In several states, Apple’s digital ID initiative enables iPhones and Apple Watch to hold a digital copy of the user’s driver’s license, in the same way these devices store credit cards and airline tickets.

The day when an iPhone can completely take the place of an old-fashioned wallet is still years away, but it’s a goal Apple is working toward. Apple Pay is making progress on replacing credit cards, you can put airline tickets in the Wallet app, and the same goes for loyalty cards.

But no wallet is complete unless it can hold a driver’s license. And that’s where Apple’s digital ID initiative comes in.

Here’s what you need to know to add your driver’s license and ID to your Apple Wallet.

How to add your ID to Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch

The first step in adding your driver’s license to your iPhone is to check what state you live in, because they don’t all support the feature. It’s a decision up to individual states, and so far, only a fraction of them offer the service.

At the time of this writing, those who live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico or West Virginia can put their official ID in the Wallet app. Still, the list is likely to grow: Connecticut, Illinois and Kentucky also pledged their support for Apple’s digital ID program, though they do not yet offer it.

Also, don’t toss your current license in a drawer. If you get pulled over by the police while driving, you need a physical copy of your license to hand over.

But that doesn’t mean the digital version is useless. The Transportation Security Administration does accept them, so a digital ID can speed up the process of moving through security checkpoints at airports. And it never hurts to have a backup at any time.

Table of contents: How to add your ID to Apple Wallet

1. Add an ID card to the Wallet app
2. Scan your driver’s license
3. Scan your face
4. Watch a how-to video
5. Relax, your driver’s license is secure in Apple Wallet

Add an ID card to the Wallet app

The process for putting your driver’s license or state ID in Apple Wallet isn’t complex. Just follow these steps.

Start by opening the Wallet app on your iPhone, then tapping the + button at the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Select Driver’s License or State ID. On the resulting page, tap on your state name.

Scan your ID or driver’s license

Now get out your physical ID, because you’ll need to take pictures of both sides of it.

The Wallet app walks you through the process of using the iPhone camera to snap images of the front and back of your license. It’s similar to electronically depositing a check, if you’ve done that.

Put your license on a dark background somewhere with lots of light. And be patient — it takes the Wallet app a second or so to get the image lined up.

Scan your face

Next, the app will use the camera to scan your face from different angles to confirm that the person requesting a digital license is who they are supposed to be. You’ll also need to take a still image. It’ll guide you through the process. You also may need to record short video clips for additional verification.

However, registering a digital ID doesn’t all happen on the iPhone. The pictures and videos you take will be submitted to your state’s Department of Transportation or a similar agency for verification.

But once the approval comes through, your license will be added to the Wallet app on your iPhone.

Watch a how-to video

The Colorado Depart. of Revenue released a video walking through the process. It’s the same process for other states, too.

Relax, your ID is secure in Apple Wallet

Because this is an Apple feature, your digital ID is protected by all the same security measures built into iPhone and Apple Watch for any of your other data. That means someone has to have your passcode or get through Face ID or Touch ID to even see it.

Even better, nobody can see any card added to the Wallet app — not even Apple — unless you show it to them.

This article on how to add your ID to Apple Wallet was originally published on May 22, 2023. We updated it with the latest information on September 19, 2024, August 19, 2025, September 30, 2025 and October 23, 2025.

In the evolving landscape of wireless charging, Ugreen has positioned itself at the forefront with the MagFlow 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger — one of the first products to receive official Qi2.2 certification from the Wireless Power Consortium. With that boost from 15 watts (Qi2) to 25W (Qi2.2) for late-model iPhones, it’s great — but not without some minor problems.

Ugreen MagFlow 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger review

Pocket-size

Ugreen MagFlow 25W 3-in-1 Wireless Charger

$99.99

This foldable, magnetic Qi2 travel charger suits iPhone 16/15/14/13/12, AirPods and Apple Watch. Charges iPhone at 25 watts.

Pros:

• Charges iPhone fast at 25W
• Powers up three devices
• Folds down for charging

Cons:

• Might be too bulky for your pants pocket

Buy from Amazon

05/27/2026 06:14 pm GMT

Getting a jump on many competitors as the market starts to move from Qi2 chargers to Qi2.2 chargers, Ugreen rolled out the MagFlow 3-in-1 along a great power bank and some other products in early September. After extensive testing, this comprehensive review of the MagFlow 3-in-1 charger explores whether this compact premium charging station justifies its price point and delivers on its ambitious promises.

Note that the price shown in the boxes may not update to the current sale price, but you’ll see it when you click through ($139.99 $99.99).

Table of contents: Ugreen MagFlow 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger review

• Design and build quality
• Charging performance and Qi2.2 technology
• Multi-device charging capabilities
• Thermal management and safety
• What’s in the box and value proposition
• Compatibility considerations
• The verdict: Premium performance with notable caveats

Design and build quality

The MagFlow 3-in-1 immediately impresses with its premium aesthetic. Though small, the charger features a hefty, substantial feel that conveys quality, with the weight helping ensure devices won’t easily tip or slide off during use. The design combines an adjustable tilt and rotation system that can function as a desk mount, with the stand supporting 70-degree tilt adjustment and 360-degree rotation.

The charging station comes in a single space gray color and maintains a compact profile in its default state, with the phone charging spot capable of lying flat or tilting up to 70 degrees. The aluminum construction and thoughtful engineering create a product that feels distinctly premium. But the hinge quality could be a little higher, perhaps.

The foldable design represents both a strength and weakness. The charger folds up nicely for travel, making it portable enough for those who need a multi-device charging solution on the go. However, the hinge on the phone charger, while staying in position once set, doesn’t move as fluidly as some competing options. It feels a little stiff. 

Charging performance and Qi2.2 technology

At the heart of the MagFlow 3-in-1 is its Qi2.2 certification, representing cutting-edge wireless charging technology. The charger delivers a total wireless output power of 25W maximum, with the iPhone receiving 15W and both the Apple Watch and AirPods receiving 5W each. This represents a significant advance over standard Qi charging.

During testing, the charger achieved 10 percent charge in just 10 minutes, showing respectable charging speeds. The Qi2.2 standard builds upon Apple’s MagSafe architecture with improved magnetic alignment and enhanced heat control for safer, more efficient charging.

The magnetic hold is generally strong and reliable. The charger features powerful magnets that provide a secure attachment, giving users peace of mind during use. I found the charging platform gripped my iPhone 16 Pro tightly in its Mujjo leather case. It’s a MagSafe-compatible case. 

Multi-device charging capabilities

The three-device simultaneous charging is where the MagFlow truly shines for Apple ecosystem users. The charging station seamlessly charges iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods simultaneously, making it an ideal all-in-one solution for bedside tables or desks.

The dedicated Apple Watch charging puck is retractable, contributing to the clean, organized aesthetic when not in use.

Thermal management and safety

Ugreen has implemented comprehensive safety features in the MagFlow 3-in-1. The ThermalGuard system monitors temperatures in real time and cuts power if the stand becomes too warm, with eight layers of protection including overcurrent, short-circuit and foreign object detection. The fire-rated PC and ABS shell construction adds another layer of safety assurance.

During extended charging sessions, the station heated up slightly but not enough to cause concern about device overheating. Some reviewers mentioned detecting a faint humming sound during operation. That could come from internal cooling mechanisms that help maintain safe operating temperatures.

What’s in the box and value proposition

One significant advantage over some competitors comes in what Ugreen includes. In the package I found a 30W USB-C charger and compatible cable, which many competing chargers omit. So this comes as a complete solution out of the box.

However, the included 45W power adapter is slightly bulky. It might not always fit comfortably into power strips shared with other plugs.

The pricing presents a complex value equation. The charger carries a list price of $99, though various retailers offer discounts. At around one hundred forty dollars at some retailers, it represents a premium investment, positioning it against established competitors like Belkin’s UltraCharge Pro and Nimble’s Fold 3-in-1.

Real-world usage and practicality

The adjustable viewing angles make the MagFlow 3-in-1 practical for various scenarios. The stand supports hands-free use for FaceTime calls, video watching or desk work while maintaining charging functionality. The ability to position the phone both vertically and horizontally adds versatility for different content types. iPhone in Standby mode with a clock and other widgets works nicely. 

One notable inconvenience mentioned in the safety instructions requires users to unplug the wireless charger from the power supply after each charging session, which could become tedious for those who prefer leaving chargers perpetually connected. Hard to say if it’s really necessary to unplug it every time. 

Compatibility considerations

The charger fully complies with Qi2 wireless charging standards. But the messy state of Qi2-compatible phones could present challenges. Few devices beyond MagSafe iPhones have built-in magnets for vertical positioning without cases or accessories.

So for users of older iPhone and many Android phones, the value proposition diminishes.

The verdict: Premium performance with notable caveats

Ugreen MagFlow 3-in-1 Qi2.2 Magnetic Wireless Charger represents impressive engineering and future-forward technology, but it’s not without compromises. For those seeking hassle-free multi-device charging with elegant design, it simplifies daily life and makes travel easier. But at about $100, it’s not cheap. 

While the charger performs as advertised and achieves its quoted charging rates, some users might take issue with the somewhat-large power adapter, occasionally stiff hinge and potential low-grade humming sound.

But for dedicated Apple ecosystem users who value the convenience of charging multiple devices simultaneously with cutting-edge Qi2.2 technology, this represents one of the best MagSafe-compatible 3-in-1 chargers currently available. 

The MagFlow 3-in-1 succeeds as a sophisticated, future-proofed charging solution that elegantly solves the multi-device charging problem. Whether it’s worth the investment depends on how deeply embedded you are in the Apple ecosystem and how much you value having the latest wireless charging technology on your desk or nightstand.

Pocket-size

Ugreen MagFlow 25W 3-in-1 Wireless Charger

$99.99

This foldable, magnetic Qi2 travel charger suits iPhone 16/15/14/13/12, AirPods and Apple Watch. Charges iPhone at 25 watts.

Pros:

• Charges iPhone fast at 25W
• Powers up three devices
• Folds down for charging

Cons:

• Might be too bulky for your pants pocket

Buy from Amazon

05/27/2026 06:14 pm GMT

Buy from: Amazon

★★★★☆

Ugreen provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.

Early reviews of Apple Watch Series 11 seem to agree that while it looks just like its predecessor, this incremental update delivers meaningful improvements in some areas.

The biggest upgrade: longer battery life. But those with an Apple Watch Series 9 or 10 can skip this round unless you really want the six-hour battery boost. Check out review notes and review videos below.

Apple Watch Series 11 reviews roundup: Battery life breakthrough ends 18-hour ceiling

Apple unveiled Apple Watch Series 11 alongside Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3 and the iPhone 17 lineup at its Awe Dropping event last week. With the new model closely resembling Apple Watch 10, the most significant upgrade across all reviews is the Series 11’s jump to 24-hour battery life. It ends a decade-long plateau at 18 hours for flagship Apple Watch models.

CNET‘s reviewer consistently managed between 27 and 32 hours per charge, even with heavy usage including notifications, workouts and sleep tracking. The Tom’s Guide reviewer noted she could easily go a day and a half between charges.

TechRadar‘s testing showed about 17 hours from half a charge, with the reviewer pulling his watch off the charger at 54% and not getting down to 1% until after 5 p.m. the next day. The improvement comes from battery capacity increases of 9% in the 42mm model and 11% in the 46mm version, according to multiple reviews.

Engadget emphasized how this addresses a major obstacle to sleep tracking, noting that “it’s the first thing I sacrifice when faced with a dead watch.” All reviewers agreed that the battery gains represent the most practical upgrade for daily users.

Health features expand beyond Apple Watch Series 11

The new hypertension alerts feature garnered significant attention, though reviewers noted it’s not exclusive to Apple Watch Series 11. CNET said the feature works similarly to existing heart health alerts, running quietly in the background and requiring about 30 days of data before surfacing notifications. Importantly, Tom’s Guide clarified that this is not a blood pressure monitor but rather uses an algorithm and optical heart rate sensor to alert users to possible hypertension.

The Apple Watch’s new Sleep Score feature also received positive marks. Engadget praised Apple’s approach, noting “it makes it very easy to see at a glance what areas I should strive to improve,” with color-coded rings showing duration, bedtime consistency and interruptions. TechRadar called it “a long-awaited arrival that’s executed perfectly” and noted it retroactively scores past nights.

Both features will be available on older Apple Watch models through watchOS 26, which several reviewers noted reduces the exclusivity of Series 11’s health improvements.

Design stays familiar with durability improvements

Reviewers universally said Apple Watch Series 11’s design remains virtually identical to Series 10. TechRadar said “placing my 46mm Series 11 review device next to a Series 10 I see an identical rounded-square Apple Watch, aside from the updated paint job.” CNET’s reviewer admitted being “notorious for going hard on my electronics” but reported no scratches after six days, crediting the twice-as-scratch-resistant Ion-X glass.

The 9.7mm thickness carries over from the Series 10, with TechRadar noting “there were times when I forgot it was even there during my seven days of testing” due to the ultra-thin profile.

5G connectivity and watchOS 26 refinements

The addition of 5G support received positive mentions across reviews, though with less enthusiasm than the battery improvements. CNET explained the Series 11 uses “5G RedCap, or 5G Reduced Capacity” which is “more power-efficient at maintaining a connection than previous Apple Watches.”

watchOS 26’s Liquid Glass interface divided opinion slightly. Engadget noted “some people love the glassy translucence, others hate it because of its more organic (less contrasty) look.” The reviewer acknowledged that the glossy upgrade makes the Apple Watch “just a bit harder to read at a glance.”

Performance remains unchanged but adequate

All reviewers noted Series 11 uses the same S10 chip as Series 10, with no meaningful performance improvements. TechRadar listed “no major performance gains year over year” as a con, though the reviewer found apps opened quickly and ran smoothly.

Tom’s Guide noted the lack of meaningful AI upgrades to Siri as a missed opportunity, comparing it unfavorably to Samsung and Google’s more AI-capable smartwatches.

Apple Watch Series 11 reviews verdict: An incremental but meaningful upgrade can be skipped

Despite the lack of major design changes or performance improvements, reviewers generally recommended Apple Watch Series 11, particularly for users coming from older models. CNET concluded “the Series 11 is still my favorite of the bunch” while noting “the gap between it and the competition is narrowing.” TechRadar called it “the most capable and balanced Apple Watch yet.”

