Congratulations on buying an Apple Watch! Once you have paired it with your iPhone, here are some things you should do to get the most out of your new wearable and ensure you have a great experience with it.
Please note that several of the tips here are based on my experience of using the Apple Watch. If some suggestions don’t sit well with you, please feel free to skip them.
1. Set up cellular
If you have an Apple Watch with cellular support, make sure you set up cellular in case you haven’t already done that while pairing it with your iPhone.
With a cellular connection, you can make calls, send texts, use apps, and more, even when your watch is away from your iPhone.
2. Install only useful apps
When people get a new watch, they install several apps on it. I get the excitement, but for the most part, you won’t be using these apps on your Apple Watch’s tiny screen. So, make sure you only have the apps you truly need. This will keep the local watch storage free, save battery, and ensure tidiness.
3. Turn off Automatic App Install
Imagine you get the Spotify app on your iPhone. When Automatic App Install is enabled, it will also install the watch version of Spotify on your Apple Watch. This might clutter your Apple Watch with apps you might not need there.
To prevent this, go to iPhone Watch app > My Watch > General and toggle off Automatic App Install. If you want an app, you can always install it manually.
4. Manage Apple Watch app notifications
Having a vibration on your wrist when you get a notification is soothing. But believe me, you don’t want all apps sending you alerts on your wrist. If you do, you’ll be looking at your wrist most of the time and not be able to focus on your work.
To stop this, make sure you only enable notifications for apps you care about. You can manage this from the Notifications section of the Watch app.
5. Add multiple watch faces and use one you like
The default watch face is nice. But to spice things up, you might want to use a different watch face, customize it with complications, use your desired picture, and more.
Tip: To ensure you get an extended use per charge, make sure you reduce the number of complications that often refresh or access your location several times.
If your friend or a family member has a watch face you love, you can ask them to share it with you.
6. Disable Background App Refresh
To extend your Apple Watch battery life, turn off Background App Refresh by going to the watch Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You can also do this from the Watch app on your iPhone.
7. Set Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone
If you often wear a mask or other gear that obstructs your face, your Apple Watch can authenticate and unlock your iPhone automatically. You can enable this from iPhone Settings > Face ID & Passcode.
8. Set up unlock Mac with Apple Watch
Your Apple Watch can automatically unlock your Mac when you are near it. This eliminates the need to manually type your Mac’s password or use the Touch ID. Go to Mac’s System Settings > Touch ID & Password to activate it.
9. Set your Activity Goals and other fitness stuff
When you set up your Apple Watch, you’re asked to set the daily move goal and more. You can change them later from the bottom of the Activity app. For more tips related to Apple Watch fitness, explore our Activity section.
10. Set heart alerts
Your Apple Watch has a super thoughtful life-saving Health feature that can alert you when your heart rate climbs up or drops down. But before that happens, you should turn it on from the Heart section of the Watch app.
11. Compete with friends
You and your friends can motivate each other and engage in fitness challenges to stay on top and complete your goals. If you’re interested in this, here’s how to use Activity sharing.
12. Customize your Smart Stack
Smart Stack lets you keep track of your daily Activity Rings, sports scores, Uber ride status, and a lot more. You can access the Smart Stack section by swiping up on the watch face.
While watchOS automatically surfaces relevant stacks or Live Activities here, you can personalize it by adding and removing the options according to your needs.
13. Grid view or list view
If you have difficulty finding apps in the app bubble (Grid View), you can change to List View by tapping List View from the bottom of the app bubble or by going to watch Settings > App View > List View.
14. Easily monitor noise around you
Your Apple Watch can monitor the sound around you. To see this, open the Noise app. You can also add this as a complication to a supported watch face and see the noise levels anytime on your wrist.
15. Learn about Apple Watch battery-saving tips
Despite its tiny battery, the Apple Watch is a feature-rich device. It can struggle to last a full day if you enable everything. So, to maximize your usage, you should learn about some handy battery-saving tips.
16. Set up Fall Detection (especially for older people)
If you fall and don’t get up or move for a minute, your Apple Watch can automatically call emergency services and your emergency contacts to inform you fell down. Here’s how to enable and use this potentially life-saving feature.
17. Sync your music and podcasts to Apple Watch
You might want to leave your iPhone behind when you go on your morning run. So, it helps to have your favorite music and podcasts synced to your Apple Watch’s local storage in these situations. You can stream these directly from your watch to your AirPods or other Bluetooth buds. The newest Series 10 even lets you play media directly through the on-device speakers.
18. Tweak display brightness and look
To change your Apple Watch brightness, go to Settings > Display & Brightness. From here, you can set the brightness, change text size, use bold text, and more.
19. Switch to a different watch band
Apple releases new watch bands periodically. Plus, there are huge collections of third-party watch bands on Amazon and other marketplaces. If you’re interested in those, make sure to look at our Apple Watch bands section.
20. Other helpful Apple Watch tips for a new user
Update to the latest watchOS
To ensure your Apple Watch runs smoothly, you must have the latest version of watchOS on it. To update your Apple Watch, go to the iPhone Watch app > General > Software Update > Download and Install.
Enable DND
If you sleep using your Apple Watch, bring up Control Center and tap the moon icon, followed by Do Not Disturb to silence the notifications.
Talk to Siri
There are various ways to call the voice assistant on your Apple Watch. Use one that you like and have it perform the desired actions.
Handwashing
Your Apple Watch can automatically start a 20-second timer to help you wash your hands properly. To enable or disable this, go to watch Settings > Handwashing.
Call emergency services
I hope you never have to use this. But still, you must set up and know how to use emergency SOS on your Apple Watch.
Play a sound on your iPhone via Apple Watch
If you’re unable to find your iPhone, open watchOS Control Center and tap the iPhone icon. This will trigger a sound on your iPhone, helping you find it below the sheets or behind the couch cushions.
Set up Apple Pay
Sure, paying via iPhone using Apple Pay is convenient. But doing so with your Apple Watch is effortless as well.
Use Apple Watch as iPhone Camera Viewfinder
Your Apple Watch doesn’t have a camera. But it has a camera app! Have you wondered why?
This camera app is a remote that launches your iPhone camera and helps you control it. You can see the live view of the iPhone’s camera (photo or video) on your Apple Watch and take the perfect shot. Here’s all you need to know about controlling your iPhone Camera with Apple Watch.
Track your cycle
Your Apple Watch makes it easy to track your menstrual cycle. Here’s more about it.
Calculate tip instantly
The calculator app on your Apple Watch has a super handy Tip button to calculate the tip instantly.
Record and play a voice memo
Use the Voice Memos app on your watch to record audio. You can even listen to the recording right on the watch. Furthermore, the voice notes made on the Apple Watch also sync to the iPhone Voice Memos app.
Use compass
During cycling or trekking, you can use the Compass app on your wrist to keep track of directions, know your elevation, and set target elevation alerts.
Learn how to shower or swim with your Apple Watch
You can take a shower or go for a swim while wearing your Apple Watch. But before doing that, open the Control Center and tap the water droplet icon. This will enable Water Lock. Now, your Apple Watch display will not register touch input.
Once you are done showering or swimming, press and hold the Digital Crown to turn off Water Lock and eject liquid from the speaker holes of your Apple Watch.
These are some helpful tips for using your Apple Watch. Which one seemed most exciting to you?
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