My weirdest favorite feature of Apple Watch... (most underrated feature of all time?)

[zakarhino]

...is using the silent vibration morning alarm!

For the past couple weeks I've been wearing my Apple Watch to bed for sleep tracking and have been using the Apple Watch's morning wake up alarm instead of my phone -- and WOW! talk about underrated features, this small change has dramatically improved my mornings. I will never use my iPhone morning alarm again.

Before this change my sleep would be instantaneously bombarded by a violent alarm sound from my iPhone. No warning, just an instant disorientating assault on my senses.

Now? I actually feel the vibration on my wrist in my dream and I know it's time to transition out of sleep WHILST STILL DREAMING! Does this happen to everyone else too? It's incredible, exactly like in the movie Inception when the music starts playing. I find myself gently waking up as one naturally would without an alarm; I feel less tired during my day as a consequence.

I've also tried the alarm with sound instead of just haptics and it's just as pleasant with the birdsong sound. Is this the most underrated feature of the Apple Watch? Maybe even the most underrated Apple device feature in recent history (I know it's been around for a couple years now)? I'm not being hyperbolic, if something is enabling a tangible improvement to my morning quality of life I will hold that 'something' in very high regard.

 

[akash.nu]

Yep that’s one of my favourite features too.

 

[jfim88]

I always use this too. The vibration changes are brilliant.

 

[cdcdoc]

Maybe a dumb question but I could not figure out to set the alarm only for my watch 🤪

 

[doolar]

Worked for me the first weeks. I still have it on, but won’t wake up from it any longer. 😊

 

[the future]

It is a great feature.

 

[ger19]

The phone has an alarm that starts off very quiet and gets louder but you have to set it up with a sleep schedule. I don’t know why it can’t just be on of the standard alarm functions. I do agree that waking up to the watch vibrating is superior, especially for my wife, who doesn’t wake up as early as i do.

 

[Complex757]

as someone who hates being waken up abruptly by standard alarms it's one of my favorite features.

 

[DaveOZ]

Yep. I discovered this 10 years ago with a Sony band at the time. It went one step further and had smart wake which work you within a time frame when you weren't in a deep sleep. Since then I have always worn some sort of smart watch to bed and hate audible alarms.

 

[Rainshadow]

One of the million reasons I don’t have time to explain to someone when they say the watch is just a mini phone…

 

[scubasteve03]

How do you set your watch only to vibrate and your phone not go off at the same time? I have two Apple Watches I use now after adding an 8, so both watch’s alarms are going off along with my iPhone. Feels like waking up in a war zone. I have both Apple Watches on silent, but they’re still going off.

 

[Rainshadow]

How do you set your watch only to vibrate and your phone not go off at the same time? I have two Apple Watches I use now after adding an 8, so both watch’s alarms are going off along with my iPhone. Feels like waking up in a war zone. I have both Apple Watches on silent, but they’re still going off.

2 ways.

1. Set the alarm directly on your watch in the watch’s alarm app and make sure your bell (notifications/sound) is turned off on your watch’s control center (swipe up).

2. When you go to bed, go to your watch’s control center (swipe up) and hit the moon (do not disturb). It should give you a “sleep” option. At least mine does. It will turn the screen off and have a dim time display if tapped with the time of your set alarm. With this method, you will have to already have set the alarm time in your “sleep” app on the watch. It looks like a white bed icon looking from the foot of a bed on a baby blue background.

All of this must be done on the watch and the watch has to be set to silent. (Bell notification symbol crossed out and red).

 

[AppleFanToo]

2 ways.

1. Set the alarm directly on your watch in the watch’s alarm app and make sure your bell (notifications/sound) is turned off on your watch’s control center (swipe up).

2. When you go to bed, go to your watch’s control center (swipe up) and hit the moon (do not disturb). It should give you a “sleep” option. At least mine does. It will turn the screen off and have a dim time display if tapped with the time of your set alarm. With this method, you will have to already have set the alarm time in your “sleep” app on the watch. It looks like a white bed icon looking from the foot of a bed on a baby blue background.

All of this must be done on the watch and the watch has to be set to silent. (Bell notification symbol crossed out and red).

This is exactly what I do.

But, a couple of mornings, when my vibrating alarm goes off on my watch, it doesn't automatically turn off the Sleep Focus (it sometimes does?) so I have to manually also turn off Sleep Focus (I have Sleep Focus turn on at 11:20pm and off again the next morning at 6:30am).

Weird (maybe Apple changed something in the way it works as sometimes Sleep Focus gets turned off by the alarm going off (when I tap 'Stop' to silence it) but other times it doesn't)..?!!