However, most reviewers agreed that Apple Watch Series 10 owners can skip this generation. TechRadar said “if you’re rocking a Series 10, you likely don’t need an upgrade unless you’re eager for better battery life.” Tom’s Guide said “those who already own the Series 9 or Series 10 might not find enough here to justify the switch.”

The $399 starting price remains unchanged from Series 10, which reviewers appreciated given current economic pressures. For first-time buyers or those with older Apple Watches, Series 11 represents a solid evolution of Apple’s smartwatch formula, even if it doesn’t break significant new ground.

Apple Watch 11 review videos

 

The Apple Watch 11 reviews roundup post first published on September 16, 2025. We updated it on September 17, 2025. 

watchOS 26 is a more modest update with one headlining new feature, Workout Buddy — on top of 15 other new tweaks. You might overlook the Apple Watch after the excitement of Liquid Glass on your iPhone and Mac, but your tiniest screen still has some stuff worth checking out. 

There are loads of smart new features for those with the latest and greatest. A new wrist flick gesture silences timers and calls. Your volume automatically lowers in quiet rooms. And everyone can appreciate that the Notes app finally makes its way to the watch. 

The update is out now; here’s what to expect. 

Everything new in watchOS 26

The Apple Watch has Apple’s smallest-looking screens — but not even its 1.5-inch displays are immune from the Liquid Glass redesign. While it takes a lighter touch on the watch, you can still be wowed by its live lighting and lensing effects. And if you have a newer model, there are tons of excellent new additions to your little wrist computer.

This year’s update is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, Apple Watch SE 2 and both models of Apple Watch Ultra. You also may have noticed that Apple skipped from watchOS version 11 to 26 — that’s so that all the annual releases use the same number, of the upcoming year.

Table of contents: watchOS 26 new features

1. Liquid Glass
2. Workout Buddy
3. New Watch faces
4. More smart new features
5. Tweaks and changes in apps
6. Other major updates

1. Liquid Glass

watchOS 10 modernized Apple Watch apps with big, bold colors and new UI layouts. The Liquid Glass design doesn’t change how your watch works, but it does give them a glossy new dressing and appearance. 

Everything from the passcode screen to Notification Center to Control Center to the buttons in all your apps have a shiny glass sheen. 

On the Photos watch face, you can choose a new Glass style for the Time Color. The time might not have as much contrast with the background, but you’ll see the cool effect every time you raise your wrist. 

2. Workout Buddy

Workout Buddy will give you personalized encouragement during your workout, like an imaginary coach. It’ll let you know when you hit a milestone, like achieving a week-long workout streak, or literal mile markers during a run. It draws on your own fitness data to be precise. 

When the Workout Buddy chimes in, it automatically pauses and resumes the music or podcasts you’re listening to. 

New Watch faces

watchOS 26 features a handful of new watch faces:

3. Flow has lava lamp-style colorful patterns behind Liquid Glass numerals. You can choose bubbly, abstract shapes or easier-to-read numbers.
4. Exactograph has separate dials for hours, seconds and minutes. They can either be concentric (with four corner complications) or a series of big, moving dials that orbit the center like a solar system.
5. Exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra, Waypoint builds a compass into the watch face, showing nearby points of interest and saved locations.
6. Exclusive to Hermès models, Faubourg Party shows a series of 8-bit style pixelated animations of cartoon horses.
7. More watch faces now support always-on second hands when the watch is idle on the Series 10, Series 11 and Ultra 3.

More smart new features

A few features are exclusive to the Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Ultra 2 and Ultra 3:

7. Hypertension alerts analyze how blood vessels respond to heartbeats over a 30-day period and let you know if you’re at risk of high blood pressure. While Apple clarified that it can’t detect all cases, the company expects this feature to identify over 1 million undiagnosed cases.
8. You can flick your wrist away to dismiss a notification, mute a call, stop a timer and more.
9. Volume automatically adjusts to the ambient sound level of the room, so dings and pings don’t rudely interrupt a meeting.
10. Sleep score tracks sleep duration, bedtime consistency, how often you wake up and how much time is spent in each sleep stage. It gives you a grade out of 100. This is available on the Series 6, SE 2 and later.

More smart watchOS 26 features coming to all models:

11. Your watch will recommend apps to open at the bottom of the watch face when it thinks it may be helpful, like the Camera Remote app while you’re using the camera on your iPhone. Some recommendations are based on your daily routine and usage.
12. Similarly, Messages will recommend suggestions based on the conversation — like sharing your location when someone asks where you are. 
13. Call Screening is an intelligent feature that blocks unimportant calls from unknown numbers. People who call you will be asked by a robot to give the reason for their call, and if your phone thinks it sounds important, then it’ll ring you — and show what they said.
14. Hold Assist lets you hang up the phone when you’re put on hold. Your nearby phone will detect the music, wait for a human to pick up, and ring you again. However, Hold Assist can be fooled by systems that interrupt the music with an automated voice.
15. Messages are automatically translated if they’re sent in a different language (supported by the system). This feature is only available on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, and requires a paired iPhone running Apple Intelligence. 
16. If you have an Apple Music subscription, you can have music automatically chosen for you based on your taste and the type of workout you’re doing.

Tweaks and changes in apps

12. The Notes app is now available on the Apple Watch. It’s great for quickly checking a recipe, shopping list and jotting down a quick thought before you forget it. A few features, like tables and math notes, are (understandably) limited. 
13. Stopwatch and Timer support always-on animations when the watch is idle on Series 10, Series 11 and Ultra 3.
14. The Photos face can rotate through featured photos of People, Pets, Nature and Cities — just like the photos Lock Screen on the iPhone. 
15. See the custom background image for group chats when someone sets one on an iPhone, iPad or Mac. Apple has a few built-in options, or you can generate one with Image Playground or choose from your own photos.
16. You can see Live Listen transcriptions on your watch when the feature is active on your iPhone. 
17. The Workout app has a new design that uses the new corner-button layout, giving you easier access to common features. 
18. The Watch face gallery has been simplified, with faces grouped into collections. It is far easier to navigate.
19. The Fire, Water, Gradient, Liquid Metal, Vapor and Toy Story watch faces have been removed. 

Other major updates

Check out the other major updates Apple released today:

• Everything new in iOS 26
• Best new features in iPadOS 26
• Everything new in watchOS 26
• Everything new in macOS 26 Tahoe
• Everything new in visionOS 26

In a pinch, you can charge your AirPods with your iPhone. This feature is very convenient if you know how to use it.  You can also use your iPhone to charge your Apple Watch, or even another iPhone.

Here’s how to take advantage of this capability.

iPhone can be an emergency battery

If there are no electrical sockets nearby and your AirPods or Apple Watch are running low on power, you can use your iPhone to give them a boost. All you need for most of these devices is a compatible cable.

It’s a capability of the newer iPhones with a USB-C port. (Sorry, don’t try this with an earlier model that uses Lightning.)

Charge AirPods with iPhone

Let’s say your AirPods are almost out of juice and you can’t take an afternoon without music. No problem. As our tests prove, you can simply connect the earbuds’ case to your iPhone. Power starts flowing immediately, and your iPhone will charge your AirPods using its battery.

You do need the right cable for this trick, though. Rolling Square inCharge X ($29) is a great option. It’s very, very portable, and works whether your AirPods case uses USB-C or Lightning.

Or recharge an Apple Watch

Alternatively, if you forget to recharge your Apple Watch, you can use your iPhone to do the job. This becomes a bit more complicated because Apple’s wearable requires a proprietary wireless charger, not just a USB-C cable.

We did our testing with a Satechi USB-C Magnetic Charging Dock for Apple Watch ($39.99), which is small enough to go anywhere. Or you can just use the Apple Watch’s regular USB-C charging cable.

How to charge an iPhone with an iPhone

Now let’s consider another scenario. Suppose your iPhone has a 100% charge, but one belonging to your friend/spouse/child is down to 3%. You can be generous and transfer some of the power from your device to theirs.

Again, to get power from one iPhone to another, you will need an appropriate cable (another reason you might want to carry a Rolling Square inCharge X). As with using the iPhone to charge AirPods or Apple Watch, this isn’t an example of reverse wireless charging.

One end of the cable must be USB-C to plug into the iPhone 15 or iPhone 16. The other end also should be USB-C if you’re charging another recent iPhone. For any other model, you need a USB-C-to-Lightning cable.

To start charging another iPhone with your iPhone, simply connect the two handsets with the appropriate cable. If you’re using two iPhone 15 models, the one with more power will immediately begin recharging the one with less power. That’s your only option — you can’t send power to a handset with a higher battery level.

The situation is slightly different if you’re using an iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 to charge an earlier version of the iPhone. Power will always flow from the iPhone 15 or 16 to the older model, no matter what their respective battery levels are.

In Cult of Mac’s testing, an iPhone 15 sends an iPhone 14 about 4W of power. That doesn’t prove particularly quick, but it’s perhaps enough to be useful in a critical situation.

Use with caution

Note that the power transfer isn’t 100% efficient, so dropping one iPhone’s battery level 10% won’t raise another by the same amount. Power is always wasted when charging any battery.

In our tests, an hour of charging brought an iPhone 14’s battery level up by 19% while lowering the iPhone 15’s battery level by 24%.

Bonus trick: Pass-through charging

There’s another way to use this capability that can be very convenient under the right circumstances. And it means you don’t need to drain your iPhone to charge your AirPods, Apple Watch or iPhone.

This method takes advantage of wireless charging. Simply place the iPhone on a wireless charger. Then connect the appropriate charging cable from your iPhone to your AirPods, Apple Watch or another iPhone. Both devices will receive power. If you only have access to a wireless charger and a cable, you can still charge multiple devices simultaneously using this method.

We originally published this post on how to charge AirPods with iPhone on October 12, 2023. We updated the information.

You can download the watchOS 26 public beta right now. With it, you can try out the great new Liquid Glass design coming to the Apple Watch before Apple ships the update to everyone. And you can check out Workout Buddy, the AI-powered coach that gives you encouragement during your workouts.

Of course, there are a few things you should look out for. Beta software is buggy and can lead to data loss or apps that don’t work. This particular beta is a rough one, with lots of broken animations and features. A lot of apps you use probably won’t work correctly. I strongly recommend that you at least wait for the public beta — it’ll be available starting in July.

If you’re still sure you want to try it out, you’ll need to install iOS 26 on your iPhone first. I’ll show you how.

How to download the watchOS 26 public beta

Table of contents: How to download the watchOS 26 public beta

1. Install the iOS 26 public beta
2. Switch to allow beta software updates
3. Install the update

1. Install the iOS 26 public beta

Before you download the watchOS beta, you need to install the iOS beta on the same iPhone that’s tied to your Apple Watch. You can find that article here — remember to double-check that you have a recent iCloud backup and that your Photos library is synced first.

2. Switch to allow beta software updates

On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app and tap General > Software Update. After it checks for updates, you’ll see the option appear for Beta Updates. Tap that and you’ll see the options currently available: Off, watchOS 26 Public Beta, watchOS 26 Developer Beta, watchOS 11 Public Beta and watchOS 11 Developer Beta.

• The watchOS 26 Public Beta is a safer way to enjoy the prerelease software. Updates will go out at the same pace of every two to three weeks, but released about a day later to make sure there are no critical bugs in the software.
• The watchOS 26 Developer Beta is the fast track, intended for app developers to test functionality and implement new features. These betas are released a little early, but have a higher risk of bugs.

Tap watchOS 26 Public Beta to get the flashy new update with all the latest fitness features.

3. Download the watchOS 26 beta update

Swipe back and you’ll see the watchOS 26 update available. Tap Download and Install to, well, download and install the update. Going up a major release version may take longer than the usual software update.

At the end, you’ll reboot into the shiny new watchOS 26 beta! You can expect to get a new software update every few weeks until September.

We originally published this article on how to download the watchOS beta on June 11, 2024. We updated it with the latest information on June 10, 2025 and June 25, 2025.

Out of the many dozens of options, which is the coolest Apple Watch face? Every time I see someone wearing an Apple Watch, I try to scope out which watch face they use. Nine times out of 10, they use either the Modular face or the Photo face (with a Sport band).

This is despite the Apple Watch offering dozens of watch faces, allowing for all kinds of customizability.

If you want to spice up and individualize your Apple Watch, here are the best and coolest faces. And in our video, I rank every watch face on a tier list.

Coolest Apple Watch faces

The ability to swap out Apple Watch faces lets you tailor your smartwatch’s look and functionality for any situation. You might choose a classy, minimal style for a formal event or opt for an information-rich watch face for travel. Maybe you want to focus on relaxation, fitness or fun.

No matter the occasion, Apple Watch makes it super-simple to switch out all these cool watch faces, so you can easily change things up on the fly.

 

How to add an Apple Watch face

First, let’s go over how to add a new Apple Watch face. If you’ve never done it before, it’s easy. Just tap and hold on your Apple Watch screen. Scroll all the way to the end of your list of currently installed watch faces, then tap the big + icon on the New screen. Scroll through the gallery and tap Add when you find a new Apple Watch face you want to add.

To customize the watch face, tap and hold on it, then tap Edit. On most watch faces, you can scroll with the watch’s Digital Crown to change styles or colors. Swipe left to edit the complications; tap on a complication to replace it with something else.

Best Apple Watch face for fitness: Activity

The best Apple Watch face for fitness is the Activity watch face. It comes in three versions — two analog and one digital — all of which put your Move, Exercise and Stand rings front and center, with room for three complications. By default, they complications come set to Weather Conditions, Workout and Heart Rate. You also can customize the color of the clock.

With your rings so prominent on your wrist all day, you’ll be less likely to forget to close them.

Best Apple Watch face for hiking: Wayfinder

The best Apple Watch face for hiking is Wayfinder. Exclusive to Apple Watch Ultra, the Wayfinder watch face has eight complications, which can be edited to provide a host of information great for hiking, from weather conditions to Compass Waypoints. If you’re looking for more options, check out the best Apple Watch Ultra faces here.

Tap the outer edge of the Wayfinder watch face and it switches to a compass, which also shows the current latitude and longitude. This can be edited to show Elevation/Incline instead. Wayfinder also has a great-looking Night Mode to preserve night vision.

