Ever Trend Zone I have been an Apple Watch user since the original Series 0. It’s great to see the evolution of the Apple Watch and what’s going on today. It is essentially a wellness computer on your wrist and an extension of your entire Apple ecosystem. I wear this every day for many reasons. From wanting to close my ring to controlling my smart home, I unlock all other Apple devices. Just because it’s on my wrist makes my life so much easier. These are 10 easy to implement features.
Before I begin, I wanted to mention that all the features I mentioned are available on all current Apple Watch models and all models running Watchos 11.
Now let’s get into this!
Unlock your Mac on your Apple Watch
This should be one of the best ecosystem features ever. I’d even tell you I’ll save you money because you don’t need an Apple keyboard with a TouchID. You can use your Apple Watch to exchange biometric unlocks. It’s very easy.
- Make sure your Mac and Watch are on the same Appleid
- Make sure your Apple Watch has a passcode enabled
- One of the MACs is directed to system settings > login password > check off your Apple Watch
- Now unlock your Apple Watch whenever you need to enter your MAC password.
Apple Watch as a camera remote
Another one I use all the time is the Apple Watch camera remote app. I have used this feature for many years on my YouTube channel to help me see where I was in the iPhone camera frame. The Camera Remote App has several useful features.
- ViewFinder
- Zooming digital crown
- Countdown timer
- Double tap the gesture to engage (Series 9 and New & Ultra 2 only)
- Record the video
- Switch between selfies and regular cameras
Ping my iPhone
If you use this feature frequently, leave a comment below! This feature has been around for years, but recently, several new features have been added, significantly improving the experience. As the feature name suggests, this feature can help you find a lost iPhone if it is still connected to your Apple Watch. So it’s great if you lose your phone at a home, in the park or elsewhere. You access this through the control center of your watch. Tap the ping button and the iPhone will be louder. But now they’ve added the Airtag FindMy UI. Really identify where your phone is!
Apple TV Remote App
Another ecosystem I use every day is the Apple TV remote app. As long as you use the same Wi-Fi, you can control your Apple TV in the same way as using the actual remote or remote app on your iPhone. This is a dedicated app for watches. I’m a fan of how easy it is to use and how they incorporate things like digital crowns for volume adjustment. I use this in my living room all the time!
Good morning & alarm function
I don’t know what to call this feature, but I like it. Works in conjunction with sleep schedule and focus mode. Use sleep focus mode, which is set to automatically turn on at 10:30pm and then turn off the alarm at 6:30am. I also sleep using my Apple Watch and sleep tracking data. But the first feature I want to point out is that, when I have an alarm set and I have an Apple Watch, instead of the iPhone blowing a loud noise away, the Apple Watch slowly calms down and wakes up (I literally I love this). It’s great because it’s not annoying and doesn’t wake up your partner or other people nearby because there’s no sound.
The second feature is to get this beautiful good morning screen when you turn off the alarm and give it a percentage of temperature, weather, time, date and battery. It also appears on your iPhone, but the ones on the Apple Watch look nice to me.
There are no actual settings menus or options needed to turn this on. It occurs by default when you set a sleep schedule and turn on sleep focus mode.
Teslakey
This is a rather niche feature as you need to be a Tesla owner for this. However, the Tesla app allows you to use only the Apple Watch as a Tesla key. You can do all the usual things, like preheating your car, opening the trunk, locking the car. The most important feature (for me) is that it can be used as a key. So, you no longer need a cell phone or key card to actually start moving once your car is unlocked. It also comes with great watch complications, so if you’re a Tesla owner, this was a game changer.
Screenshot Apple Watch
I use this feature frequently, especially when writing articles like this. Also, I always get this question. Not many people know how to do this, but it’s very easy. Simply press the digital crown and side button (not the action button) at the same time and you’ll need a screenshot. The screen will appear in the iPhone Photo Gallery within 5 seconds.
Unlock your iPhone on your Apple Watch
This is a bit different from unlocking your Mac with your watch, but it’s very helpful. To turn this on:
- Make sure your iPhone and watch are both on the same Appleid
- Make sure your Apple Watch has a passcode enabled
- Head to iPhone settings
- Scroll to FaceID & PassCode
- Scroll to the Apple Watch section
- Toggle this setting on
This has some disclaimers. This feature is intended to be used as a backup only if FaceID doesn’t understand that it is 100% you. Maybe you’re wearing a mask, sunglasses, or face paint. The iPhone tries to use FaceID, but if you’re not sure, use your Apple Watch and use it as a secondary way to authenticate it and unlock it. As a user, there is nothing to pop up. Just unlock it.
Palm Mute
This is another feature I use every day, but I really don’t know what it is called. This feature allows you to completely mute or turn off what’s going on with your Apple Watch simply by placing your palm on the display. If the alarm goes off and you want to shut off, simply place your palm and turn it off. This works with phones, music and notifications. Anything that gives you a touch or sound alert can be blocked immediately.
Sleep and fitness tracking
These are the features I use every day. Ever since Apple began tracking my sleep, I have been sleeping with my Apple Watch to collect that data. For those wondering, yes, I’m sleeping with Apple Watch Ultra. It’s a little big, but after coming from the Series 5 watch it took about 3 nights to get used to it completely. One of the best things about Apple’s sleep tracking is that there is no “score” related to sleep. It only provides you with data and you can interpret whether it’s a good sleep or a bad one. I’ve tested several other sleep trackers, and they all give a score of 100. It’s nice to see a sleep score of 91, but sometimes I get a sleep score of 65, which ruins my day. So I like the way Apple did it.
Fitness tracking could be a completely different post, but I just wanted to say that all workouts, all runs, all walks, and looking at trend data tracks my absolute favorites.
Final Take
Apple Watch Ultra, It’s great for me. It solves so many small problems, I didn’t think it had to be solved until it did. Without how much I use my Apple Watch passively and aggressively, it could be one of the Apple products I really couldn’t live with.
What do you think about the Apple Watch? Which do you have? How do you use it? Let me explain it below!
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