I bought my Apple Watch refurbished, more out of curiosity than anything else. A lot of people had them and seemed to be using them for various things. I couldn't really imagine a use case for myself - my iPad is almost always on and in front of me at work, and at home I have my iPad, computer, or phone - but I figured that, being a lover of technology, I'd be able to find a good use for it.
I admit that I struggled at first. The obvious use case was receiving text messages and, yes, it was nice being able to leave my phone holstered for those, but I would still take it out for most replies. I got used to accessing my grocery list (a special Reminders list) from my Watch instead of my iPhone while out shopping, but again, it wasn't really that different.
In hindsight, I see what I was doing wrong. I was approaching the Watch as a device similar to the iPhone or iPad. The apps launch slower on the Watch, and the interface for viewing and interacting with information is much more limited by comparison.
More recently, I've been playing with "complications," the on-screen information widgets. I've found a few that are useful, but more importantly, I discovered something new: swapping between Watch faces.
I don't mean discovering that there were other faces, or that you could simply swap through them. The Watch comes pre-loaded with practically every face available, to the point that it seemed more like a disorganized demo. The iPhone Watch app didn't make this any better. I deleted all of the Watch faces and then began to create my own. The Modular face carries the most utility for me, and I now have three Watch faces that I cycle through: one for at home, one for in the car, and one for while I'm at work (all Modular, but all in different colors). The data displayed on each is slightly different, as are the apps available as complications: weather, activity, reminders, and sunrise/sunset times for my home face; music, maps, and texting for my car face; and my calendar events, texting, stopwatch, and mail for my work face. I can envision creating more Watch faces (and using styles other than Modular) for other use scenarios, such as going to the gym, or going to formal events. (Alas, home, car, and work are my life right now.)
This is incredibly powerful. The Watch is at its best when you can glance at it for quick information or a brief interaction. The "honeycomb" app screen looks nice, but I feel that I've somehow failed if I need to resort to that screen. It's more cumbersome to navigate, and launching an app from there tends to take some time. Similarly, the app dock, while handy, is also not particularly speedy to move through. Of course, it was the app dock and the "honeycomb" screens that I customized first, because those are the most similar to other Apple devices. I'm guessing it's similar for most Watch users. All that when actually, customizing a face, and then creating another face, and swapping between them as appropriate, would likely be far more beneficial.
I'm sharing this because I'm curious to know if others are using their Watches this way, and because I'm not sure that it's so apparent. The honeycomb and the dock are screens we're trained by OS X (now macOS) and iOS to use, and the two dedicated buttons on the Watch take you to them, with one button for each. To get to the face swapping screen you need to press down hard on the watch face, a motion that isn't necessarily obvious and isn't always easy to pull off... and even when you do it, as I mentioned above, it's already junked up with every style of watch face, which makes the utility of the screen a bit more difficult to visualize.
If everyone is already doing this, then... better late to the party than never, I suppose. If you're not already doing this, I hope you'll try it, and hopefully you'll find it to be useful. The Watch has been steadily growing on me for the various conveniences it offers, but for me, this is the "killer feature" that will greatly increase its utility.
I admit that I struggled at first. The obvious use case was receiving text messages and, yes, it was nice being able to leave my phone holstered for those, but I would still take it out for most replies. I got used to accessing my grocery list (a special Reminders list) from my Watch instead of my iPhone while out shopping, but again, it wasn't really that different.
In hindsight, I see what I was doing wrong. I was approaching the Watch as a device similar to the iPhone or iPad. The apps launch slower on the Watch, and the interface for viewing and interacting with information is much more limited by comparison.
More recently, I've been playing with "complications," the on-screen information widgets. I've found a few that are useful, but more importantly, I discovered something new: swapping between Watch faces.
I don't mean discovering that there were other faces, or that you could simply swap through them. The Watch comes pre-loaded with practically every face available, to the point that it seemed more like a disorganized demo. The iPhone Watch app didn't make this any better. I deleted all of the Watch faces and then began to create my own. The Modular face carries the most utility for me, and I now have three Watch faces that I cycle through: one for at home, one for in the car, and one for while I'm at work (all Modular, but all in different colors). The data displayed on each is slightly different, as are the apps available as complications: weather, activity, reminders, and sunrise/sunset times for my home face; music, maps, and texting for my car face; and my calendar events, texting, stopwatch, and mail for my work face. I can envision creating more Watch faces (and using styles other than Modular) for other use scenarios, such as going to the gym, or going to formal events. (Alas, home, car, and work are my life right now.)
This is incredibly powerful. The Watch is at its best when you can glance at it for quick information or a brief interaction. The "honeycomb" app screen looks nice, but I feel that I've somehow failed if I need to resort to that screen. It's more cumbersome to navigate, and launching an app from there tends to take some time. Similarly, the app dock, while handy, is also not particularly speedy to move through. Of course, it was the app dock and the "honeycomb" screens that I customized first, because those are the most similar to other Apple devices. I'm guessing it's similar for most Watch users. All that when actually, customizing a face, and then creating another face, and swapping between them as appropriate, would likely be far more beneficial.
I'm sharing this because I'm curious to know if others are using their Watches this way, and because I'm not sure that it's so apparent. The honeycomb and the dock are screens we're trained by OS X (now macOS) and iOS to use, and the two dedicated buttons on the Watch take you to them, with one button for each. To get to the face swapping screen you need to press down hard on the watch face, a motion that isn't necessarily obvious and isn't always easy to pull off... and even when you do it, as I mentioned above, it's already junked up with every style of watch face, which makes the utility of the screen a bit more difficult to visualize.
If everyone is already doing this, then... better late to the party than never, I suppose. If you're not already doing this, I hope you'll try it, and hopefully you'll find it to be useful. The Watch has been steadily growing on me for the various conveniences it offers, but for me, this is the "killer feature" that will greatly increase its utility.