Pro tip: Create multiple versions of the Wayfinder face for different activities — hiking, swimming, running — and swipe between them based on activity.

Best Apple Watch face for relaxation: Breathe

The best Apple Watch face for relaxation is Breathe: A simple analog clock with a choice of four beautiful animations. Every time you look at your wrist, you’re reminded to take it easy.

It’s practical, too, with space for three complications around the edge. By default, they launch the Mindfulness app and show your weather conditions and heart rate.

Best Apple Watch face for nurses: Modular Duo

The Best Apple Watch face for nurses and other busy people is Modular Duo. The Modular Duo watch face pushes the clock up to the top, leaving space for two of the bigger complications. You can have two big Calendar and Activity complications, for keeping an eye on your tight schedule. And with Mindfulness in the upper corner, you have a quick shortcut to take a breather.

Best Apple Watch face for two time zones: GMT

The best Apple Watch face for two time zones is the GMT watch face. It shows one time zone with the watch hands and a different time zone of your choosing in 24-hour time around the edge. Tap the screen to pick a time zone from one from the preset list or from a city you have set in the Clock app.

You will find four complications around the edge. Personally, I would swap out UV Index for Messages or Weather Conditions.

Best Apple Watch face for sleeping: Numerals Duo

The best Apple Watch face for sleeping is Numerals Duo. The Apple Watch has a built-in sleep feature, but some people find it annoying in use. The Apple Watch locks down, so if you want to check notifications or turn on its flashlight, you first have to hold the Digital Crown in.

If you want to wear your Apple Watch to bed without the sleep feature, you can still prepare yourself a nighttime watch face. Numerals Duo is a good choice for that — the big obvious numbers make it easy to read if you’re up in the middle of the night and bleary-eyed.

I recommend setting the color to red, which is easiest on the eyes in a dark room.

Apple Watch face with most complications: Infograph

The Apple Watch face with the most complications is Infograph. This watch face packs in an incredible eight complications. It’s no wonder Infograph is the watch face of choice for Apple CEO Tim Cook himself. Infograph gives you four corner complications and four more in the center, all cleverly arranged to still be legible.

I recommend the Your Schedule complication in the sub-dial top position, as it puts both the current date and your upcoming calendar appointment on the edge of the clock. Most of the preset complications are pretty good as is, but I would swap a few of them out for Messages, Now Playing and Maps.

Best Apple Watch face for Dexcom: X-Large

The best Apple Watch face for Dexcom, a continuous glucose monitoring device for diabetics, is the X-Large watch face.

Although the Dexcom complication can be added to multiple Apple Watch faces, the X-Large face displays it, well, extra-large. There’s no squinting at a tiny, hard-to-read complication with this face: it’s literally front-and-center.

Best minimal Apple Watch face: Nike Digital

The best minimal Apple Watch face is Nike Digital. The time is giant and easy to read from a distance. It gives you room for three small complications — two icons and a line of text on the bottom, useful for Calendar or Now Playing.

Unfortunately, you can’t replace the Nike logo with a fourth complication, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Coolest Apple Watch face: Chronograph Pro

The coolest Apple Watch face is Chronograph Pro, which resembles Paul Newman’s iconic Rolex Daytona watch — and what’s cooler than Paul Newman? Newman was an auto-racing fanatic, and his Rolex Chronograph was perfect for timing laps.

Tap the outer edge of the dial and it transforms into a chronograph. The tachymeter timescale can be used to measure speed based on time travel over a fixed distance.

Best Apple Watch face for pilots: World Time

The World Time watch face puts the biggest city from every time zone onto one watch face. In addition to your local time, you can see the time around the entire globe in a 24-hour clock around the edge.

And there’s still plenty of room for complications — for a pilot or flight attendant, I would recommend Calendar, Weather, Messages and Flighty.

My personal favorite: Numerals

My personal favorite Apple Watch face is was Numerals. The giant digital number made it easy to read the hour, and the minute hand gave you a vague idea of the time. That’s all you really needed on a lazy Saturday. There’s room for one complication, but I used it without.

Unfortunately, Apple removed the Numerals watch face. I miss it dearly. In the mean time I’ve been using Numerals Duo, which is almost as good, but much louder. I hope they bring it back one day — or at least create a new one in its spirit. 

More Apple Watch tips

To get more out of your Apple Watch, check out these tips:

• 3 tricks every Apple Watch owner should know
• What do the Apple Watch buttons do?
• How to edit Apple Watch widgets
• How to use Water Lock on Apple Watch
• How to find your lost iPhone with Apple Watch

We originally published this article on the coolest Apple Watch Faces on March 16, 2024. We updated the information on July 3, 2025.

Connect Apple Watch to a treadmill at Planet Fitness, and other exercise equipment, for more accurate health data inside the Fitness and Health apps on your iPhone. After all, if you’re working out, you want to make sure your Apple Watch gives you credit for it.

Here’s how.

Connect Apple Watch to Planet Fitness treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, rowing machine and other gym equipment

Table of Contents:

1. Turn on ‘Detect Gym Equipment’ in Settings
2. Hold your Apple Watch next to the equipment
3. Press Start on your gym equipment
4. Sync the Planet Fitness Workout app with Apple Health

1. Turn on ‘Detect Gym Equipment’ in Settings

On your Apple Watch, open Settings > Workout (at the very bottom) and turn on Detect Gym Equipment (halfway down the screen).

You can find these same settings in the Watch app on your iPhone, too.

2. Hold your Apple Watch next to the treadmill

These days, a you can pair your Apple Watch to a lot of gym exercise machines, including:

• Treadmills
• Stationary bikes
• Ellipticals / Cross trainers
• Rowing machines
• Stairmasters

All of these exercise machines can be paired with Apple Watch. With the screen facing the gym equipment, hold your Apple Watch next to the contactless reader. It should be marked with an icon or “Connects to Apple Watch.”

If you hear a tap and a beep, the equipment has paired to your watch.

3. Press Start on your gym equipment

Press Start on your gym equipment and your Apple Watch will automatically start a workout.

Data will sync to the Fitness app on your iPhone and the Activity app on your Apple Watch. After all, what’s the point of going to the gym if it isn’t helping you close your rings!

4. Sync the Planet Fitness Workout app with Apple Health

Alternatively, you can use the Planet Fitness Workout app to track your activity on their gym equipment. This works even if you don’t have an Apple Watch.

Next, download the app and you’ll be prompted to share data with Apple Health. If you enable this, after your workout, the data will appear in both places automatically.

If you already have the Planet Fitness Workout app and this doesn’t work, make sure it’s enabled. Open the Apple Health app, tap on the profile icon in the top right and tap Privacy > Apps and Services. Tap on an app and make sure its data is shared.

From here, you can delete app data, too.

Click here to read more about how to add hospital records, like vaccinations, to the Apple Health app too.

We originally published this post on how to use an Apple Watch with a treadmill on December 7, 2023. We updated the information on June 12, 2025.

The Apple Watch Translate app can help you quickly speak in a different language while you’re abroad, right from your wrist. Translate between 20 different languages by speaking out loud, play translations out of your Apple Watch speaker and build a list of favorite phrases you can play instantly.

Apple Translate doesn’t support as many languages as the more popular Google Translate — but Google doesn’t have an app for the Apple Watch. The fastest and most convenient way to speak another language from your wrist is with Apple’s app.

Keep reading or watch our video here.

How to use the Apple Watch Translate app

The Translate app is Apple’s own equivalent to Google Translate, the widely popular free online service. Apple Translate is available as a standalone app on iPhone, iPad and Mac. And now, you can also access Translate on Apple Watch, courtesy of watchOS 11.

Table of Contents: Apple Watch Translate app

1. Open the Translate app
2. Pick two languages
3. Tap the microphone icon and speak
4. Play the translation out loud
5. Tap the keyboard icon and type
6. Mark a favorite phrase
7. Adjust settings
8. Delete a phrase from your history
9. Available languages
10. More Apple Watch features

Open the Apple Watch Translate app

Click the Digital Crown (dial) on your Apple Watch and open the Translate app (with the icon of two speech bubbles, one white and one blue). It’s easier to find in List View — scroll down to the bottom of your app list, then tap List View.

If you don’t see the Translate app, you may need to update to watchOS 11. Make sure your iPhone is running iOS 18. Then, open the Watch app, and tap General > Software Update.

Pick two languages

When you open the Translate app, you’ll see a tile on the screen where you can pick two languages. One should match the language you have set on your watch. Tap on either one to scroll through the list of available languages.

The Swap Languages button will switch which language you’re speaking and which one you’re translating.

Tap the microphone icon and speak

Tap the Dictation button at the bottom and start speaking. You’ll see a live transcription of what you’re saying. It’ll automatically end if you pause at the end of a sentence — otherwise, you can tap the Stop button manually.

Play the translation out loud

Tap the Play button next to a translation to play it out loud from your Apple Watch’s speaker. You can spin the Digital Crown while it’s playing to adjust volume.

Tap the keyboard icon and type

If you prefer to type your translations, you can try that as well. Tap the Options (⋯) button in the upper right. Scroll down and tap Preferred Input and select Text.

Now, you’ll see a Keyboard button at the bottom instead. On an Apple Watch Series 7 or later, you’ll see a full QWERTY keyboard. You can type letter-by-letter or swipe with your finger to enter a full word at a time.

On an older model with a smaller screen, you can draw one letter at a time. (To switch to this system from a newer watch, tap the Change Input Method icon in the bottom right and tap the Scribble icon.)

Mark a favorite Translate phrase from your Apple Watch

You can mark a particular phrase as a favorite, for easy access at any point in the future. Swipe right on a phrase and tap Favorite to mark it as a favorite.

Find your favorite phrases by tapping Favorites (the star icon) in the upper left. From this list, you can swipe left on a phrase and tap Unfavorite to remove it.

Favorite phrases sync between Translate on your Apple Watch and your iPhone.

Adjust settings

Tap the Options (⋯) button in the upper right for more settings.

• You can adjust the speed of the dictation by tapping on the left or the right.
• Enable Auto-Play Translations to have translations play out of the speaker as soon as they come in, rather than manually tapping Play.
• Preferred Input lets you switch from Voice to Text, if you’d rather type than speak out loud.

Delete a phrase from your history

The Translate app on your Apple Watch doesn’t keep a full history of everything you’ve translated; it clears it out every time you quit the app for more than few minutes.

However, if you want to delete something from the list, just swipe left on it and tap Delete.

Available languages in Translate on Apple Watch

Here are all the available languages (as of May 2025):

• Arabic
• Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)
• Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional)
• Dutch
• English (UK)
• English (US)
• French
• German
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Russian
• Spanish (Spain)
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

More Apple Watch features

After you learn how to use the Translate app for Apple Watch, check out other top features:

• 6 things you can do with an old Apple Watch
• How to track your Apple Watch Activity rings and pause your streak
• How to connect Apple Watch to a Planet Fitness treadmill
• How to use Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor, and what it’s good for

You can manually add a workout to Apple Fitness+ if you need to log some exercise while you weren’t wearing your Apple Watch. Maybe your watch ran out of battery at the start of your run, or maybe you simply forgot to turn it on. By adding a missing workout, you can give yourself credit for the exercise you did.

This power could be used for evil as well as good. You could, hypothetically, say you ran a three-hour marathon every day last week. But you would only be fooling yourself.

To find out how to add a workout to Apple Fitness+, watch our short video or keep reading below.

How to add a workout to Apple Fitness+

Ever since its launch in 2015, the Apple Watch has gamified fitness with daily rewards for staying active, monthly challenges and streaks. That’s why it’s so frustrating when you miss a workout or, worse yet, lose a streak — especially if you actually did work out, but without your watch knowing.

By adding a workout to your health data manually, you can give yourself the credit you deserve.

Table of contents: How to add a workout to Apple Fitness+

1. Open the Workouts section in Apple Health
2. Add your workout
3. Restore a streak
4. More health and fitness features

Open the Workouts section in Apple Health

To add a workout to Apple Fitness+, you actually need to open the Health app on your iPhone. Next, tap on the Browse tab at the bottom. Then tap the Activity category and scroll down until you find the Workouts section — tap on that.

Add your workout

Tap Add Data in the upper right corner. You can then add the details of your missing workout to Apple Fitness+:

• Activity Type lets you choose from all the available workouts, like core training, cycling, gymnastics, pilates, running, swimming and yoga.
• Calories (optional) lets you enter the amount of energy burned. This will contribute to your Move and Exercise rings, as well as your Active Energy stats. (Don’t know the difference between Move and Exercise rings? Read our explainer on the subject.)
• Distance (optional) lets you enter how far you traveled during the workout that didn’t show up in Apple Fitness+. This will add to your Walking + Running Distance stats. Certain workouts, like elliptical and tai chi, don’t have distance available.
• Starts and Ends let you enter the date, time and length of your workout. This will add to your Exercise Minutes and Workouts stats.

Restore a lost streak

While it might take a few minutes for the data to update throughout the Health app, adding a missed workout can restore a Fitness streak. Perhaps you forgot to strap on your watch, or its battery died while you were working out — no need to panic over a broken streak. After you manually add the workout to Apple Fitness+, your streak will be repaired.

You could use this feature to lie about your activity, but I don’t recommend that. Logging calories in the Health app does not burn calories in real life. (Maybe Apple will add that in the next software update.)

More health and fitness features

• How to track your Apple Watch Activity rings and pause your streak
• How to connect Apple Watch to a Planet Fitness treadmill
• How to use Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor, and what it’s good for

There are a few useful things you can do with an old Apple Watch after you upgrade to a new one. You might think of the Apple Watch as being a disposable product — because who would wear two watches? But there are actually quite a few surprising use cases for having a daily Apple Watch and a secondary watch.

Keep reading or watch our latest video.

Things you can do with an old Apple Watch

1. Dedicated night watch for sleep tracking

The Apple Watch is great for tracking sleep — even the different stages of your sleep through the night. And if you use your Apple Watch as an alarm, it’ll wake you up by silently buzzing on your wrist, so your partner won’t be awoken by your alarm if they wake up a little later.

