone to engage in it. <~~ In fact, I suppose this is why the feature isn’t yet available on iPhones (your phone is usually in your pocket!). Nevertheless, this shortcoming between phone and watch could be bridged by the implementation of my first couple of bullets above, regarding setting up a Hot/Cold line of immediate communication.
There are so many practical possibilities to this feature! In some ways it seems like a giant leap forward to the old-school way of dialing someone’s phone number. How many people these days already screen their phone calls? Or prefer a text to a call, so you can see up front why that person was contacting you. It’s a voice version of a text message, that can be screened quickly, and segue into a legit back-and-forth conversation.
Some ideas....
- There should be some sort of “recently established contact” option, where you can yay/nay the immediate audio, if you haven’t parlayed with the other person within a certain amount of time. This would be similar to the “open to previous app” option on the watch, and you could set the timer to 1/2/5/10 minutes, etc. That would at least allow some way to gatekeep who comes blaring over your watch, without sacrificing the immediacy of a walkie-talkie system when you need it/want it.
- When you’re ready to temporarily close the line of communication, you could even immediately swipe it Hot or Cold, to send that convo back into standby mode, where you wouldn’t automatically get their response blaring over the watch.
- I agree that it seems silly that the W-T feature would supersede the Do Not Disturb feature.
- Also, yes, this feature should be made readily available on the iPhone. 1) It would increase the user base that you could walkie-talkie with, while 2) Demonstrating why having an Apple Watch makes using the feature so much easier than an iPhone. Prior to getting an Apple Watch, the major question I asked myself was, “Why do I really need this? What’s the benefit over my phone?”
I’m sure haters are going to hate on people who publicly walk around walkie-talkie-ing...but it’s a very public demonstration of the Apple Watch, and you’d probably start to look like a social dope pulling out your iPhone to engage in it. <~~ In fact, I suppose this is why the feature isn’t yet available on iPhones (your phone is usually in your pocket!). Nevertheless, this shortcoming between phone and watch could be bridged by the implementation of my first couple of bullets above, regarding setting up a Hot/Cold line of immediate communication.
There are so many practical possibilities to this feature! In some ways it seems like a giant leap forward to the old-school way of dialing someone’s phone number. How many people these days already screen their phone calls? Or prefer a text to a call, so you can see up front why that person was contacting you. It’s a voice version of a text message, that can be screened quickly, and segue into a legit back-and-forth conversation.
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It would be great if it actually worked...mines stuck on 'connecting' to my wife's Apple Watch. It just hangs and never manages to work.
I've tried everything to resolve the issue, including unpairing and restoring both watches, restarting all watches and phones, clean install Watch OS 5 on both watches, deleting invitations and removing contacts, etc. Nothing works...
I've tried everything to resolve the issue, including unpairing and restoring both watches, restarting all watches and phones, clean install Watch OS 5 on both watches, deleting invitations and removing contacts, etc. Nothing works...
Real talk though, I HATE how it lists every single contact - Non Apple devices, Landlines, etc. Makes me realize I need to delete phone numbers I haven't used in 10 years.
Hoping in a V2 they can detect and show contacts who have compatible devices.
Hoping in a V2 they can detect and show contacts who have compatible devices.
I've heard people say that if the other person turns off availability, it doesn't notify them when you try to W-T them. But this article seems to suggest otherwise. Is this outdated info from when it was first posted months or is this accurate today? I wish it had a simple schedule in the Apple Watch app on my iPhone where I could set it to 5-10pm M-F and all day on weekends. I don't want to have to toggle it on and off all the time.
Good thing Apple Watch Series 4 has a 50% louder speaker, 69Mustang from the past, lol.
Is there any way to get the icon to go away on the Apple Watch display without having to say I’m unavailable?
I don’t mind the feature, just don’t like seeing icons on my display that aren’t immediately necessary.
I don’t mind the feature, just don’t like seeing icons on my display that aren’t immediately necessary.
“If you tap it, it will take you right into the Walkie-Talkie app.”
Yeah that would be nice if it actually worked.
So far my observation of iOS 5, seems very buggy with lots of false promises when it was announced in June. Hopefully further updates resolved issues like Siri Shortcuts not working with the watch, or the computer learning with the Siri watchface being useless.
Yeah that would be nice if it actually worked.
So far my observation of iOS 5, seems very buggy with lots of false promises when it was announced in June. Hopefully further updates resolved issues like Siri Shortcuts not working with the watch, or the computer learning with the Siri watchface being useless.
There is no way I've found to disable this. In my case, I've noticed this icon briefly appears when raising to wake but most of the time doesn't stick around.
Apple really needs some proper Product Managers. This is getting silly.
Walkie-Talkie is a LOT slower and less efficient than a normal POTS/Facetime call (as you have to wait to listen to the full message, record your own and send that off. It's uni-directional) and is by no means whatsoever better than sending an iMessage with a recording in that (which equally slow and uni-directional, but can be listened to a second time if it was hard to hear).
Time for them to hire a proper product team/head of product/youname it. It's a huge company with no product leadership whatsoever. Just a bunch of Marketing and Sales dudes.
Walkie-Talkie is a LOT slower and less efficient than a normal POTS/Facetime call (as you have to wait to listen to the full message, record your own and send that off. It's uni-directional) and is by no means whatsoever better than sending an iMessage with a recording in that (which equally slow and uni-directional, but can be listened to a second time if it was hard to hear).
Time for them to hire a proper product team/head of product/youname it. It's a huge company with no product leadership whatsoever. Just a bunch of Marketing and Sales dudes.
Somewhat related to the Walkie app - why did Apple remove the Apple Watch contacts/Friends thing? It was an easy way to see who had an Apple Watch since it auto detected to a degree I think, which would be handy with Walkie Talkie. I have friends who live in other cities/states/countries so who knows who has one. It would make being able to use this a lot easier.
Anyway, for me, it can be useful since we use actual walkies on location (I work in TV Production). One of my co-workers thought this could be useful since I hate carrying my walkie and constantly leaving my phone at my desk* in the Production Office! lol.
*this is also why the LTE Watch is good for me
Anyway, for me, it can be useful since we use actual walkies on location (I work in TV Production). One of my co-workers thought this could be useful since I hate carrying my walkie and constantly leaving my phone at my desk* in the Production Office! lol.
*this is also why the LTE Watch is good for me
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