21 Amazing Apple Watch Tips Sure To Impress!

I must admit I have really grown to love my Apple Watch!  Every since I received my watch (the very day it came out) my watch collection is just gathering dust.  This has become my only watch of choice and for good reason. Not many can complain that the Apple Watch is great for telling the time but there's so much more that this timepiece does and here are 21 Apple Watch tips every owner should know!

1. Quickly Go Back To Your Last Used App On Apple Watch

To view the last app that you used double tap your Digital Crown and that will take you back to that last app.

2. Clear Apple Watch Notifications

In order to clear an individual notification swipe down to reveal notifications and scroll to the message you want to delete.  Next swipe to the left and press the "X" to delete it.
You can clear all of your notifications at one time by swiping down on your Apple Watch (which will show you your notifications) then just firmly press only the screen to activate Force Touch and you'll see Clear All.  Click the "X" and you're done!

3. Use Your Apple Watch To Find Your iPhone

This is a really cool feature and one that I've used on more than one occasion.  To locate your iPhone with your Apple watch swipe up on your Apple Watch, go to settings and tap the phone icon.  This will send a pinging noise to your iPhone so that you can locate it.  One really great thing about this feature is that it will still ping with a sound even if you have your iPhone on vibrate!  I really do love this feature because I have a bad habit of dropping my iPhone in my car and having trouble finding it.  By the way, here's a bonus for ya!  If you continue to hold the phone icon it will activate the flash on your iPhone as well, this comes in really handy if your iPhone is in a dark place.

4. Set Apple Watch Time Ahead A Few Minutes

If your like some people and you're always running just a tad bit late, you can set your watch time several minutes fast so that you'll always be on time!  Go to the settings app from your watch home screen and click on time from there you'll see "set clock face time ahead" click on the +0 then use your Digital Crown to scroll to the number of minutes that you want your watch to be ahead.

5. Change The Monogram On Your Apple Watch

Changing the monogram on your Apple Watch is a really cool way to customize it and truly make it your own! Here's how to change the monogram on your watch face.

1. Start with your iPhone and open the Apple Watch app.
2. Scroll to clock and open it.
3. Click on monogram and now you can enter 2-4 letters or you can change it to a special character like the apple logo. One of the best ways that I've found to add special characters is to use the UniChar Picker app which is free in the App Store.
4. Once you've installed the app, go to settings > general > keyboard > keyboards > add new keyboard.  Now add the unichar keyboard and "allow full access".
5. Open the Apple Watch app and click on clock > monogram and the globe symbol on your keyboard to activate UniChar Picker keyboard (you might have to click it twice if you also have the emoji keyboard).
6. Browse and select the character you want to display as your new monogram (note: some of them won't work).  If it works as a monogram, you'll see it appear on the screen when you select it.  You can even select multiple characters if you like!

 

 

6. Use Hey Siri On Your Apple Watch

If you read my article 7 Siri Tricks You Didn't Know Your iPhone Could Do then you know how much I love using this feature.  To use Siri on your Apple Watch raise your wrist towards your mouth and say 'Hey Siri' or 'Hi Siri' then state your command such as: "set a timer for 15 mins".

This is really convenient when cooking, but you can also use any of the of Siri commands [insert a link from another site that has an article about siri commands] as well.  You can also activate Siri by doing a long hold on the Digital Crown.

7. Use The Apple Watch As A Camera Remote

This is a pretty "kick ass" feature because you can set your iPhone up somewhere to take a photo and use your Apple watch not only as a view finder but it's a camera remote as well!  Open the camera app on both your iPhone and your Apple Watch (be sure you're within bluetooth range) and your good to go!  You can take the photo from your Apple Watch and it will be stored on your iPhone!  Bonus: You can also tap the viewfinder on your Apple Watch before you snap your photo to change the point of focus.

8. Change The App Layout On Your Watch

Are you just not feeling the layout of your apps on your watch?  It's really easy to change and make your own cutom layouts as well.  For starters open your Apple Watch app on your iPhone.  Next make sure you've got 'My Watch' selected at the bottom of the screen.  Tap on 'App Layout' and hold down the selected app and move it to the place where you want it on the screen.  You can get really creative with this if you've got the time.  Check out this article on iDigital Times to see some really creative ideas.

9. Send Your Heart Beat To A friend

1. Press the Side button to display your friends.
2. Use the Digital Crown to select the friend you want to sent your heartbeat to.
3. Tap the Digital Touch icon (the finger icon in the center of the bottom of the screen), this icon only appears if that friend has an Apple Watch.
4. Press two fingers on the screen until you see your animated heartbeat.  When you lift your fingers from the watch your heartbeat will be sent.

Your friend will be able to see your animated heartbeat and feel it on they're Apple Watch!  I've got to say that my best comment award goes to Chop from this iMore post. Chop wrote: "Sent my wife mine - she sent me hers. We then agreed that there was zero need to ever do that again".  I have to agree, why in the heck do I want to send someone my heartbeat?  Well maybe if you you send one like they did in this video!

 

10. How To Send or Reply to Animated Emojis On Your Apple Watch

You can use animated emoji's on your Apple Watch when you send or reply to text messages.  When you reply to a text message just click 'Reply' then click on the smiley face icon.  After that scroll right with your finger to decide on the type of emoji you want to send.  Once you've decided on the type of emoji you can use your Digital Crown to select between the different types of emotions.

To send an animated emoji, tap the lower button on your Apple Watch to select a friend to send to.  Once you've selected your friend, tap on the text icon then the smiley face icon.  Use the same steps above to select the type of emoji and emotion of the emoji and just press send!  The great thing about this feature is that you can send these to people who don't own an Apple Watch!