But if you wear you watch during the day and you wear it to bed, when do you charge it? Personally, I hate the idea of charging my watch during the day because if I get up and move around while it’s juicing up, I won’t get credit for my Move or Stand rings.

This is a prime use-case for an old Apple Watch: A dedicated sleep tracker and alarm. You keep your old one on the charger during the day and wear your new one out and about; you swap them when it’s time for bed and after you wake up. You never have to worry about topping the battery up in the evening before you go to sleep or in the morning rush.

Another benefit is that if your daily watch band is for fashion and less comfortable, like a Milanese Loop or Twist-o-Flex band, you don’t have to switch it out with a Sport Band every morning and every night. You can pick the best band for each watch.

2. Risky activity tracking

The Apple Watch is surprisingly hardy and water resistant, but sometimes there are those occasional day excursions that make you a bit nervous. Instead of risking your expensive new Apple Watch when you go rock climbing, sky diving or swimming in the ocean, you can put on your old watch. After all, an old hand-me-down Apple Watch is much cheaper than buying a new Apple Watch Ultra.

Some people choose to protect their watch in a case, like this option from Elago. Personally, I find these a little unsightly, and they can be a pain to put on and take off. But you can keep your secondary Apple Watch permanently encased, so you don’t have to fiddle with every day.

3. Wearing a watch on your arm or leg

Although it’s designed for it, you don’t actually have to wear your Apple Watch on your wrist. There are a few exercise use cases for wearing your Apple Watch higher up on your arm or around your ankle.

If you play sports where precision is key, like tennis or basketball, the weight on your wrist might affect how you train and play.  The TwelveSouth ActionSleeve keeps your watch on your arm, where you can still use it for tracking your activity, but keep it out of the way. If you use your secondary Apple Watch for this, then you don’t have to worry about swapping out your regular band for a complicated accessory and case before and after every time.

On the other hand, you might want to wear an Apple Watch on your ankle. If you work at a treadmill desk, for example, you won’t get any credit for all that walking because your arms will be just as stationary as if you were at a regular desk. Wearing a second Apple Watch around your ankle, you can still work towards your Move, Stand and Exercise rings — and you’ll still have your main watch on your wrist for notifications and telling time.

4. Hand it down to a child

If your kid is old enough to spend the night at a friend’s house but too young for an iPhone (Like what, 17? I don’t know, I don’t have kids) you can give them an Apple Watch instead. You’ll be able to track their location using GPS and Find My, an easy way to send texts, and if it’s a cellular model, call them wherever they may be. Setting up an Apple Watch on behalf of your child is really easy — after wiping it and setting it up from scratch, just tap Set Up for a Family Member.

Because it’s only a watch and not a smartphone, you can rest assured they won’t get sucked into TikTok or Roblox or Wikipedia or whatever it is that parents are afraid of kids doing. (Again, I wouldn’t know.)

5. Beta software

If you want to check out the new features of what’s coming next in watchOS, you can install the watchOS beta. This year, the top features of watchOS 11 include a new Vitals app that gives you a broader picture of your health and various life factors, pauses to your streak for illness or injury, a workout Training Load that can detect how much effort is going into your exercise, a redesigned Photos face and much more.

But running a watchOS beta is kind of a pain in the ass. For one, you have to install the iOS beta on your phone in order to install the watchOS beta, and you may not want to put your most important device at risk. Unlike on the iPhone, you can’t undo a watchOS update. Once you’re on watchOS 11, you can’t go back to watchOS 10. And most of all, once you switch to the beta track, you get new software updates every two to three weeks — and installing updates on the Apple Watch is, notoriously, incredibly irritating.

If you really want to try out the new features early but you don’t want to put your primary watch on the line, you can install the watchOS beta on a second watch, provided it’s new enough. This year, watchOS 11 requires a Series 6 model, second-generation SE model or newer.

6. Turn it into a small phone

It’s easy to overlook how the Apple Watch is actually a pretty powerful and capable computer — and cellphone — all by itself. With the TinyPod, your Apple Watch slides into an iPod-shaped case that makes it a tiny standalone cellphone. It even has a click wheel that spins the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown for scrolling like it’s 2004.

A bunch of companies have tried and failed to reinvent the minimal cellphone, but the problem with abandoning your iPhone is that you get a new phone number that isn’t compatible with iMessage. If you use an old cellular Apple Watch instead, you can keep compatibility your Apple Account — switching is as simple as keeping your iPhone on your night stand and putting your TinyPod in your pocket instead.

TinyPod comes in sizes that fit all three sizes of Apple Watch, from the Series 4 / SE and newer: 40/41 mm, 44/45 mm and 49 mm.

Or, get a little trade-in money when you buy a new one

Personally, when I upgraded from my Series 3 model to my … (wait, which one do I have?) Series 7, my old watch felt so slow and broken that I simply traded it in. It was too old to be useful for basically anything else. If you want a bit of a discount when you buy a watch, you can use our trade-in program. (Or, you can use the savings to justify buying another watch band!)

More Apple Watch how-tos and articles

• Edit Apple Watch widgets in the Smart Stack
• What do the Apple Watch buttons do?
• How to put your Apple Watch on silent, Do Not Disturb and Theater Mode
• How to tell the time without looking at your Apple Watch
• The best Apple Watch faces

We originally published this article on what to do with an old Apple Watch on July 20, 2024. We republished it on April 25, 2025.

Apple Watch does so much that it’s possible for some of its handy tricks to get lost. You can’t call these three Apple Watch tips  marquee features. But they can make life just a bit more convenient.

Here’s how to turn on the flashlight, find your iPhone and silence alarms on your iPhone from an Apple Watch.

Apple Watch tips: Make your smartwatch more useful

Most Apple Watch users quickly master the features they bought the wearable for. They figure out the ins and outs of activity tracking and get themselves in shape. Or maybe they learn to send and receive texts from Apple Watch.

But the Apple Watch can do so much that it’s easy to overlook some of its capabilities. Even ones that might be considered basic.

This trio of Apple Watch tips includes things all Apple Watch owners should know.

Use your Apple Watch as a flashlight

Surely, every iPhone user knows there’s a flashlight built into their handset. But it might come as a surprise to some that Apple Watch has one, too. Activating it is as simple as swiping up from the bottom of the wearable’s watch face to open Control Center, then tapping the flashlight button.

This makes the watch’s display light up bright white. The result isn’t as intense as an iPhone LED, but it’s always with you whenever you need it.

Read the full Cult of Mac guide to the Apple Watch flashlight for more details.

Find iPhone with Apple Watch

If you’re wearing an Apple watch, you really can’t misplace your iPhone. That’s because you can always set off an audible alarm on the handset with the wearable. And it’s quicker and easier than using Find My.

As with the flashlight, start by opening your Apple Watch’s Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of the watch face. Then press the button that looks like an iPhone playing a sound.

The sound is loud enough to be heard from across a house. If that’s not enough, you can even make your iPhone’s camera flash on and off. To do so, simply tap and hold that same icon. That will add a blinking light to the pinging sound, which proves especially useful in dark places. If you’re still having difficulties locating your handset, switch to Find My.

For all the details, check Cult of Mac’s guide on how to find an iPhone with Apple Watch.

Cancel timers and alarms on iPhone

The iPhone makes a convenient kitchen timer. It’s 100% accurate, so you don’t have to worry about burning the biscuits. And the iPhone is the only alarm clock you ever need. But if a timer or alarm goes off when your iPhone isn’t right next to you, you can silence it from your Apple Watch with this tip. Or start it again.

This one is easy because you don’t have to do anything to set it up. When a timer starts going off on the iPhone, it’ll also appear on your Apple Watch. Tap on the stop button or the reset button on the wearable to control the timer on the handset.

Alarms work the same way. You can stop or snooze an iPhone alarm right from the wearable.

There’s a good chance you know about these two because the Apple Watch vibrates to get your attention when an iPhone timer or alarm goes off. Still, it doesn’t hurt to be sure everyone knows about such a useful feature.

Go all through the Apple Watch Control Center

Two out of the three Apple Watch tips described here are in the Apple Watch’s Control Center. If either of them were new to you, it’s worth your time to check all the buttons in the Control Center to be sure you know what they all do.

Like, do you know what the button with the comedy and tragedy masks does? If not, you should find out — you might find theater mode very useful next time you go to La Scala. And everyone can use the remote camera shutter. It’s brilliant.

We originally published this post on three basic Apple Watch tips on June 29, 2023. We updated the information.

It’s time to break the habit of doing everything on your iPhone while overlooking what’s often a better alternative. Consider the Apple Watch pros: It’s a very capable little computer, and it’s right there on your wrist. Odds are you aren‘t taking advantage of half of what it can do for you.

Here are the simple tasks I used to do on my iPhone that are now easier because I do them on my Apple Watch. And all without needing any third-party software. The only apps required come preinstalled on every Apple Watch.

Apple Watch pros: When a smartwatch beats an iPhone

You probably got an Apple Watch to get more active. Me too, and it worked out great. But then I looked for ways to use the smartwatch for more than just fitness. I paid quite a bit for the gadget — I wanted to get my money’s worth.

It’s important not to look at your wearable’s small screen as a con. Extreme portability is the biggest Apple Watch pro. And it likely goes with you everywhere. Find jobs that it’s good at, and you’ll make your life easier.

An iPhone is portable too, obviously, but it’s comparatively cumbersome. Dragging my iPhone out of my pocket just to read a reminder or a one-sentence text message, then shoving it back in my pocket, is a waste of effort when the same information is available on my wrist where I can simply glance at it.

I started looking for non-health-tracking ways to make my Apple Watch more useful by asking myself one simple question — you should try it. Here are the simple things I now use the smartwatch for. If you’re still doing these on your iPhone, think about switching. And none of these require adding third-party Apple Watch apps.

Payments, flashlight and music

Apple Pay: I love using Apple Pay to wirelessly pay for purchases without needing to pull out a credit card. And I love it even more now that I realize I can pay from my Apple Watch instead of my iPhone. Using the smartwatch for payments is even more convenient than a handset.

Flashlight: Whenever I need a bit more light, I use the flashlight on my Apple Watch. It’s perfect for searching for something in the back of a cabinet or reading a menu in a dim restaurant. And it doesn’t require me to have a hand free to hold the light. If I’m going into the woods at night, I’ll bring out the much brighter iPhone flashlight, but that’s about the only time.

Music and podcasts: When I’m enjoying music or a podcast on my iPhone, the multimedia controls are also available on my Apple Watch. Adjusting the volume is as simple as spinning the Digital Crown — which I count as one of the major Apple Watch pros. And I can skip songs or ads embedded into podcasts right from my wrist. This is all very convenient, because I frequently listen to podcasts streaming to speakers over AirPlay while my iPhone is charging way off in another room. My smartwatch is always with me, though.

Texts (and sometimes email)

Texts: It took a while, but I broke myself of the habit of always pulling out my iPhone to read texts. A 7-inch screen isn’t needed to read a one-line message — a 2-inch display is fine. A quick glance is all it takes to read a text on an Apple Watch.

When I reply, I often pick one of the basic responses that can be sent just by touching a button, like “Thanks!” Alternatively, I use Dictation to turn my voice into written words. No iPhone needed.

I occasionally even read an email on my Apple Watch. You can assign VIP status to people in Apple Mail. I did that, and my Apple Watch alerts me when I receive an email from one of them. I generally at least glance at it on my watch, though I usually switch to the iPhone for long messages.

Timers, Siri and navigation

Timers: I time everything in the kitchen with my Apple Watch. It’s far easier to set them up, check on them, and cancel them on my wrist than on my phone. Super-convenient timers sit at the top of my list of Apple Watch pros.

As for alarms, I still set them up on my phone, but watchOS lets me cancel or snooze them on the Watch anyway because it’s just that clever.

Siri: Pulling out an iPhone simply to ask Siri a question makes little sense. Once it sank in that the voice assistant is available on my wrist by holding down the Digital Crown, that became my go-to method. Admittedly, Siri isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But Apple’s AI assistant can prove useful within its narrow limits. I utilize Siri for a range of functions, from controlling my smart home to getting sports scores … all from my wrist.

To combine two suggestions: setting up a 5-minute timer with Siri just requires telling it “5 minutes.”

Walking directions: Don’t overlook the fact that Apple Maps prove just as useful on sidewalks as on streets. I use the app on my Apple Watch to get around unfamiliar areas. I find it easier than frequently pulling out my iPhone for walking directions.

It also works great when driving, bicycling or taking public transit. The Apple Watch’s haptics, which can discreetly alert you about upcoming turns, work wonders.

Apple Watch pros help you get more out of your wearable

You probably bought your Apple Watch to use it as a health and fitness tracker. But it’s easy to overlook that the smartwatch can do much more. Going above and beyond health-oriented features is among the biggest Apple Watch pros.

Now you know what else I use my smartwatch for. I hope you’ll be inspired by these suggestions to make better use of your own.

Closing your three Apple Watch Activity rings can become such an obsession that it’s easy to forget why you’re doing it. But what does it really mean to close an Apple Watch ring? The Stand ring seems obvious. We all know we shouldn’t sit around on our asses all day. But how about the Move and Exercise rings, which sound so similar?

Actually, no. The Apple Watch’s Move and Exercise rings are very different, and understanding that difference is massively important if you want to achieve your fitness goals.

Apple Watch Activity rings explained

The Apple Watch‘s Activity rings give wearers an easy way to check their progress on daily fitness goals. Present at the original Apple Watch’s launch in 2015, they played a key role in the smartwatch’s evolution from geeky fashion item to must-have health and fitness wearable. And yet it’s still not that simple to understand the differences in the Move ring versus the Exercise ring.

What’s the difference between movement and exercise? Heart rate.

For many of us, the thought of “exercise” conjures up images of squeezing into tight Lycra and cavorting around at the gym for an hour or so. It’s a hobby for some and a nightmare for others. Moving, though, is something that everyone does every day, even if it is just walking down your driveway to get into your car.

But the way Apple defines movement and exercise is rather different. In fact, from your Apple Watch’s point of view, the time you spend at the gym is not necessarily exercise. But that walk to the car just might be.

That’s because any movement of your wrist contributes to your pink Move ring, whereas your Apple Watch only adds minutes to your green Exercise ring when your heart rate goes above a certain threshold. Exactly what that threshold is varies from one user to another. (It depends on things like your age and your resting heart rate.)

