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I have a few questions before my AW arrives!

I

iLoveDeveloping

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 24, 2009
596
2,366
Ireland
Hi guys,

Just ordered my watch last night and it's changed to shipped today, I was oddly excited last night and was up far to late thinking about my new watch!! (I know, bit silly! *fanboy*) and I starting thinking about how it actually works and couldn't figure some stuff out as a lot of you have AW for months now can you answer my questions? (Apple really hasn't given detailed pages for how everything works like they used to for iPod and early iPhones or is that just me?)


1. If I wear my watch and have my iPhone in my pocket where are the steps coming from in health? Does the iPhone / AW know the other is moving too so only one is counted?
Part 2 - Does it ever double up as a mistake? I currently wear a Fitbit HR and that has usually 3-400 less steps than my iPhone6 in my pocket simply because my arms move less than my leg does, is this also an issue with AW? If it is the case will my iPhone count the extra steps the AW doesn't?

2. Simple question but one I haven't really seen an answer to - does Apple Watch show EVERY single notification that your iPhone shows even if those apps aren't made for the watch?

3. Can I activate the screen just by touching the screen? Or do I need to push either button? (I know I can flick my wrist but if I can't do that for some reason)


Dammit I had a couple more but sadly can't remember them now if I do I'll post it - should have written (typed?) them down.

Thanks for any help anyway..
 
iLoveDeveloping said:
Hi guys,

Just ordered my watch last night and it's changed to shipped today, I was oddly excited last night and was up far to late thinking about my new watch!! (I know, bit silly! *fanboy*) and I starting thinking about how it actually works and couldn't figure some stuff out as a lot of you have AW for months now can you answer my questions? (Apple really hasn't given detailed pages for how everything works like they used to for iPod and early iPhones or is that just me?)


1. If I wear my watch and have my iPhone in my pocket where are the steps coming from in health? Does the iPhone / AW know the other is moving too so only one is counted?
Part 2 - Does it ever double up as a mistake? I currently wear a Fitbit HR and that has usually 3-400 less steps than my iPhone6 in my pocket simply because my arms move less than my leg does, is this also an issue with AW? If it is the case will my iPhone count the extra steps the AW doesn't?

2. Simple question but one I haven't really seen an answer to - does Apple Watch show EVERY single notification that your iPhone shows even if those apps aren't made for the watch?

3. Can I activate the screen just by touching the screen? Or do I need to push either button? (I know I can flick my wrist but if I can't do that for some reason)


Dammit I had a couple more but sadly can't remember them now if I do I'll post it - should have written (typed?) them down.

Thanks for any help anyway..
Click to expand...

1. You will not get double steps counted. The phone and watch are aware of each other.
Part 2: You can set a primary/preffered device in the health app for counting steps.
2. Yes
3. Yes
 
2. Yes, and you can choose to "mirror" the alerts that you would normally receive on your iPhone. Example - I receive news alerts from my Sky News app even though Sky doesn't have a Watch app.

3. Yes, tap the screen to activate. You can choose to have the screen turn off after 15 or 70 seconds.

Lots of functionality and settings in the Watch app on iPhone.
 
1. You can set the health app to prefer data from your phone or from the watch. It shouldn't double count.

2. By default, notifications from your phone all show up, whether there is a watch app or not. You can turn this on/off app by app. It's simple to customize the watch so you get exactly the notifications you want.

3. Yes, touching the screen turns it on, no need to press buttons. Though I find that flicking your wrist works more than 90% of the time.
 
That's interesting. When I pair an Apple Watch will health default to that or stay with my phone? Does it kinda work like handoff? - where if I walk with my iPhone in my pocket its iPhone and then put it down it will see my watch is then still moving and flick over to that?

I'm thinking about this way hard aren't I? I just have a daily average of 8000 steps with my iPhone and Fitbit, just want to keep that up!


Sounds pretty good though getting excited now.. Thanks for the help!
 
