Update your Apple Watch experience with these 7 tips approved by experts

In the days before the Apple Watch, smartwatches were the stuff of sci-fi dreams: diving tools or spy devices with lasers and radios. Today Apple watches are a frequent sight, which is worn by everyday people, pursue fitness, checked time and submit a style bill without breaking the bank. And that hardly scratches the surface of what these devices can do.

Here are some of my favorite everyday tips that save time and trouble.

Also look at how you can be added to user -defined watch faces and possibilities to expand the benefits of an old Apple clock in a drawer.

Wipe (again) between the watch faces)

You can wipe from the left or right screen edge to Watchos 10.0 to change the active watch faces. Apple has removed this function, probably because people accidentally changed faces by brushing the edges of the screen.

However, the regular method includes more steps (touch and hold the face, wipe it to change, confirm to confirm this), and the people realized that the occasional change of surprise movement was not really that bad. Therefore, from version 10.2, including the current Watchos 11.2, you can switch on the function by switching a setting: Go to Settings> clock and turn on Wipe to change your face.

Stay with vital state of your heart's health

Wearing your apple watch while sleeping offers a lot of information – and not just how you slept last night. When you put on the clock overnight, it follows a number of health metrics. Collecting a new function in Watchos 11, which reports the Vitals app into the heart rate, breathing, body temperature (to the latest models) and the sleeping time of the previous night. The Vitals app can also display data that has been collected in the last seven days-tips on the small calendar symbol in the upper left corner.

(If you have a watch model that is sold before January 29, 2024, you will also see a blood oxygen reading. On newer watches in the USA, this function is deactivated due to violations of intellectual property.)

How is that helpful? The software creates a baseline of what is normal for you. If the values ​​outside the normal areas such as irregular heart or breathing rates pursue, the Vital app reports it as atypical to make them aware of them. It is not a medical diagnosis, but it can be prompted to be checked out and problems catching problems early.

Make the Smart Stack running for you

The Smart Stack is a place where you can access quick information that may not fit into what Apple describes as a “complication” (things on the waking face besides the time itself, e.g. your activity rings or the current Outside temperature). When looking at the clock face, turn the digital crown clockwise or wipe from the lower screen under the screen to display a number of tiles that display information such as the weather or proposed photo memories. This is a great place to access functions if you use a minimal watch face that has no complications.

Choose which live activities automatically appear

The Smart Stack is also where live activities are displayed: If you order a grocery delivery, for example, the status of the order appears as a tile in the smart stack (and on the iPhone lock screen). And because it is a timely activity, the smart stack becomes the main view instead of the watch face.

Some people find that too pushy. To deactivate it, go to your watch the settings app Smart Stack> Live activities and switch them off Auto-start live activities Option. You can also switch off Allow live activities In the same screen if you don't want you to disturb your watch experience.

Apple's apps that use live activities are listed there if you want to configure the setting per app, e.g. B. the appearance of active timers, but no media apps like music. Open the app app on your iPhone for third-party apps, tap on Smart stack And find the settings there.

Add favorite widgets in the smart stack and put them

When the Smart Stack appeared for the first time, his usefulness seemed to be made or missed. In Watchos 11, Apple seems to have improved the algorithms that determine which widgets look – instead of that this is anger, I think it's good to show me information in the context. However, you can also adapt widgets that are displayed every time you open the stack.

For example, I use 10-minute timers for a number of things. Instead of opening the Timers app (via the app list or a complication), I added a 10-minute timer to the Smart Stack. Like: How:

1. Take a look at the Smart stack by turning the digital crown or getting out from the bottom of the screen.
2. Hold the screen to enter the editing mode.
3. Tap the + Button and scroll to the app that you want to include (timer in this example).
4. Tap on a tile to add it to the stack. There is one for timers Set the timer for 10 minutes Option.
5. If you want it to appear higher or lower in the stack order, pull it up or down.
6. Tap the checkmark button to accept the change.

The widget appears in the stack, but can be deported in favor of other widgets that the watch believes that they should be a priority. In this case you can put it at the top of the list: Tap the Yellow PIN button when editing. That moves it, but living activities can still have priority.

Use the watch as a flashlight

You have probably used the flashlight function of your phone dozens of times, but did you know that the Apple Watch can also be a flashlight? Instead of a dedicated LED (which also use phones as a camera flash), the full screen of the watch becomes a light mitter. It is not as bright as the iPhone, and you cannot adapt the beam width, but it is perfectly sufficient to move in the dark if you don't want to disturb someone who is sleeping.

To activate the flashlight, press flashlight Button. This makes the entire screen white – turn the digital crown to adapt the brightness. It even begins for a few seconds to give them the chance to discharge the light so that it does not fry your eyes.

The flashlight also has two more modes: swish to the left to flash the white screen on a regular cadence or wipe again to make the screen light red. The flashing version can be particularly helpful if you run or run at night to make yourself more visible to vehicles.

Press the digital crown to switch off the flashlight and return to the clock face.

Make your exercise rings when you are on the road or are sick

Closing your movement, movement and steers can be great motivation to be more active. Sometimes your body has other plans. Until Watchos 11, if you got sick or would have to take a long -distance trip, any series of rings you have built up would be thrown.

Now the clock is forgiving (and practical) and lets you pause your rings without disturbing the strip. Open the activity app and tap the weekly summary in the upper left corner. Scroll all the way down (take a moment to admire your progress) and tap on the Break rings Button. You can pause you for today, next week or month or set a custom number of days.

If you are ready to get back into your activities, go to the same place and tap on Creesome.

Use the countdown to start training

Many workouts start with a countdown of three seconds to prepare them to be ready. That's okay and everything, but usually my feet are already on the move.

Instead of losing these steps, tap the countdown to avoid it and go straight to the calorie burn.

This is how you force an app (and why you want)

Don't forget, the Apple Watch is a small computer on the wrist and every computer has disturbances. From time to time, for example, an app can freeze or behave irregularly.

On a Mac or iPhone it is easy to force a unruly app to end and restart, but it is not that obvious on the Apple Watch. Like: How:

1. Press the digital crown twice to raise the list of the latest apps.
2. Scroll to the one you want to end by turning the crown or pulling your finger.
3. Squill into the app on the left until you see a big red X Button.
4. Tap the X Button to force the app.

Remember that this only applies to times when an app actually crashed – as on the iPhone, there is no advantage that apps have stopped manually.

These are some of my favorite Watch tips, but of course the popular smartwatch has much more. Also take a look at which new health functions are expected in the next models and Lexy Savvides' review of series 10.