Apple Watch does not treat all workouts as exercise

That’s why when you log a workout, it doesn’t always contribute the same number of minutes to the Exercise ring.

For example, if you use the Workout app to log a 30-minute walk, it might not be enough to close your Exercise ring, even though the goal for that ring is 30 minutes. The problem is that a leisurely stroll does not raise your heart rate much, so it might not be sufficient to contribute any minutes to your Exercise ring.

Similarly, if you are lifting weights at the gym, you might be working your muscles very hard. However, if you sit down and rest between sets, your heart rate may never become sufficiently elevated for your Apple Watch to consider what you are doing exercise.

As such, the Exercise ring tends to be a little harder to close than the Move ring. That’s because it is concerned with the quality of your activity, not just the quantity.

You can force your Apple Watch to credit you with all the minutes of your workout by using the “Other workout” option, since this assumes you are working out at the level of a brisk walk or better, regardless of your heart rate. But that’s kinda cheating.

How 1 became 3: A brief history of Apple Watch Activity rings

To understand why we have separate Move and Exercise rings, let’s pause for a brief history lesson. The forefather of today’s Activity rings was NikeFuel, which was introduced back in 2012 together with the Nike+ FuelBand. At the time, Jay Blahnik was a key expert and consultant at Nike. Today, he’s the director of fitness for health technologies at Apple.

So it’s no surprise that there’s a strong family resemblance between the NikeFuel ring and Apple’s Activity rings.

Like the Move ring on Apple Watch, the NikeFuel ring was a measurement of your movement throughout the day, gauged by the motion of your wrist. It was pretty basic. But it was all that was possible with the hardware in the Nike+ FuelBand at the time.

The trouble is that fitness is a multifaceted concept. There is far more to it than just movement alone. Thanks to advances in hardware like the built-in heart rate sensor and a powerful processor, Cupertino could take things further with Apple Watch by adding two more rings — Stand and Exercise.

Some aspects of fitness, such as strength, flexibility and coordination, are still not covered by Apple’s three-ring model. But it is still a big step forward from the single ring of its predecessor.

Why is the Move ring the only customizable one?

One big difference between the Move and Exercise rings is that only the Move goal is customizable. The Exercise goal is the same for everyone.

Like the NikeFuel ring before it, the Move ring lets you choose the number of calories you aim to burn in a day. (Nike called its units “Fuel” instead of calories, but it was basically the same thing.) This flexibility means the Move ring is great for pretty much everyone. Whether you are a couch potato or an Olympic athlete, you can set a Move goal that’s realistic for you.

Another neat thing about personalized Move goals is that they level the playing field for Apple Watch Activity sharing. A bit like a golf handicap, you can compete with friends and family to close your Move ring, even if you all have very different fitness levels.

So why didn’t Apple go the same route with the Exercise ring? Why do we all get the same fixed 30-minute goal?

The Exercise ring goal might be 30 minutes for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s the same

It might seem unfair that everyone gets the same Exercise goal, regardless of their fitness level. And it would be, if that were true. But in reality, it is not that simple. The duration may be 30 minutes for all, but the intensity varies for everyone. That’s because our bodies adapt to exercise when we do it frequently.

As you get fitter, your heart becomes stronger and more efficient. It does not need to beat as fast in order to supply the oxygen your muscles need during exercise. The fitter you become, the less your heart rate will increase when you do the same amount of work.

Since Apple Watch uses elevated heart rate to judge when you are doing exercise, a very fit person must work a lot harder to elevate their heart rate sufficiently for it to contribute to their Exercise ring.

In other words, a brisk walk might count as exercise if you are unfit. But as you get in shape, it might not, because it would not elevate your heart rate much. Then you might need to jog or run to raise your heart rate sufficiently for it to count.

But why is it 30 minutes exactly?

Apple never explained exactly how it arrived at 30 minutes for the Exercise goal, but it is probably based on the World Health Organization’s recommended levels of physical activity for adults.

The WHO recommends that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week, which works out to about 21 minutes a day. For additional health benefits, WHO recommends aiming for 300 minutes a week, or 42 minutes a day. Apple set its 30-minute goal right in the middle of the WHO guidelines.

To become the lord of the Activity rings, you must know your ultimate goal

Apple’s Activity goals are really just a means to an end. Moving a certain amount every day, and doing 30 minutes of exercise, are not things most of us do just for the fun of it. We do them to maintain or improve our health.

To make sure that you are getting that health benefit, and to keep yourself motivated in the long term, it’s essential to know exactly what your own personal goal is. Ask yourself, “Why is it important that I close these rings?”

If your answer is that you want to lose weight, then the Move ring is very important. That’s because this ring is measured in calories. As everyone knows, counting calories is important when you want to shed pounds.

If you just want to live a long and healthy life, then the Exercise ring is important. According to the WHO guidelines, the Exercise goal reduces the risk of diseases such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon and breast cancer, and depression. It also reduces the risk of hip or vertebral fractures.

Move ring vs. Exercise ring: Pink and green are more different than they seem

The pink and green Activity rings on Apple Watch may appear similar. However, as we’ve seen, in reality they are very different.

Put simply, when you are exercising, you are also moving. But when you are moving, you are not necessarily exercising. For your movement to count as exercise, it must be a moderate-intensity activity that raises your heart rate.

If you want to maintain a healthy body weight and reduce your risk of premature death, you need to make sure you’re doing a bit of both. Thanks to Apple Watch, that’s easier than ever.

We originally published this post on Apple Watch’s Activity rings on July 12, 2018. We updated the information.

Find My iPhone, a feature available in Apple’s Find My app, will help you locate your lost phone. You can find it using any other Apple device you own or by borrowing a friend’s device. You can even ping your iPhone from your Apple Watch.

From Find My, you can also remotely lock down your lost iPhone, put the device into a special Lost Mode, or even wipe its contents. You should take a peek at this incredibly useful app before you have to.

Keep reading or watch our video.

Find My iPhone: How to find your lost phone

The first step you should take to find your iPhone is to use your Apple Watch (if you own one). Click the side button on the watch to open Control Center. Tap the icon of an iPhone with sound waves coming out of it to ping your iPhone. Your phone will make a pinging noise for about 10 seconds — even if you left it on silent mode or Do Not Disturb.

If you need a little extra help, try tapping and holding the icon instead. Not only will it make the loud pinging alarm, your iPhone’s camera flash will blink on and off. This can make it easier to find in the dark or outside — provided the flashlight isn’t facing down.

If this doesn’t work, it’s possible your lost iPhone is outside the range of your Apple Watch. Then, it’s time to crack open the Find My app to get your iPhone back.

Table of contents: Find My iPhone: How to find your lost phone

1. Sign in to the Find My app
   1. From another device
   2. From a friend’s iPhone
   3. On the web
2. Find your iPhone on the map
3. Set your iPhone in Lost Mode from Find My
4. Turn on notifications if you leave home without it
5. Erase or remove your iPhone from Find My

Sign in to the Find My app from another device

If you own another Apple device, like an iPad or Mac, you can use the Find My app on it to find your iPhone. Or, if you have Family Sharing set up, anyone in your family can use any of their devices.

To find your lost iPhone, open Find My on your iPad, Mac or any family member’s iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.

Sign in to the Find My app on a friend’s iPhone

If your lost iPhone is your only Apple device, and you don’t have Family Sharing set up, you can borrow someone else’s iPhone. Open Find My, tap the Me tab and tap Help a Friend. You can sign into your own Apple Account.

Sign in to Find My on the web

You also can use Find My on the web from any modern browser on any kind of device — a Windows laptop, an Android phone, a Chromebook, whatever you have access to. Go to icloud.com and click Sign In. Click the Apps icon in the upper right and click Find My to launch it. You’ll need to enter your password a second time.

Find your iPhone on the map

To see your lost iPhone on a map, select the Find My app’s Devices tab and find your phone on the list. You’ll see its location on Apple Maps. Tap Directions and you can start navigation to its current location.

If your phone’s nearby, great! Try playing a sound to help locate it.

Play a sound out of its speakers

If you left your phone on silent — even if it’s in Do Not Disturb mode — you can force it to play a loud sound out of its speakers to help find it when it’s nearby. Tap Play Sound and it’ll ring continuously — much longer than when pinging it from an Apple Watch.

Playing a sound also sends you an email alerting you that a sound was played … for some reason.

Set your iPhone in Lost Mode from Find My

After you locate your phone in the Find My app, tap Lost Mode if you want to protect your iPhone until it’s found. In Lost Mode, your phone can’t be used normally. Only you can turn it off, using the device’s passcode. (If it doesn’t have a passcode set, you’ll need to create one.)

Lost Mode also prevents someone from removing or signing out of your Apple Account, so that the device can’t be reset and sold. Any cards added to your Apple Wallet for Apple Pay are disabled, so it’s not possible for someone to go on a shopping spree (or a public transportation spree) with your phone.

You also can leave a message on your phone with a number people can use to get in touch if they find it. To do so, tap Continue, type in the number of a trusted friend, any directions you may want to include, and tap Activate.

Lost Mode can only be deactivated you, either by using the Find My app or on the device itself by entering the passcode.

Erase or remove your iPhone from Find My

Click Erase This Device if you want to remotely give it a factory reset. If you accidentally sell or trade in your iPhone without resetting it first, this will unlock it for its new owners as if it’s brand-new. This makes sure no one else can access the data on your phone. However, bear in mind that after erasing it, you won’t be able to find it from Find My anymore.

Click Remove This Device if you see an old phone that you don’t use or own anymore. If the device ever comes back online (for instance, if you find it in a dusty drawer and power it on), it’ll show back up in the list, but otherwise, it’ll keep the list of devices tidy and uncluttered

Turn on notifications if you leave home without your iPhone

If losing your iPhone is a frequent habit, tap Notify When Left Behind in the Find My app if you don’t want to risk leaving home without it on you. This will ping your Apple Watch or other devices if they detect you leaving your phone behind. You can add exceptions to the list if you have a trusted location, like work or a close friend’s house. Click + on any of the suggestions or click New Location to enter one manually.

Notifications can’t be enabled from the web app, as you’re only signed into it temporarily.

More iPhone basics

• How to make a good-looking custom Home Screen
• How to customize your Lock Screen
• How to use Focus Modes
• 10 best ways to actually save iPhone battery life
• How to use the new Photos app

You can use your iPhone (or even your Apple Watch!) as a remote for your Apple TV. It’s a convenient feature when you’ve lost the remote in the couch cushions. (You can use your iPhone to help find it as well.)

Even if your remote’s not gone missing, sometimes it’s sitting on the table way over there and you don’t want to interrupt a show by asking for someone to pass it to you. Or maybe, someone is intentionally hogging the remote and you want to pause the video yourself. Either way, it’s really easy to do from an iPhone or an Apple Watch.

Control the Apple TV without the remote

First, you need to make sure your iPhone is on the same network as your Apple TV. If these are both your own personal devices set up in your own home, this is almost certainly already the case. If you’re at a friend’s house, be sure to get their Wi-Fi password before you angrily fumble around the Remote app and curse Tim Cook.

Control Apple TV from iPhone

If you’ve set up an Apple TV before, you should automatically have a Remote icon added to your iPhone’s Control Center.

On a newer iPhone (iPhone X, XS, XR, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) you can pull down from the top right to open Control Center and tap the Remote icon. If you don’t see it, tap and hold on the screen, tap Add a Control at the bottom, then add Remote to Control Center.

How does the remote work?

On the iPhone’s virtual remote, you will see all the same controls as on the Siri Remote.

• You can swipe on the upper half to move around. Tapping anywhere will select.
• The Play/Pause button will start or stop whatever show, movie or music is playing.
• The giant back button goes back a screen or closes whatever menu you have open. If you tap it enough times, it’ll close the app, go back to the Home Screen, and play the screensaver.
• The TV button will open the Apple TV app by default, but you can change that to go to the Home Screen instead. (On your Apple TV, open Settings > Remotes and Devices > TV Button > Home Screen.)
• What about Siri? When the Remote app is open, your iPhone’s side button will activate Siri on the Apple TV instead of your phone.
• If you have AirPlay-compatible speakers connected, like a stereo pair of HomePods, then your iPhone’s volume buttons will control your Apple TV audio, too.
• If you have several Apple TVs in your household, you can switch which one you’re controlling by selecting the menu at the top.
• The channel button in the bottom right and the menu button on top might control your TV if you have it set up correctly.

Use your iPhone instead of the Siri Remote for text input

Trying to type in anything using the Apple TV’s Siri Remote is just plain painful. While I find that holding down the Siri button to use dictation on the physical remote is extremely fast and reliable (why can’t Siri be so accurate everywhere?), you might not want to shout your password out loud in a room of guests.

Anywhere you need to enter text on the Apple TV, open the remote on your phone and use the keyboard instead. If it doesn’t pop up, you can tap the keyboard button in the bottom left — it replaces the play/pause button.

Using the iPhone to input text on Apple TV proves especially handy if you need to type in a long, complex password for a streaming service or to verify your Apple ID.

Even better, rather than typing out a ridiculous (but secure!) string of random numbers and symbols, you can utilize the iPhone’s copy-paste functionality. Simply copy your password from your password manager, then paste it into the Remote app. Problem solved!

Control Apple TV from Apple Watch

Leave your phone sitting on the coffee table? Well, you can use your Apple Watch as an Apple TV remote, too. To do so, just click the Digital Crown once to bring up the app list and tap Remote. You don’t have all the same controls here — but you can still swipe around to move the cursor, tap in the middle to play/pause, or tap the buttons to go back or go home.

Add an Apple TV remote shortcut to your iPhone Home Screen

If you like this feature, or frequently lose your Apple TV remote, you might want faster access to the Remote app on your iPhone. But unfortunately, you can’t add it to your Home Screen directly. There’s a workaround, though: You can put a Shortcut on your Home Screen that opens the Remote.

Click this link right here and tap Get Shortcut to download it. Tap Add Shortcut when it opens the Shortcuts app. Next, tap on the ⋯ next to Remote to edit the shortcut.

Tap Apple TV, then tap the name of the Apple TV you want this shortcut to open. If you have several Apple TVs in your life, you can pick Ask Each Time.