When you pair your Watch to your iPhone it will use both your Watch and iPhone to gather data for health app. If I exercise and just have my Watch on it will later feed that information to the iPhone through Bluetooth. If I get up in the morning and leave my Watch on the charger and just take my iPhone it will update the health app and update the Watch later when it connects through Bluetooth. If I pull up a detail of my steps for a particular day in health app I can see where both the Watch and the iPhone are contributing to the step count even though I'm carrying both of the devices.
 
Just let your watch mirror your phone which I think is the default and experiment from there. They both work quite well with each other but you can customize in the watch app.

There will always be differences in things like steps taken when compared to other devices. I wear the Charge HR and it never agreed with my AW. You got to just pick one and use it as "your" standard.

Hope you enjoy your new watch.
 
3. Yes... just touch the screen when it is on your wrist. In my experience it doesn't take much of a turn of the wrist to wake it up though. In nightstand mode the display will come on even if you just nudge the watch or bump your nightstand.

2. Yes by default, but you can customize individual app settings so you don't necessarily have to get every notification you would see on your phone.

1. No fitness tracker you wear on your wrist is going to be super precise, so expect some differences in what the two devices report. When I first got my Apple Watch the step count was short of what my Fitbit One reported. I followed the prompts to "calibrate" my watch by recording a 20 minute walking workout on flat ground. The accuracy improved and after wearing both the AW and a Fitbit One for 4 months my experience has been that the AW reports about 95% of the steps my Fitbit reports. For stairs climbed there is some discrepancy... with my AW reporting about 75-90% of the stairs climbed according to my Fitbit. They are also pretty close in terms of measuring the number of active minutes per day (although sometimes the AW reports more... I tend to trust the AW since it has a heart rate sensor and my Fitbit does not).

Your mileage may vary, but expect there to be some differences in what the devices report. I don't really care about super precision since I'm not training to be a competitive athlete. I just care about tracking my general activity and sleep. I think I'm just going to use my Fitbit to track my sleep since it has been redundant to have both of them on me during the day (I keep the fitbit in my pocket).

Enjoy the new Apple Watch! Expect it to take some time before you discover all the features, and the best ways to use it. Four months in and I am still discovering new ways the watch can add a little more convenience to my day.

Sean
 
To clarify question 1 in more detail...

The watch and the iphone both count steps independently. In practice this means:

In the "activity" app (accessed from the watch or partner app on the phone) you will see steps as counted by the watch only. As with any wrist worn tracker, these can be less accurate especially if often carrying things.

Both the iPhone and Watch will write the steps taken to the Health app. If you go to "see all data" there will be entries from both at the same time. The way the Health app works, it prioritises data from the first selected data source, then the second, then the third and so on, intelligently so as not to double count the data.

For example: if you select the watch as your primary source, and you walk 100 steps with a carrier bag in your hand... at 12:14 the watch writes 20 steps, the iphone writes 100 at the same time. The watch is the primary source, and therefore the data from the iphone is ignored. However, if you had not been wearing the watch for some reason then only data from the iphone is present and therefore it will use those steps.

I'd advise using the iphone as your primary source for steps if you're going to have it in your pocket. that way the data in the health app will pull from the more accurate phone... and if you leave the phone on your desk to go to the bathroom or something, the data from the watch can then kick in and take over.

interestingly, there are a fair few apps out there that can access your step data... but many of them couldn't prioritise in the way the health app does, the last time i tried them. they can access either the watch, the phone or - worse - double count both. but using the health app (which is better in ios9 than it used to be) this problem doesn't exist.
 
docal97 said:
I am not aware of such a setting in the health app? Could you clarify?
Click to expand...

For each data type in the Health App, there's a line that says "Share Data" (after Show on Dashboard, Show All Data, Add Data Point). Tap this "Share Data," and then tap Edit in the top right corner, and you can drag the data sources into your preferred order.
 
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