11. Quickly Mute Incoming Call With Your Palm

This comes in really handy if you want to quickly silence your Apple Watch when a phone call comes in.  To properly set this up open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and scroll to 'Sounds & Haptics' > scroll to 'Cover to Mute' and toggle it to the on position.  Your done!  Now when a call or alert comes in just cover your Watch with your palm for about 3 seconds and it will silence both your Apple Watch and your iPhone!

12. Use Apple Pay on Apple Watch

You can access Apple Pay from your Apple Watch in 2 ways: Tap on the Passbook App on your watch then double tap the side button to pay. Another way is to use a shortcut, just quickly double tap the side button and the Apple Pay app will start in ready mode.

13. Use Siri To Open Apps On Your Apple Watch

This is a really simple workaround to opening the apps on your watch.  The icons are small and can be hard to get to so you can either use the 'Hey Siri' feature or do a long hold on the 'Digital Crown'.  Ask Siri to "open [insert App Name]", it's just that easy!

 14.  Use AirPlay To Play Music On Your Apple TV

This is such a cool Apple Watch tip that you don't hear much about.  You can actually send music from you Apple Watch to your iPhone or an external Bluetooth or your Apple TV.  Open your music app on your watch, tap on now playing, use force touch (a hard press) to reveal a hidden menu.  While in this menu you can shuffle the songs, repeat, send the music to your iPhone or change the source to a bluetooth device or  your Apple TV!  How cool is that?!

15.  Use Handoff On Apple Watch

Handoff is a way to start using an application on your watch and pick up from where you left off on your iPhone.  You'll want to start by going to the Apple Watch app on your cell and go to 'general' and make sure that 'Enable Handoff' is in the 'on' position.  Now this won't work for every app but for things like messages you can start on your Apple Watch and finish the message on your iPhone by swiping up on the icon in the lower left hand corner of the iPhone lockscreen.  Here's a video from iClarified that shows you step by step how to use this feature:

16. Use Apple Watch To Take A Voice Memo

Here's a little handy trick to use if you come up with random thoughts or need to jot down a quick memo to yourself. You can send yourself a voice memo using your watch!  To do this, the first step is to add yourself as a friend.  Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and click on 'Friends' > 'Add Friend' and add yourself.  In order to send the memo, tap the side button, click yourself and tap on the message icon.  Next click the mic icon and speak your memo.  When you're finished hit 'done' and 'send as audio'.  To get listen to your memo, you can find it in messages on your iPhone, iPad or Mac!

17. Add Digital Time To Analog Apple Watch Faces

The analog watch faces on the Apple Watch provide a very clean, classic and fun looks.  However if you want to be able to quickly tell exactly what time it is while still sporting one of these looks, you can add digital time to the watch face as well.

 

1. Add the world clock to any one of the analog faces ( Force Touch on the watch face > Customize > Add World Clock).
2. On your iPhone open the Apple Watch App > Clock > City Abbreviations > Now Delete The Abbreviations.

Now when you look at your watch face you should see just the digital time with no abbreviations.

18.  How to Change and Re-Arrange Apple Watch Glances

Glances are quick shortcuts to open apps on your Apple Watch and the set-up is similar to swiping up on your iPhone to reveal the Control Center.  You can easily manage your most important apps so that you can access them from Glances.

Here's how you change your Apple Watch Glances.

1. Open your 'Apple Watch' app on your iPhone
2. Look at the very bottom of your screen and make sure 'My Watch' is highlighted
3. Scroll down your list of Apps and you can choose witch apps to add or remove from your watch. (For this feature you are going to want to add an app).
4. Toggle your chosen app to the on position
5. Toggle 'Show in Glances' to On position. (note: some apps won't have this option).

This is how you re-arrange your Apple Watch Glances:

1. Once again start by opening your 'Apple Watch' app on your iPhone
2. Make sure you're on 'My Watch'
3. Tap on 'Glances'
4. Click 'Edit'
5. Now you can remove Glances by tapping the red button with the dash and clicking 'Remove'
6. You can re-arrange the apps by tapping and holding on the 3 Dashes (on the right side) now you can move them up or down to re-arrange the order they appear in galnces.

 

19. Unlock Your Apple Watch With Your iPhone

Did you know that you can use your iPhone to unlock your watch instead of punching your password in on that tiny screen?  The only catch is that your Apple Watch has to be on your wrist when you unlock it.  In order to enable this feature open the Apple Watch App on your iPhone and scroll down to 'Passcode' (if your watch is locked you'll be prompted to unlock it).  Next toggle the 'Unlock With iPhone' to the 'On' position.  Now when you want to unlock your watch, simply put the watch on and unlock your iPhone.  Done and Done!

20.  How To Change Default Message Replies

Do you need to customize your quick message replies on your watch?  It's really easy to add your own custom reply.  Open the Apple Watch App on your iPhone > Scroll down to Messages > Default Replies > Click on a reply you want to change > Type your custom reply

Now that custom reply will be included in the list of replies you have on your Apple Watch.

 

21. How To Force Close An App

This is an easy way to shut down an app that just won't start for some reason and you have those dreaded circles or your app may be stuck or frozen for some reason, this is the fix!

1. Once you have the App opened that you want to force close press and hold the side button until the power off menu appears (now let go of the side button).
2. Press and hold the side button again until the opened/stalled app is gone.

These are 21 Apple Watch Tips that are sure to impress and show that you really know how to use that fancy timepiece!

What's your favorite Apple Watch tip?