Next, tap the Share button and tap Add to Home Screen. Now, you can open the Remote directly without bringing up Control Center first.

We originally published this article on how to use an iPhone as an Apple TV remote on February 22, 2023. We updated it with new information.

How do you set up a new Apple Watch? Whether you got the Series 10 with its thin design and advanced sensors or leapt for the rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2, you might be wondering how to get started. After all, the Watch is unlike any other Apple device, both in its dependence on an iPhone and in the way it works.

The good thing is, Apple has made it really, really easy to get things up and running. Let’s take a look.

Set up Apple Watch

This guide will help you set up a new Apple Watch. Things are easy if you’re moving from an Apple Watch. Apple makes it easy to copy over all your settings and apps. But it’s also pretty straightforward to start from scratch — you’ll just have to go through a few extra steps. 

The first step is to put on your new Apple Watch and turn it on by pressing and holding the side button.

Just like setting up a new Apple Pencil or a pair of AirPods, the iPhone will detect your new Watch, and present a pop-up on the screen automatically. If you have any problems, make sure that Bluetooth is turned on and you are connected to Wi-Fi. Tap Continue.

You’ll see a cloud of static on your Watch. Hold your Watch behind your iPhone as if you’re taking a picture of it. Tap Set Up Apple Watch to continue.

Set up Apple Watch without iPhone

Unfortunately, you can’t set up an Apple Watch without an iPhone. However, you can set up an Apple Watch for someone who doesn’t have an iPhone — and it can be that person’s one and only device. If your kid is too young for a phone, you can give them an Apple Watch to call them, text them and track where they are. Do you have an elderly family member who can’t figure out a smartphone on their own? You can give them an Apple Watch to keep tabs on them.

If this is the route you’re going, select Set Up for a Family Member. Otherwise, tap Set Up for Myself. (If you’re gifting this Watch to someone, make sure you’re doing this part with their iPhone.)

You can’t set up Apple Watch without an iPhone, but you can set up Apple Watch for someone who doesn’t have an iPhone.

 

Set up or Restore Apple Watch

The next step depends on whether or not this is your first Apple Watch. If so, then you will Set Up as New Apple Watch.

Otherwise, you can choose Make This Your New Apple Watch. You can check how you had your old Watch set up by tapping Apps & Data and Settings.

If your phone isn’t running iOS 17, you may be asked to update before you continue. You can check what version of iOS you’re running by tapping Settings > General > Software Update.

This is also the part where you sign into iCloud using your Apple ID.

Add a passcode

A passcode keeps your Apple Watch safe. You don’t have to have one, but if you want to use your Apple Watch for Apple Pay or use your Watch to unlock your Mac (which I highly recommend), then you do. It’s good practice considering how much of your health data your Watch will hold.

You don’t have to type it in all the time; you can enable a setting to have your iPhone unlock your Watch after you put it on. I’ll show you how to do that after you get it set up.

Settings on your Apple Watch

Now, you can configure your settings. Some settings are shared with your iPhone. “If you turned on Find my iPhone, Location Services, Wi-Fi Calling, and Diagnostics for your iPhone,” says Apple, “these settings automatically turn on for your Apple Watch.”

And if you use Siri, you’ll have to have it enabled on your iPhone, too.

Set up Apple Watch apps and sync

We’re almost there. The final part is to choose which apps you want to install on your Apple Watch. This is taken care of, like most Apple Watch setup, from the comfort of the Watch app on the iPhone. You can choose to send all apps, or just pick the ones you want to install.

Carefully choose what apps to install on your Apple Watch: Fewer apps make the Home Screen more manageable.

Either way, those apps will be sent to the Watch, and then the iPhone and the Watch will sync, making sure that the Watch has all the latest data.

How Apple Watch controls work

What do the buttons on the side do? Because of its small screen, the buttons control a lot of features on the Apple Watch. Click this article for more detailed information on what the Apple Watch buttons do, or save the photo below:

Apple Watch settings to change immediately

I always tell people to change these things when they first set up their Apple Watch.

Make it easy to find apps

At first glance, the honeycomb app grid looks great, but finding the specific app you’re looking for is nigh impossible, especially if you have a bunch of apps installed. Rather than organizing them in a grid, your Apple Watch can instead list all your apps in alphabetical order. You can switch the view on iPhone or Apple Watch.

Use List View for viewing apps: It doesn’t look as cool, but it’s a lot easier to use.

Tap the Digital Crown and go to the Apple Watch’s Settings app. Tap App View > List View. Now, when you hit the Digital Crown, you’ll get an alphabetical list of apps. This is much easier to navigate than the complicated honeycomb of tiny icons.

To change to List View on your iPhone, open the Watch app, go to App View and switch to List View.

Change your exercise goals and close your rings

Your Apple Watch is great for tracking your daily activity: how much you Move, how often you Stand, and how many minutes of Exercise you get. These three metrics are commonly known as the Apple Watch “rings.” The red outer ring is for Move; the inner green ring is for Exercise and the blue ring is for Stand.

The goal is to close your rings every day, but the defaults (30 minutes of exercise a day, standing every hour for 12 cumulative hours) may not fit your daily routine. Maybe you want to exercise more than 30 minutes a day, or burn more calories.

To adjust the defaults, open the Activity app on your Apple Watch, scroll to the metric you want to change and tap the little −+ icon in the bottom right corner. Keep scrolling to adjust Calories to burn, Minutes to exercise, and Hours spent standing.

Keep a close eye on your rings. If you find it easy to close your rings every day — or not — go back to the Activity app and adjust them again.

Customize Apple Watch widgets

New in WatchOS 10 are widgets: little modules of information that show things like the weather or the amount of time left on a timer.

Widgets make it super easy to see stuff at a glance — just swipe up from the bottom of your watch face. Your widgets are presented in a scrollable stack.

To customize your widgets, swipe up from your clock face to bring up the stack, then press and hold.

This will enter edit mode. At the top you’ll see an empty widget with a plus sign. Tap on it to get a selection of widgets to choose from. First are Featured widgets, then a list of all the apps on your Apple Watch that offer widgets. Almost all of Apple’s apps do. Any widget you add will be added to your stack.

Edit your widget stack to keep it manageable. We recommend Weather, Calendar, Now Playing, Noise and Training Today (a third-party app).

To adjust the order,  grab a widget by the little pin icon at top right and drag it where you want it to go. It’s a bit fiddly.

You can also delete widgets you don’t want: tap the red minus sign next to an existing widget and it’ll be removed.

Personally, in my widget stack I have the Weather, Calendar, Now Playing, Noise and Training Today (a third-party app).

Adjust Wake Duration for Apple Watch’s screen

By default, your Apple Watch’s screen will stay awake for 15 seconds. But I prefer the screen to keep bright for longer; it can be extended to 70 seconds. On your watch, open Settings, scroll to Display & Brightness at the bottom, and tap Wake Duration. You can select Wake for 15 Seconds or Wake for 70 Seconds.

Increase Apple Watch font size

If you’re already squinting at text or numbers on your Apple Watch, you can easily increase the font size to make it easier to read.

On your watch, open Settings, scroll to Display & Brightness and then scroll to Text Size. You can either tap the Aᴀ letters on either side of the adjustment meter, or rotate the Digital Crown on your watch. Apple Watches with bigger displays — Series 7, 8, 9, Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2, have more size options thanks to their bigger displays.

Unlock your Apple Watch with your iPhone

Instead of tapping out your Apple Watch passcode, you can have your iPhone unlock your Apple Watch after you put it on. Your iPhone will automatically unlock the Apple Watch when your iPhone is unlocked.

We highly recommend using Unlock with iPhone. Head over to Settings > Passcode to turn it on.

Again, tap the Digital Crown and go to Apple Watch’s Settings. Scroll down to Passcode, and enable Unlock with iPhone. Now whenever you unlock your Apple watch with your iPhone, you’ll see a popup warning.

Unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch

You can also do the opposite — set up your Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone. This feature uses the secure connection between the devices to unlock your iPhone when an obstruction prevents Face ID from recognizing you. For it to work, your Apple watch must be protected by a password, be unlocked and strapped to your wrist.

To enable it, go to Settings on your iPhone, scroll down to Face ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, and enable Unlock With Apple Watch by selecting your device.

Stop irritating reminders to breathe

By default, the Apple Watch will bug you every hour to stand up, yell at you if you don’t meet your activity goals, and occasionally remind you to breathe. Lots of people buy an Apple Watch to stay active. I find it irritating.

On your iPhone, go to Watch > Activity and turn off the notifications you don’t want. Turn off Breathe notifications by going back to Watch > Mindfulness and tap Notifications Off. (Note, on watchOS 8 and earlier, Mindfulness appears as Breathe.)

Enable Walkie-Talkie

Does everyone in your house have an Apple Watch? You don’t have to shout to get someone’s attention. Press the Side Button to bring up the Control Center and turn on the yellow Walkie-Talkie button.

Now add Walkie-Talkie to your Apple Watch face as a Complication, or open the Walkie-Talkie app to quickly get the attention of your partner or children.

Set up sleep stage tracking

One more tip: set up Apple Watch sleep stage tracking. If you wear your Watch overnight and charge it in the morning, you can get great details into how you’re sleeping overnight. On top of that, your Watch will wake you up, silently vibrating on your wrist — useful if you and your partner wake up at different times.

Get out and use it!

What are you waiting for? The whole point of the Apple Watch is that it’s with you, all the time. Go for a walk and make a start on closing those rings. Or go swimming. Or, if you don’t dig on that whole exercise thing, you can read our guide to customizing your Apple Watch, from the comfort of your favorite armchair.

Note: D. Griffin Jones and Leander Kahney contributed to this article. We originally published this article on how to set up an Apple Watch September 18, 2019. This post was updated on December 24, 2023. 

If your Apple Watch feels like it’s not responding to your taps, it could be in Water Lock mode. It’s easy to forget to turn off Water Lock Mode after you go for a swim or a shower.

There’s also a bit of confusion about how Apple Watch’s Water Lock feature works. Read on to see how to (and how not to) use it.

Lock your Apple Watch when it’s in the water

Every Apple Watch since Series 2 is water resistant. They are highly resilient to being submerged in water, even with Water Lock off. You don’t need to worry much about ruining the electronics inside.

Still, there’s a good reason to turn on Water Lock. It disables the Apple Watch’s touchscreen so the device doesn’t glitch out when you’re in the shower, having a bath or going for a swim.

“When Water Lock is on, your Apple Watch doesn’t respond to touch on its display. This prevents accidental input while you’re in water,” Apple Support says.

To turn on Water Lock, just click the side button on your Apple Watch to bring up Control Center. Then scroll down and tap the water drop icon.

With Water Lock on, you can still see your Apple Watch notifications as they come in and scroll with the Digital Crown. However, you can’t type out a response. You’ll need to use Siri if you want to send a text or give someone a call with Water Lock on.

What to do if your Apple Watch is unresponsive

If your Apple Watch won’t respond to your touch, you probably left Water Lock on. It’s easy to forget. To check, look at the top of your Apple Watch screen. If you see a tiny blue water-drop icon, Water Lock is activated.

To unlock the screen, press and hold the Digital Crown for a few seconds. You’ll hear a little bloop bloop noise — your Apple Watch is playing a special frequency that ejects water out of its speakers.

If I’ve been in the pool a while, I usually find a few small droplets spew out the side. Don’t worry. It’s designed to work that way. That’s why the feature’s there!

What you can and can’t do with your Apple Watch in water: No saunas!

Apple designed its smartwatch to remain resilient in all kinds of situations. However, all electronics have their limits. Apple published a list of situations you shouldn’t subject your Apple Watch to:

• Soapy water
• Perfume, detergent, acidic food, bug spray, lotions, sunscreen, hair dye
• High-velocity water (waterskiing, high diving)
• Steam rooms and saunas

The extra-rugged Apple Watch Ultra will fare better in these situations. On the other hand, older models like Apple Watch Series 1 shouldn’t be fully submerged underwater at all.

“If your Apple Watch comes in contact accidentally with soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, perfumes, solvents, detergent, acids or acidic foods, insect repellent, sunscreen, oil, hair dye, or any substance other than water, it should be cleaned with fresh warm water and dried with a lint-free cloth,” according to Apple Support. “Chemicals found in these items could negatively affect water seals and acoustic membranes.”

I should note that I’ve had an Apple Watch since the Series 3 model from 2017 and had no problems with getting it a little soapy or hitting it with aerosol sunscreen. But I can’t say I’m a regular cliff diver, so I can’t be the judge of that.

Water Lock with Apple Watch workouts

Apple Watch is great for tracking your swimming. (Read Cult of Mac’s guides: How to start swimming with Apple Watch and How to optimize your swimming stroke with Apple Watch.)

If you’re at a pool to do some laps, open the Workout app and scroll down to start a Pool Swim activity. Water Lock will automatically enable when you start the workout.

On that note, Apple Watch Ultra can take things a step further. It works as a replacement dive computer when you go on scuba diving outings. The Ultra’s oversize Ocean Band fits over a wetsuit, and the device is water resistant up to (or, more accurately, down to) 130 feet.

Apple Watch Series 10 also offers improved water resistance, though not as good as the Ultra. Apple says it’s good for snorkeling, and the depth gauge can measure down to 6 meters (nearly 20 feet).

We originally published this article on Apple Watch Water Lock mode on January 6, 2023. We updated the information.

Everyone misplaces their iPhone.* You’re walking around, you set down your iPhone, you do some chores, you get ready to go. Where is it? If you own an Apple Watch, it really is the fastest way to find your lost iPhone.

It’s totally easy to ping your iPhone from your Apple Watch. At the push of a button, you can make your iPhone ring, even if it’s on silent. And, while you might know about the basic feature that lets you ping your iPhone, the Apple Watch also offers advanced options for tracking down your missing device.

Bonus: Even if you don’t own an Apple Watch, anyone in your Family Sharing group can ring your iPhone even louder with the Find My app. And if you don’t have a family, you can use any other device signed into your Apple account.

Find your iPhone with Apple Watch

If your Apple Watch is on your wrist, it’s always the easiest way to find your iPhone. It’s even faster and more reliable than asking Siri on a HomePod to do the job. It can even make your iPhone light up so it’s easier to locate.

