The Apple Watch, introduced in 2015, was the first wearable device from the Cupertino behemoth, and the company floundered a little in making the interface user-friendly and easy as its other devices.
Apple went the way of third-party apps, multiple controls like voice, touchscreen sensitivity, buttons, and dials to arrive at a workable solution for the device through the years.
Considering the varied options that it came up with for ease-of-use, there are many hidden features, tips and more that wearers are unaware of that can make the device highly intuitive and powerful to use
Apple Watch How To…
The new Apple Watch can make phone calls and do various things on its own, but it needs to be paired with the Apple Watch app on your iPhone for it to function to its full capacity. You need to check that the device is running on the latest software.
Fitness Tracker
The Apple Watch, initially, was touted as a wearable device that could be used as a fitness tracker.
Now, with all its additional functionality making it into a micro wrist laptop, the fitness aspect of it is more or less forgotten. Set up the Apple Health app on the iPhone and start tapping on the icons to get your daily calorie count, movements, and a reminder for standing if you are in a stationary job.
Digital Crown
People used to a home button on the iPhone screen looked for a similar one on the device. There is a home button but it is the digital crown on the watch which when pressed once gets the home screen and when you hold it down, it activates Siri. Double-tap to go back to the last seen app. And switch back to the previous app by double-tapping, if you want to.
Touching the Apple Watch Series 4 Digital Crown completes the circuit and electrical signals across the heart are measured. (Image: Apple Newsroom)
How to mute your Apple Watch
Swipe up and tap on the bell icon on the watch and you can mute all notifications, rings, and texts.
Take a ScreenShot
Taking a screenshot on the Apple wearable is very similar to how it is done on smartphones. One needs to press the digital crown and the side button simultaneously. The screenshot picture will be automatically saved to the photo album on your iPhone. Remember to enable screenshot on the Apple Watch app on the iPhone.
Find Your phone with the Apple Watch
If you misplace your iPhone, it is easy to find it through the watch. Swipe up your watch and activate the Control Center. There locate the iPhone button and tap, your phone will follow through with a noise.
Locating an App
The watch face is small so when you tap on an app sometimes the neighboring ones open. There is a way to overcome this problem. Zoom out using the digital crown and locate the app. Now tap near it to zoom in to the app area and then center the app and you can tap or use the digital crown to open it.
Apple Watch Series 5 (Image: Apple Newsroom)
Another way is to use the alphabetic grid to open the app. This makes it easier to locate the app. The latest versions of the Apple Watch come with something called the dock. It allows you to launch your most-used apps quickly. You can dock your 10 favorite apps there. All it needs is, open the app on your phone, go to My watch>dock, tick your favorite apps, then go to edit and move your apps to dock.
Walkie Talkie
This is a fun addition to the things the Apple Watch can do. There is a walkie talkie app, tap on it to activate, and see who all you can talk to.
A plus sign allows you to add more people. You need permission from the people before you can initiate a conversation. Hold the Talk button when talking and release it for listening.
Choose a new watch face
One can change the watch face by pressing down long on the screen. A select watch face screen will appear. You can scroll left and right to see the options. Look for customization if you want to change certain things like color, picture, etc. Use the digital crown to choose the customized effect and then swipe to change the elements. Finally, press the center of the screen to get the selected watch face.
In the new Apple Watch app on the iPhone, the watch faces are displayed at the top of the main screen. You can edit and change the face according to your desired preferences and then tap to select.
Heart Rate Monitor on Apple Watch
Press the digital crown on your watch and then press the heart icon. It will immediately measure your heartbeat. A graph at the top of the screen displays a chart of your heartbeat rate history. There are options to show your resting and moving heartbeat rate too.
Remember to secure the watch to your wrist tightly for this measurement to be accurate.
The latest versions of the app can also give you your ECG chart. Tap the heart on your iPhone watch app and start the ECG option. Add the required data and then open the watch display, tap the heart icon, lay your hand straight and then press the digital crown. After 30 seconds the ECG results will appear. Your data will be stored on the watch.
The new ECG app and electrical heart rate sensor enable customers to take an electrocardiogram right from the wrist. (Image Credit: Apple Newsroom)
Mail option
You can choose the mailbox notifications that you want to appear on your watch. This saves overcrowding on the tiny display from unnecessary notifications.
I like walkie talkie feature, it will be more fun now to talk with other with this watch..