Make your Apple Watch truly unique by learning how to use your own photos as your watch face with our step-by-step guide.
Everyone likes something different as their Apple Watch background. But there is nothing more unique than using your very own picture or collection of photos as your Watch face.
Here are three easy ways to set photos of your kids, spouse, parents, or any other loved one as the Apple Watch face.
1. From the iPhone Watch app
Since the iPhone has a larger screen size, it offers you several customization options when setting a picture as your Apple Watch face.
1) Open the Watch app on your paired iPhone and tap Face Gallery from the bottom.
2) Tap Photos, and you may see one or more suggestions here; tap one of them. Alternatively, you can scroll to the bottom of the Face Gallery tab, tap “See All Watch Faces,” and select the Photos option.
3) Bring your attention to the Content heading and tap Shuffle to select from suggested photo bundles from your photo library. Or, tap Choose Photos and manually select 1 or up to 24 photos that you want to use as the watch face.
4) Scroll through the rest of the options to select the clock size, font, numeral type, color style, and complications. If you want to enjoy your photo on the watch face without many distractions, select the small time size and no complications.
5) After you’ve customized your photo watch face, simply tap the ADD button at the top. This new photo watch face will now show up on your Apple Watch; lift your wrist to see it.
2. From the iPhone Photos app
Browsing through your photo library and come across a beautiful picture that you want to set as your watch face? No problem, you can do that in just a few taps.
1) Open the picture in the Photos app on your iPhone and tap the share button.
2) Select Create Watch Face. Edit your iOS Share Sheet if you don’t see this option.
3) Now, choose to set it as a normal photo watch face or with the cool Kaleidoscope effect.
4) Finally, customize your watch face as needed, and tap ADD.
3. Directly from your Apple Watch
If you want to set a single photo as the watch face, you can do so from the watchOS Photos app, which displays the pictures you’ve synced from your iPhone.
1) Open the Photos app on your Apple Watch and tap the photo so it opens on the entire screen.
2) Tap the share button and select Create Watch Face from the bottom.
3) Select from Kaleidoscope or Photos styles, and this image will become your new Apple Watch face!
Note that if your Apple Watch is running an older version of watchOS, you can also use a collection of photos (rather than just one image) as the watch face right from your wrist:
1) Touch and hold your current Watch face, then swipe from right to left, and tap New (+).
2) Scroll until you get to Photos, and tap ADD. You can also tap the Photos option and hit Add Face from the next screen.
On newer versions, your watch will ask you to create the photos collection watch face from your iPhone.
What are your thoughts on photos as Watch faces? Do you like the idea? Let us know. And if you find that app widgets and Live Activities are taking over your beautiful photos app’s watch face, you can prevent that from happening in just a few taps.