Use Apple Watch Control Center to find iPhone

To quickly and easily find your iPhone with your Apple Watch, click the watch’s side button to bring up Control Center. Tap the icon of an iPhone with sound waves coming out of it to ping your iPhone. Your phone will make a pinging noise for about 10 seconds.

Make your lost iPhone flash a light

If you want some visual help locating your list iPhone, tap and hold that same icon in the Apple Watch’s Control Center. Then, in addition to making the pinging sound, your iPhone camera’s flash will blink on and off. This can make it easier to find your lost iPhone, especially in the dark.

Find your iPhone location on a map with Apple Watch

What do you do if you don’t hear a noise or see a light? Maybe you left your phone in the car, at work or at a friend’s house. In that case, open the Find Devices app on your Apple Watch to see all your devices listed. Scroll until you spot your iPhone on the list to see its location on the map. Tap Play Sound to ping it again or tap Directions to make a route in Apple Maps**.

If your phone can’t be found, tap Notify When Found to receive a notification when it’s back online with a location. You can also tap Notify When Left Behind to get a reminder the next time your watch and phone are separated — like when you leave the house without your phone.

Use Find My from another device to find iPhone and more

If you don’t own an Apple Watch, don’t worry. There are other ways to find your lost iPhone. You can ping your iPhone from other devices using Apple’s Find My app. You can use any device you own (Apple Watch, iPad, Mac or a PC signed into icloud.com). If you have Family Sharing set up, anyone in your family can do this for you, too.

To find your iPhone (or other Apple device), open the Find My app on iPad, Mac or iPhone. Or use iCloud Find My iPhone on the web. (You will need to enter your Apple Account information.)

You can even use a friend’s device to find your lost iPhone

If you’re borrowing a friend’s iPhone to find your lost device, tap Me > Help a Friend to sign into your own account.

Then, select your iPhone from the list. Tap Play Sound to ring the phone. This will play a loud ringing noise if the phone still has power. If you’re locating an iPhone 11 or newer, you will be able to track its location even if the device is turned off and after it runs out of power (for a little while).

As you can see, you have the same controls here. You can mark a device as lost, get notified when you leave the house without it, and get directions to it.**

* Note 1: When I say “everyone,” I don’t include myself. I always keep it in my front left pocket, my left hand or on my desk. I mostly mean my wife. She loses her iPhone several times a day.

**Note 2: If you suspect your phone or any of your devices have been stolen, please contact the police. Neither Cult of Mac nor Apple endorse using the Find My feature to carry out your own detective work.

We originally published this article on how to find your iPhone with Apple Watch on June 20, 2022. We updated the information.

In a world of look-alike 3-in-1 chargers for iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, the new Journey Nova 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station stands out. Like its distinctive looks or not, seeing it without any devices charging might make you wonder what the hell it is — an abstract sculpture, or maybe a prop from the original Star Trek? But for many it could be the sleek charger that subtly fits in with modern decor — if they’re willing to pay the hefty asking price ($139.99).

Journey Nova 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station review

Journey Nova’s distinctive design

Journey sent me the Wood Grain version of the charger, released in October. Its two-tone design with white plastic and “wood grain” — like how laminate flooring is wood-like but clearly not like actual wood — looks pretty good, likely to fit in among white and natural wood decor. The other style replaces the wood look with “Sparkly Gray” plastic. The charger stands a bit tall and intentionally takes up less of a footprint than many multi-device chargers to fit in more spots in a home or office.

The faux wood grain finish adds a touch of warmth to what could have been a cold, tech-heavy accessory. I have a lot of natural wood tones in my furniture, so I figured Nova might look good. But looking closely at and handling Nova made me notice the wood grain is obviously artificial. That might be a small disappointment for those seeking authenticity.

Even though the “wood” turned out a little more faux that I expected, the charger’s unusual and attractive design struck me as sleek. It’s not just another bland charging pad. It’s main charging area for iPhone doesn’t even have a target marking that says “this is a charger.” You just find the magnetic spot your handset sticks to (and note the handset sticks up a bit, so you need a bit of headroom where you place the charger).

Nova aspires to be a statement piece that demands at least a bit of attention, even if it’s just your friend saying, “Oh, it’s a charger? Huh. That’s kind of weird. I thought it was an ID verification device from the original Star Trek.”

Powering up: Charging capabilities

I like an unusual gadget as much as the next person, so I was happy to put the Journey Nova through its paces. And true to its 3-in-1 moniker, Nova can simultaneously charge a smartphone, wireless earbuds charging case and a smartwatch. No more juggling cables or playing musical chairs with your devices.

The charging pad for iPhone is the slanted magnetic surface on top of Nova packing 15 watts of MagSafe level charging. A 5W pad in the enclosure below, which includes a night light, juices up an AirPods wireless charging case. And a 5W Apple Watch charging puck folds up from the back. What’s missing is a USB-C port somewhere in the base for a fourth device to charge via cable. Plenty of multi-device chargers have one.

• With Nova charging three devices, my iPhone 16 Pro went from 29% to 44% capacity in 22 minutes. After another 30 minutes, it reached 66%, then hit 86% another 39 minutes later. So that’s from 29% to 86% in one hour and 31 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in the same hour and a half, my Apple Watch 10 went from 10% to 100%. In the first 22 minutes, it bumped up to 49%, then to 74% after another half hour. My AirPods Pro 2 charging case went from 70% to 86% in 30 minutes and then another 10% in 39 additional minutes.

Though I used it to charge Apple gear, Nova’s compatible with Android products, too.

Easy setup and use

Nova’s charging speed seems decent for this style of charger (though not what you’d get from a high-wattage multiport adapter):

Setting up the Journey Nova was a breeze, as it is with many multi-device chargers — truly a plug-and-play affair. Just unbox and place the station on your desk or table. Connect the power adapter. Position your devices on their respective charging spots. And voilà! You’re up and running faster than you can say “low battery anxiety.”

Journey Nova: Weighing pros and cons

Pros:

• Sleek, eye-catching design
• Fast charging for multiple devices
• Easy setup and use
• Works with Apple and Android devices.

Cons:

• Overall design and faux wood finish may not appeal to all.
• Premium price point
• Limited color options

Journey Nova features at a glance

• Fast charges phone, earbuds and watch simultaneously.
• Delivers up to 15W fast wireless charging for iPhones (12 and onwards), 5W fast charging for Apple Watches, and AirPods.
• Distinct hollow form and split-material characteristics for a striking décor statement.
• Vertical build (minimizes desk footprint): 6 inches (15cm) tall with weight of 8.8 ounces (250 grams).
• Weighted base for maximum stability.
• Flip-open Apple Watch charger module tucks in at the rear of the charger.
• LED charging status indicator light automatically turns off after 12 seconds.

Verdict: A Journey worth taking?

After spending a week or so with Journey Nova 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station, I appreciate its blend of functionality and looks. I’m not sure I’m used to the way it looks yet, though. Kind of odd. But it goes with the white monitor riser on my wooden desk, so it could replace my older 3-in-1 charger there.

Is it perfect? Not quite. The unusual design and the faux wood finish might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and the price point — $139.99 unless you find it on sale — could be a barrier. However, for those who value a clutter-free, efficient charging solution that doesn’t sacrifice style, the Journey Nova might be a compelling choice.

Buy from: Journey

Journey provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.

★★★★☆

Apple Watch sleep stage tracking might help you get to the bottom of what’s going on with your sleep. Ever since watchOS 9, it can track what sleep stage you’re in. That means you can see if you’re not getting enough deep sleep or REM sleep, or if you’re waking up too often in the middle of the night. If you have insomnia or sleep apnea, this information could be very useful.

Read on to see how to use the advanced sleep stage tracking on Apple Watch.

How to track sleep stages with Apple Watch

Table of Contents:

1. Enable Sleep Tracking
2. Go to sleep
3. Find your sleep tracking data

How to enable Sleep Tracking

To enable sleep tracking, you first need to set up a sleep schedule.

On your iPhone, open Clock and tap Change to make sure your sleep schedule is set correctly. If you haven’t set this up before, tap Turn On. Tap Edit Sleep Schedule in Health to go to the next step.

From here, you can turn on Use Schedule for Sleep Focus. This will automatically silence incoming phone calls and messages while you should be sleeping.

Turn on Track Time in Bed with iPhone so that it can track if you’re asleep or awake in the middle of the night if you’re using your phone. If you go a night without wearing your watch, it’s good to have this enabled as a backup.

Sleep Reminders will alert you if it’s getting late and you aren’t asleep yet. I turned this feature off after a while because I have a pretty consistent schedule. If you’re a student and/or you often lose track of time late at night, you might find it helpful.

Sleep Results will send you a notification in the morning letting you know if you’re meeting or missing your goal.

Tap Manage Sleep in the Apple Watch App or open the Watch app and tap Sleep.

Tap Use this Watch for Sleep to enable it. Make sure Track Sleep with Apple Watch is enabled.

Enable Charging Reminders to get an alert if your bedtime is approaching and your Apple Watch is low on charge. I’ve found that a night of sleep tracking takes about 20% of my watch’s battery.

Sleep

The most important step in Apple Watch sleep tracking: Get a good night of sleep.

Make sure you’re wearing a comfortable band overnight. My wife has prohibited my beloved Speidel Twist-O-Flex band because it’s pinchy. A Sport band (or one of the Nyloon bands in the Cult of Mac Store) would do just great. I haven’t worn the Milanese Loop overnight and I don’t intend to.

Where to find your Apple Watch sleep stage tracking data

At the crack of dawn (or, according to my screenshots, the crack of early afternoon), you can feast upon your sleep data.

Open the Health app and tap Sleep > Show More Sleep Data to see your full sleep stage breakdown.

Tap D, W, M, 6M to see how your sleep changes over time. Then, explore the tabs for more info:

• The Stages tab shows how much time you spend in each stage, in minutes or percentages (if you scroll down).
• The Amounts tab compares how much time you spend in bed and how much time you spend asleep.
• The Comparisons tab compares your sleep time to your respiratory rate — important information if you experience sleep apnea.

Tap Done to go back to Sleep — the Sleep section of the Health app, not the state of consciousness.

Scroll down to see your highlights and trends; tap Show All to see more. The Health app will give you a summary of how long you slept last night, your heart rate, your respiratory rate and your time spent asleep over the last week.

If you scroll down even further, you’ll find articles written by Apple’s Health team to learn more:

“Understanding Sleep Stages” outlines the four sleep stages. You may be surprised to find out how often you wake up during the night, even if you aren’t aware of it. Apple says “it’s normal for people to wake up on occasion,” and that it’s possible you forget waking up at all.

“Why Sleep Is So Important” explains the many health benefits to getting your full night of sleep. How do you know if you’re getting enough? If you wake up groggy and tired, you need more. It’s that simple.

“Getting a Good Night’s Sleep” serves up some tips that will help you get better sleep:

• Get outside and get some sun.
• Avoid napping within six hours of sleeping.
• Dim the lights as you approach your bedtime.
• Most importantly, stick to a consistent schedule.

If you’re looking for further reading, check out this Washington Post article that explains which metrics you should focus on. Take its hardware recommendations with a grain of salt, as the piece was written before the new Apple Watch sleep stage tracking feature was unveiled.

The Apple Watch doesn’t just take your step count — it has three activity rings that track different levels of energy you burn throughout the day.

New to watchOS 11, you have additional options for customization and for taking a break when you need it. You can have different goals for each ring for different days of the week, so it can fit your workout schedule. When you want a rest day or if you fall ill, you can take up to a month-long break without losing your streak.

If you’re all-in on the fitness tracking, you can add widgets that show your rings on your Apple Watch face and widgets on your iPhone. Or, on the other hand, if you find it a bit annoying, you can turn off all the notifications so they won’t bother you anymore.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Apple Watch activity rings.

Apple Watch rings

Table of Contents:

1. Meaning of the Apple Watch rings
2. Adjust your ring goals
3. Pause your rings and streak
4. Add a widget or complication
5. Turn off or change notifications

Meaning of the Apple Watch rings

There are three Apple Watch rings that represent different tiers of activity:

• Stand measures how many hours of the day you stand up for at least a minute.
• Move measures your active calories burned in the day.
• Exercise measures the number of minutes you spend being active.

You don’t have to work out every day; anything can contribute to your daily activity from jogging up a flight of stairs to running around with a dog outside. Apple defines your activity as anything “at or above a brisk walk.”

As you work towards your daily goal, the rings will complete a full circle. If you complete all three, you’ll get a special congratulations.

Adjust your activity ring goals

You can adjust the activity ring goals to match your activity level, whether you want something you can easily and realistically achieve in a day or a tough goal you’ll have to work hard to finish.

From your Apple Watch, click the Digital Crown and open the Activity app. Tap your rings and tap Change Goals. You can tap + or − to adjust the level, or spin the Digital Crown. It’ll let you adjust each goal separately.

If you want to have different goals for different days of the week, tap the Goal Type button in the upper right and tap Schedule. Each ring can have a different goal for each day of the week. This is handy if you work out on specific days of the week, or if want to push yourself to stand more on weekdays at the office. If you don’t see this option, make sure you’ve updated your Apple Watch to watchOS 11.

Pause your activity rings and streak

You can take a break from exercising if you fall ill, suffer an accident or simply want to take it easy for a spell. To pause your streak, just go to the Activity app on your Watch, tap on your rings and tap Pause Rings.

Scroll down and select how long of a break you want to take — today, a week, a whole month or a custom number of days up to a month. You won’t lose your streak, but the numbers won’t increase while it’s paused. Your streak will continue to increment where it left off when the break is over.

This feature also requires watchOS 11.

Add a widget or complication

There are a bunch of ways you can keep an eye on your rings throughout the day. Adding a widget on your iPhone or a complication on your Apple Watch face will put it front and center.

• To add an Activity complication on your Apple Watch, tap and hold on your watch face and tap Edit. Swipe left, over to the Complications tab, and tap on one you’d like to replace. Scroll up to Activity and select Rings.
• Add a widget on your iPhone Lock Screen. Tap and hold on the Lock Screen, tap Customize then tap Lock Screen. Tap the area underneath the clock, then tap Fitness to add your rings. You have the choice of a small widget with the rings icon or a detailed widget that shows all three numbers.
• You can add an even bigger and more obvious widget to your Home Screen. Tap and hold on the Home Screen, then tap Edit > Add Widget. Scroll down to Fitness then add a widget in the size you want.

