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Series 1 & 2 without iPhone at gym

M

MrMister111

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 28, 2009
3,900
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UK
I know the series 1 and 2 don't 4G and tbh not really interested in that bit.

But I've read that if you've previously connected to a WiFi hotspot with your iPhone, say at gym or coffee shop, and you don't have your iPhone just your watch it will still work as such for iMessage or Siri and most functions?

What I'm wondering is if correct, I'd rather just take my watch to the gym, but still have these work, I'll take my iPhone to connect to WiFi initially. Would phone calls still work as well as my provider EE used WiFi calling.

Is this correct? This way to be honest I wouldn't need a Series 3 for what I'd need.

Can someone confirm and tell me the setup issues to do etc.

Thanks
 
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Depends, Some WiFi's require that each device sign in in order to connect. You can still use all Workout functions and things like downloaded music.
 
How can I find out? Even messages would be great, just to be able to inform where I am, when finished etc.

Workouts get held on watch until reconnected back to iPhone and then sync I believe so that's fine.
 
If you can connect to your gym’s wifi by just selecting the network with your phone and entering a password, without any webpage to accept terms and conditions etc., then your watch should be able to use the same credentials to connect.
If connecting to the gym wifi takes you to a webpage that requires input, then your watch won’t be able to use the wifi.
 
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KeepCalmPeople said:
If you can connect to your gym’s wifi by just selecting the network with your phone and entering a password, without any webpage to accept terms and conditions etc., then your watch should be able to use the same credentials to connect.
If connecting to the gym wifi takes you to a webpage that requires input, then your watch won’t be able to use the wifi.
Click to expand...

Ah ok, how do you connect via the watch never had to do that suppose as just been on home WiFi.

So then I could message etc with it? Just thought I could try at home? Switch off iPhone see if watch works, or is this different?

Thanks
 
MrMister111 said:
Ah ok, how do you connect via the watch never had to do that suppose as just been on home WiFi.

So then I could message etc with it? Just thought I could try at home? Switch off iPhone see if watch works, or is this different?

Thanks
Click to expand...
If it requires a web page to accept the TOS then you can't connect to it. That is what I meant by requiring a sing in. If it doesn't require a sign page then your Apple Watch will auto connect if it recognizes the WiFi (that your iPhone has connected before).

Also you can see if connected by swiping up and look for the WiFi symbol.
 
Ok so I switched off my iPhone at home. Noticed it had a little WiFi symbol instead of symbol of phone now.

I was able to text, iMessage anyway back and forwards, not sure yet on normal SMS messages and they went fine.

Tried a call and was greyed out on favourites. So I went to contacts and was able to FaceTime audio to another iPhone, and then received a FaceTime audio as well ok. Trouble is first the caller to me tried normal and just went to voicemail, would have been nice to auto try FaceTime audio as they wouldn't know to really.

So some works, need to try on other places, specifically there gym.
 
Well tried, connected to WiFi at gym, it was a BT one, it just auto connected.

Switched off iPhone but watch didn't connect.

Not sure why possibly as my iPhone auto connects to BT though
 
MrMister111 said:
Well tried, connected to WiFi at gym, it was a BT one, it just auto connected.

Switched off iPhone but watch didn't connect.

Not sure why possibly as my iPhone auto connects to BT though
Click to expand...
What does this mean: "connected to WiFi at gym, it was a BT one,"?
 
BarracksSi said:
What does this mean: "connected to WiFi at gym, it was a BT one,"?
Click to expand...

Sorry bad explanation.

BT WiFi hotspot. My iPhone auto connected to it when I entered gym with it, I then looked at watch and it popped a message on it which said connected to BT WiFi as well.

I then presumed as the watch was connected to BT WiFi I could switch off my iPhone, but then the watch had no connection.

I was hoping one the watch had connected then next time I wouldn't bring iPhone and watch would still contest but alas not.

I may have to bring iPhone, put on silent, leaves in locker and even when I'm out of range oft iPhone it will stay connected as iPhone is on BT WiFi?

