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The Million-Dollar Question: How Much Less Do You Use Your iPhone Now?

i used my phone so much that i went from an iphone 6 to a 6+ because i needed the extra battery life. Now with the watch, i actually gave the 6+ back to wife and am very happy with iphone 6 again.

I would say on average 50% less.
 
Wrathwitch said:
Interesting thread. I would wonder if you mean "check your phone less" or "use your phone less". The reason I wonder is that I know when I am out and about you see thousands of people looking at their screens (mostly texting or other apps). Even in a professional environment. Now I know that if I am waiting for someone or an appointment, I use my phone to: read, play small games, send texts etc while waiting. None of these things like facebook, PvZ, texting, or reading would I use my watch for.

I can imagine that you by the nature of the device would be checking it less because you have quick visual access to incoming messages etc on the watch but to actually "DO" anything substantial, do you not need your phone still for this? Are you really "using" your phone less or just checking it less?
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I think the OP's question implies that checking the phone less might lead to using the phone less: "Well, now that I've taken the phone out look at this text, I might as well check Facebook."

As someone who consciously doesn't use my phone to fill idle time, all I expect out of the Watch is a more convenient interface. I think it's naive to expect people who are troubled by idleness to stop screen sucking just because they have another interface. Hopefully I'm wrong.
 
MICHAELSD said:
Frankly, I am looking forward to using my iPhone less and disconnecting a bit more from the smartphone. Too much of society is so intertwined with their devices that it is becoming a bit disconcerting. It stumps me how I am using my iPhone 6 Plus for 8-9 hours each day, but the usage stats show the same fate almost every day. The Apple Watch may be worth the cost of admission for that alone: allowing me to become less tethered to my iPhone. Mind you, I use it as my tablet and smartphone but that is no excuse to spend half my waking hours on a phone, as I'm sure is not an oddity in the slightest in the modern day.

So, how significantly has your iPhone usage gone down since buying the Watch? Hopefully there are some success stories that cut their time spent on a smartphone in half :eek:. Would be interesting to hear if the Apple Watch changed users' computer/tablet habits as well.
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I personally have had significant drop in phone usage. My phone really has been reduced to a web browser lol I often almost forget to even bring it with me :D
 
I use my phone more than ever.

With Apple Watch, in public I don't need to keep pulling my phone out to check the time or see why it's vibrating.

It wasn't like my phone was ever a massive distraction though, I use it when i need it and have enough manners to put it down when necessary. I.e. having conversations with others. I'm not more "present" because I also have an Apple Watch.
 
As someone who didn't buy the watch this question really helps me clarify why.

I'm convinced that my answer would be around 5%. The fact that there are so many people here giving numbers over 50% shows just how different my phone usage is from some other people.
 
10%

i certainly check it less but i still use it just as much cuz i am a social media addict and have to reply to whatsapp, imessage etc all the time which i cant do from my watch. (i am not gonna talk to my wrist in public)

instagram, twitter, facebook, snapchat, spotify, browser, whatsapp aaaand back to the beginning
 
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I was never the type to be glued to my phone all day -- maybe because I often work at a computer anyway. But when I was away from the computer, I did feel like I had to take my phone out fairly frequently, because it was easy to miss notifications when the phone was in my pocket, even with a fairly prominent sound and vibration enabled. I no longer have to be checking the phone to make sure I didn't miss anything, and I no longer have to take it out to check the time. So the watch has decreased my phone usage by a fair amount, and makes me feel more secure that I'm not missing things.

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Apples n' Stone said:
I more-or-less have my sound turned off permanently due to the haptic feedback.
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Yes, after a few days I realized that I wasn't getting email or text sounds on the phone, and I love that. It's jarring for them to come through in the short periods that I have the watch off. I pretty much rely on haptic feedback entirely.
 
Gameboy70 said:
As someone who consciously doesn't use my phone to fill idle time, all I expect out of the Watch is a more convenient interface. I think it's naive to expect people who are troubled by idleness to stop screen sucking just because they have another interface. Hopefully I'm wrong.
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I agree. I think most people are being disingenuous with their use estimates. The fact is, if they weren't using their phone that much before, they won't be using it any differently with the watch, other than checking it less for notifications. And let's face it, that seems to be the sole way people are reportedly using the Watch in this thread. How else is the watch allowing people to use their iPhone less?

Anyone who engages in regular private texting conversations will not likely want to do it on the watch. Anybody who is absorbed by social media, will still be whether they are reading constant updates on the phone or the watch. Honestly what is the difference if someone is engaged in the tiny screen on their wrist, whether texting, (which arguably will take longer, and be more difficult and/or conspicuous to do) or reading news stories, e-mails, Facebook updates, tweets, etc., versus doing it on their iPhone already?

It's hard to imagine people using their phones to view the latest cat videos on YouTube, or catching up on a novel on iBooks while eating lunch, are going to stop doing that on their iPhones just because they may have the ability to do it on their watches.