Turn off or change notifications

Personally, I find the stand notifications and activity reminders more irritating than helpful. You can customize these to suit what works for you best. You can find this on your Apple Watch in Settings > Activity, or in the Watch app on your iPhone.

• Stand Reminders: Receive a reminder to stand if you’ve been sitting for the first 50 minutes of an hour.
• Daily Coaching: Get notifications that help you complete your Activity goals and Monthly Challenges.
• Goal Completions: Receive a notification when you close your Move, Exercise and Stand rings or earn an award.
• Special Challenges: Get notifications about limited edition awards you can earn by completing a challenge.
• Activity Sharing Notifications: Receive a notification when someone who shares Activity with you closes all three rings, finishes a workout or earns an award.

More Apple Watch how-tos

Learn more about your Apple Watch:

• What do Apple Watch buttons do?
• How to silence your Apple Watch, use Do Not Disturb and theater mode
• How to stop Siri from randomly activating all the damn time
• How to use Apple Watch nightstand mode
• More new features in watchOS 11

You can read the time without even looking at your Apple Watch using a little-known feature called Taptic Time. Hold two fingers on the screen and you’ll feel it tap the time out on your wrist.

This is handy if you’re in a meeting and you need to know the time, but you don’t want to look rude checking your watch. Or maybe you’re in the middle of a presidential debate.

Whatever the situation may be, turning this feature on and familiarizing yourself with it may come in handy.

How to use the haptic watch feature

On your Apple Watch, go to Settings and scroll down to Clock. Scroll down past Chimes and Speak Time, and you’ll see another option for Taptic Time. Tap that and turn it on.

You can choose one of three haptic patterns:

• Digits will read out the precise hours and minutes in long and short buzzes. Tens are represented by long buzzes, and ones by short taps. If it’s 12:35, for example, it will be — · · — — — · · · · ·.
• Terse will give a long buzz for every five hours, short buzz for every single hour, and a long buzz for the nearest fifteen minutes. If it’s 6:47, for example, it will be — · — — —.
• Morse code will read out every number in the time using morse code.

Digits is the most intuitive to me, so I stick with that.

Click the Digital Crown (the dial) to go back to your watch face. You can activate it by holding two fingers on your watch while it’s on.

I wish this feature worked while the watch face was off, too. It would be even more discreet. That would enable it for a bunch of other useful situations: watching a movie in a theater or riding an airplane on an overnight flight, where the bright screen might bother people next to me.

I don’t think it would take any extra battery life to enable it. And I can’t imagine there would be many false positives for such a weird gesture that requires you to hold your fingers on the screen.

Summary: How to read the time without looking at your Apple Watch

1. On your Apple Watch, open Settings > Clock > Taptic Time
2. Turn it on
3. Set it to Digits, Terse or Morse code
4. Hold two fingers on your watch face to feel it tapped on your wrist

What do the buttons on the Apple Watch do? The Apple Watch borrows a lot from the iPhone, but the biggest difference between the two devices comes down to the way their buttons work. They do different things whether you click, double-click or hold them down.

In watchOS 10, Apple changed a lot of these features. The software update added a new Widgets view, assigned Control Center to the side button, and changed what double-clicking the Digital Crown does. (For older devices, consult our article about what Apple Watch buttons do in watchOS 9.)

Here’s a guide to the buttons on the Apple Watch.

What do the Apple Watch buttons do?

Last year’s big changes in watchOS 10 marked the first major overhaul of the Apple Watch user interface since the very first model arrived in 2015. If you’re a longtime Apple Watch user, the new actions for the buttons might trip up your muscle memory. Add the Apple Watch Ultra‘s Action button and the Shortcuts app into the mix, and you’ve got more options than ever for getting things done with your smartwatch.

Use the infographics below as a quick guide to what all the Apple Watch buttons do.

For the ‘regular’ models:

Digital Crown, side button and watch face:

Here’s what the buttons on the Apple Watch do.

1. The Digital Crown (the dial on the side):
   • Spin the Digital Crown to scroll up and down.
   • Click the Digital Crown to see the list of apps on your Apple Watch. Clicking it again will take you back to the watch face.
   • Double-click the Digital Crown to see your recently used, open apps.
   • Hold it down to turn on Siri. If you find yourself activating it accidentally with your wrist, you can turn that off from your iPhone in the Watch app > Siri > Press Digital Crown.
2. The side button:
   • Click the side button to bring up Control Center.
   • Double-click the side button to activate Apple Pay.
   • Hold the side button to turn off the watch, show your Medical ID, track your location on a hike or call emergency services.
3. From the watch face:
   • Swipe up to see your widgets. Here you’ll see running timers, Maps directions and music/podcasts you’re playing. You can customize the widgets below so that you can quickly access weather, messages, etc.
   • Swipe down to see notifications.

What do Apple Watch Ultra buttons do?

Digital Crown, side button, Action button and watch face:

Here’s what the buttons on the Apple Watch Ultra do.

1. The Action button:
   • Click the Action button to do one of several things you can set. Turn on the flashlight, start a workout, set a hiking waypoint, start a stopwatch, run a Shortcut and more. Set it from Settings (on your Apple Watch) > Action button > Action.
   • Hold the Action button to play a loud siren noise. If you get lost or injured and you’re too exhausted to yell out for help, this may alert people around you where you are. If you don’t want to set it off accidentally, go to Settings (on your Apple Watch) > Action button > Siren to turn it off.
2. The Digital Crown (the dial on the side):
   • Spin the Digital Crown to scroll up and down.
   • Click the Digital Crown to see the list of apps on your Apple Watch. Clicking it again will take you back to the watch face.
   • Double-click the Digital Crown to see your recently used, open apps.
   • Hold it down to turn on Siri. If you find yourself activating it accidentally with your wrist, you can turn that off from your iPhone in the Watch app > Siri > Press Digital Crown.
3. The side button:
   • Click the side button to bring up Control Center.
   • Double-click the side button to activate Apple Pay.
   • Hold the side button to turn off the watch, show your Medical ID, track your location on a hike or call emergency services.
4. From the watch face:
   • Swipe up to see your widgets. Here you’ll see running timers, Maps directions and music/podcasts you’re playing. You can customize the widgets below so that you can quickly access weather, messages, etc.
   • Swipe down to see notifications.

Silence!

Now that you know what the buttons on your Apple Watch or Apple Watch Ultra do, why not take a moment to figure out how to keep that thing quiet!

How to silence your Apple Watch, use Do Not Disturb and theater mode

We originally published this post explaining what the Apple Watch buttons do on September 18, 2023. We updated the info.

Rather than Apple Watch Ultra 3, we got the Ultra 2 in a “satin black” titanium finish. This might be more disappointing if early reviewers weren’t raving about the new color.

“It looks sick as hell,” said The Verge reviewer.

Apple Watch Ultra 2: Back in black

The “It’s Glowtime” event on September 9 brought Apple Watch Series 10, but no Ultra 3. Instead, the top-of-the-line wearable got the new satin black finish, which joins the existing natural titanium finish.

The new color option seems to have done something profound to The Verge reviewer:

“This is the Apple Watch Batman would buy. Never mind that it’s a mini brick on my wrists. Sliding it on for a photoshoot, I feel something wash over me. No longer am I a sleep-deprived tech reviewer hunched over an overpriced coffee. I’m a leather-clad vampire assassin calmly sipping espresso on a cobblestone street. With the new Reflections watchface in black, I immediately level up 1,000 mystery points.”

While not everyone goes as over the top, reviewer comments on Apple Watch Ultra 2 in satin black are generally quite positive.

“This finish of the watch is better suited for dressing up, especially when paired with the new Titanium Milanese Loop,” said Tom’s Guide.

But there’s also a warning that the device is not black as hell.

“The black titanium Ultra 2 has a matte finish like the natural model, but the darker color gives it a sleeker look. I wouldn’t call this a true black — in the light it’s more of a very dark gray,” noted PC Mag.

On his DesFit YouTube channel, Des Yap described the black titanium Apple Watch Ultra 2’s color as a subtle gunmetal and talked about the physical vapor deposition process used to create the matte finish. He also showed how the new watch looks with various bands (see the full video below).

“This is the color I always wanted the Ultra to be … and we finally now have it,” he said. “And quite frankly, I think it’s pretty stunning.”

Everything else

Occasionally, Apple upgrades its products on the down low, quietly improving a device without changing the name. That’s not what happened this time. Apple Watch Ultra 2 in satin black is exactly the same as the one introduced in 2023. Which means you need look no farther than previous reviews of the wearable to learn all you need to know about it.

The device in the additional color‌ starts at $799 and is available for preorder now.

Buy it from: Amazon or Apple

I’m sure Bruce has one already, but Batman’s new favorite wearable reaches other customers on September 20.

The charging station’s compact design makes it one of the smaller MagSafe-compatible docks I’ve seen that supports 15W fast charging. Measuring just 3.07 x 2.36 x 2.36 inches, it’s small enough for travel if you have space in your bag or for keeping your workspace tidy because it doesn’t take up much space. The charger’s build quality is top-notch, featuring a tilting top charging panel for MagSafe iPhones that adjusts up to 70 degrees for a better viewing angle. This flexibility allows me to easily see notifications or watch videos while my device charges. It’s great for Standby mode, too. If you’d like to know more about similar charging solutions, check out this review.

Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Station 15W

We’ll dive into what makes this charging station, part of a whole lineup of Ugreen Uno charging products, stand out from the crowd. I’ll cover its design and build quality and its charging capabilities for iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods. I’ll also look at the user experience, highlighting its 15-watt fast-charging feature, and weigh the charger’s pros and cons to help you decide if it’s the right fit for your charging needs.

Compact design in robotic form

The charging station’s compact design makes it one of the smaller MagSafe-compatible docks I’ve seen that supports 15W fast charging. Measuring just 3.07 x 2.36 x 2.36 inches, it’s small enough for travel if you have space in your bag, or for keeping your workspace tidy because it doesn’t take up much space. The charger’s build quality is top-notch, featuring a tilting top charging panel for MagSafe iPhones that adjusts up to 70 degrees for a better viewing angle. This flexibility allows me to easily see notifications or watch videos while my device charges. It’s great for Standby mode, too.

What really sets this charger apart is its unique robot-like appearance. The front panel sports a TFT screen that displays emoji-style charging indicators. It’s a fun touch that adds personality to the charging experience. However, I can’t help but feel it’s a missed opportunity to provide more valuable charging information. And if you place your iPhone in portrait (vertical) mode, you can’t see the screen.

The magnetic connection is strong and secure, ensuring your phone stays in place while charging. This feature, combined with its compact size and adjustable angle, makes the Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 a standout choice for those seeking a reliable and fun charging solution.

Qi2 charging capabilities

The Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Station features solid charging capabilities. It boasts Qi2 certification, delivering an impressive 15W charging speed for iPhones (or Androids), which is double the speed of non-certified chargers. In my tests, I found it can charge an iPhone from 0% to 40% in just under 30 minutes. That’s handy to have on busy days.

The charger’s versatility is another plus. In fact, it probably should be called a 3-in-1, not a 2-in-1. When I lift up the tilting iPhone charging pad, there’s a surface underneath that Ugreen has cleverly made into a second charging surface. It fits an AirPods (or other earbuds) wireless charging case, delivering 5W. So I can charge those two devices at the same time. But there’s also third option. There’s a USB-C port (USB-C to USB-C cable included) on the side for charging other devices, also at 5W. If you have a charging fob for Apple Watch, you can insert it there. Or it would be a handy spot to juice up a wireless mouse or keyboard.

And safety is a top priority with this charger. It’s equipped with overvoltage, overcurrent, overheat and short circuit protection, giving me peace of mind while charging my devices. And I’m always glad when a charger never gets hot to the touch while in use, and this one didn’t (just slightly warm).

Easy and fun to use (‘fun’ for a charger, that is)

User-friendly features are another win for the Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Station. The charger’s TFT screen displays smart status emojis, adding a fun element to the charging experience. And it’s perfect for StandBy mode, letting you view widgets on your desk or nightstand.

If I have a quibble about the whole smiling bot thing with this charger, it’s that the emoji indicators on the screen don’t say much. You bet the eyebrows powered on and standby status, or you get the same with an added sideways “v” for a mouth to indicate charging or fully charged status. That’s it.

Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Station: Pros and cons

Pros:

• The tilting Qi2 charging spot offers flexibility in viewing angles. Even better, the surface under the tilting pad is perfect for charging AirPods.
• The charger supports StandBy mode, which is great for using widgets on your desk or nightstand.
• The side USB-C port is handy for charging additional devices.
• Who doesn’t like smiling robots? (Er, unless they’re smiling because they know the “rise of the machines” has begun …)

Cons:

• A phone placed on the pad in portrait orientation (vertically) can obstruct the digital face, limiting its usefulness.
• The side USB-C port’s output is relatively low, at 5W. (This charger is only for small devices.)
• Considering its total power output of 25W, the price point is somewhat high (thankfully the launch sale knocks it down a bit).
• A watch charging fob can insert into the USB port, but no such charger is included.

But despite the cons appearing to at least equal the pros, I’ve found the charger to be a welcome addition to my desk setup. It’s convenient for charging my iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods simultaneously in a tight space, like on a messy desk like mine.

Bottom line: A bit pricey for 25W max output, but worthwhile at sale price

So the Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Station has an impact on the charging game with its blend of style and function. Its compact design, fast charging capabilities and multi-device support make it a strong contender to consider for Apple users looking to streamline their charging setup. The charger’s unique robot-like appearance and emoji-style indicators add a fun touch, even if they don’t provide detailed charging info.

While the Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 has its drawbacks, like not a whole lot of output power for the price and a potentially obstructed digital face, it still stands out as a handy desk companion. Its ability to charge multiple devices simultaneously and support for StandBy mode enhances its usefulness.

With a list price of $69.99 currently marked down to $48.99, you can check it out at Ugreen.com or on Amazon to see if it fits your charging needs. It costs a bit more than other chargers with a 25-watt maximum output. But it gets the job(s) done in style and with a smile.

Buy from: Amazon

Ugreen provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.

★★★★☆