Thanks
 
MrMister111 said:
Sorry bad explanation.

BT WiFi hotspot. My iPhone auto connected to it when I entered gym with it, I then looked at watch and it popped a message on it which said connected to BT WiFi as well.

I then presumed as the watch was connected to BT WiFi I could switch off my iPhone, but then the watch had no connection.

I was hoping one the watch had connected then next time I wouldn't bring iPhone and watch would still contest but alas not.

I may have to bring iPhone, put on silent, leaves in locker and even when I'm out of range oft iPhone it will stay connected as iPhone is on BT WiFi?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Maybe it's an unfortunate name, as "BT" usually means Bluetooth, and "WiFi" means, of course, WiFi. They are two different radio frequencies and two different networking standards. Bluetooth is not regularly used to transmit an internet connection because it's slower and has shorter range; it's good for device-to-device communication (like mouse to computer, or smartwatch directly to phone). WiFi is more like running a set of network cables all over the house.

A network named "BT WiFi" doesn't make sense to me when I read it.

You say that to connect your iPhone to the gym's Wifi, you don't need to open a Safari window, nor does the phone pop up a sheet that says "Log In", right? It auto-connects as easily as when you're on your network at home?

[edit - adding links]
Here's Apple's current documentation:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204562

And a discussion thread in the Support forums (be sure to click through and read all the replies):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7011282
 
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Sorry it's a company in the UK it is my broadband supplier, massive company in the UK.

They have hotspots around for WiFi, it's nothing to do so with Bluetooth.
 
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Hmm, this is really weird, OP. I looked up BT WiFi hotspots and it looks like it connects a lot like the AT&T WiFi hotspots here in the states for AT&T users, which my Series 1 Apple Watch always connects to when I don’t have my phone with me on runs when I get near my local shopping center to pick up food afterwards. That’s when I usually get any missed messages and notifications and can take action on them before heading home on my workout loop I take. It doesn’t seem like there should be any issue with your Watch auto connecting to BT WiFi thereafter. Looks like you’ve already tried and it didn’t work...but it should’ve.
 
Here's what I'd try (taken from the second link I posted) --
https://discussions.apple.com/message/28186010#28186010

At the gym, go into your phone's wifi settings and "Forget" the gym's network.
Make sure that your phone and watch are connected via Bluetooth (I'd swipe to the AW's control center and check for the phone icon)
Back on the phone, join the gym's wifi network again.
Give it a few minutes to automatically transfer the gym network's wifi information to the watch.
If it worked, you should be able to turn the phone's Bluetooth OFF and still connect to it from the watch (you can ping the phone from the watch to test it).

Again, though, if there's a separate login screen for the gym's network, you probably won't be able to connect to the network from the watch. There isn't a web browser-like widget on the watch to allow a user to see a login screen and, for example, tap a button to accept the network's Terms & Conditions.
 
Thanks so much everyone. I'll try suggestions when next there, appreciate it.

Ideally it would be sorted with a cellar watch, but this is only case I'll really use that bit so don't want that extra expense and also the extra contact
 
MrMister111 said:
I know the series 1 and 2 don't 4G and tbh not really interested in that bit.

But I've read that if you've previously connected to a WiFi hotspot with your iPhone, say at gym or coffee shop, and you don't have your iPhone just your watch it will still work as such for iMessage or Siri and most functions?

What I'm wondering is if correct, I'd rather just take my watch to the gym, but still have these work, I'll take my iPhone to connect to WiFi initially. Would phone calls still work as well as my provider EE used WiFi calling.

Is this correct? This way to be honest I wouldn't need a Series 3 for what I'd need.

Can someone confirm and tell me the setup issues to do etc.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It's true, I tested at home, but the watch and the iPhone have to be pair in the 2.4 Ghz band, then I change my iPhone to the 5.0 Ghz band and turned airplane mode off and the watch continue receiving notifications. I tested this 8 months ago, I don't know if it works now with the new firmware. This only worked at home with my wireless, if you want to make it work at the gym, you might have to pair the phone with the watch the gym.
 
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