I'm with you. The only people I see the watch benefitting from not having to take their iPhones out of their pockets all the time, are those who have notifications turned on for everything from phone calls, to e-mails, and texts, to stock alerts, and news updates, who truly aren't interested in 90% of those notifications. Right now, my personal use of notifications with e-mail alone, requires me to respond to those e-mails 80% of the time for work, and that requires me to pull out my iPhone to easily respond to what are often complicated replies. I do respond to 90% of every text I receive, and its far easier and more private to do it on my iPhone, since they usually aren't one or two word replies, but relaying specific details. I do receive news updates from NPR, because they seem to know only what I think are truly important updates, but considering the frequency with which I am using my phone, I tend to see them within an hour of when they were sent, so unless it's about some impending threat to my personal safety, being notified the moment they are sent is not really necessary. Glancing at the weather, time and date is certainly more convenient on the watch. But I find that having to initiate an inquiry about anything else not immediately available on the home screen would be just as easily served by pulling out my phone, in which case I can also get more detailed information far more easily, if I want it.
 
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Yes, a lot! Over 37% Less iPhone usage

:p

I don't have my iPhone with me now! Guess why I'm not worried; that it's going off with an important message, or call that I am missing?

Because I have this beautiful black aluminium beauty strapped to my wrist with a flouroelastometer piece of equally black magic, that's why!
 
A lot less. An awful lot.

At home, my phone's primary function is to let me know when I have texts or emails, and I'm at home more than I'm not. Unless I'm bored during the day and playing games, my phone is finishing the day with upwards of 80% battery most of the time.

The Watch is less useful on the move, since I still need the phone for looking up information, maps, calls, etc. I use it a lot for quick activity updates when I'm exercising, though, which is great.

Before getting the Watch, I could probably have estimated my phone's position to within a few inches 90% of my waking hours. Now, I just know it's "in the house somewhere". At home, that's super. When not at home, though... If I get out of the habit of keeping an eye on it, it increases the likelihood of leaving it behind me somewhere, which is less than ideal.

Overall, though, I definitely check on my phone a lot less.
 
bunnicula said:
Switch on Spotify on phone, control with watch.

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Same.

When I get out my phone now, it's because I have a task that the watch cannot perform. This is a huge improvement for me.
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Yeah, I know I can forward/rewind/pause/play spotify with the watch. But I want to see my Spotify playlists and be able to switch between them and Stuff. Like the music app. That one wors really well and is very similar to what I'd like a spotify app to be.
 
PegasusTenma said:
Yeah, I know I can forward/rewind/pause/play spotify with the watch. But I want to see my Spotify playlists and be able to switch between them and Stuff. Like the music app. That one wors really well and is very similar to what I'd like a spotify app to be.
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I suspect it'll do that before too long. Right now, people with Apple Watches are a tiny minority of users of Spotify.
 
When it came to the Apple Watch, I realized that too many notifications aren't actionable. I still used my phone a ton. Maybe a 5% decrease in phone usage a day.
 
Here's the interesting thing I've noticed - I'm wasting less time on my phone doing things like checking Facebook during the day. I have notifications for "important" things set to go to my Watch, so I tend to do better at ignoring my phone until I have an actual break in my day. Previously, I would get a text or an email, reply to it, and then notice that I had notifications from Facebook or Twitter, and then end up checking those as well. The Watch very much curbs the ADHD factor of using my phone.
 
malochico1 said:
i used my phone so much that i went from an iphone 6 to a 6+ because i needed the extra battery life. Now with the watch, i actually gave the 6+ back to wife and am very happy with iphone 6 again.

I would say on average 50% less.
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Same goes for me, maybe even more than 50% less iPhome usage. Yesterday I was out partying and didn't dare to take the watch with me - throughout the night, I found myself looking at my empty wrist 4, 5 times. I REALLY missed my apple watch, would've never guessed that. I hated getting out my iPhone regularly for whatsapp, emails and so on.
 
No change in my games habits or my web habits, but much less time checking junk mail, and almost no time messaging or calling through the phone. I have very little use for any of the 3rd party apps on the watch right now, so for anything more than a real glance, I still go to the phone.

Still, with those parameters I would say 20% less phone use.

Interestingly my data use (in raw GBs) spiked massively the last week... no idea if it could be related, although it is suspect.
 
I couldn't put a figure to it but I use the phone a fair bit less. It is now permanently silent with vibration turned off as well. If something doesn't show on the watch it didn't happen :D
 
I don't really accept the premise that the purpose of the watch is to help you use your phone less. That's not even really a desirable thing for me, but then again I'm not consumed by my phone all the time either.

For me, the purpose is simply to make things easier and better than if I were using the phone alone. It's easier to glance at my wrist to see the time or to see what a notification is than to take my phone out. It's better because I'm less likely to miss notifications, and because I'm more likely to actually make use of Calendar entries if they're right there on the watch face. I could go on, but the point is that for me the watch serves to make the things I do each day easier and take less of my time.

I have zero interest in using the watch for things that are actually harder than on my phone, which why most third-party apps are not appealing at the moment.
 
anez said:
Before getting the Watch, I could probably have estimated my phone's position to within a few inches 90% of my waking hours. Now, I just know it's "in the house somewhere". At home, that's super. When not at home, though... If I get out of the habit of keeping an eye on it, it increases the likelihood of leaving it behind me somewhere, which is less than ideal.
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I've found the likelihood of me leaving it somewhere is actually decreased, because I just don't take it out of my pocket/bag.
 
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