Seeking Thoughts and Opinions on Apple Watch

Someone gave me the Series 3 and I like that I could check time, message that I did not care to do with iPhone. Answer calls when my phone was not next to me, like the faces. The ECGTG is great and if you like to keep track of your sleep is nice. Used it for a week but it was not for me. However I like it so much that I got the Series 5. Always wear a watch and now I can keep doing so. Check the many podcast by David on applewatch 101. David did a great job of setting it.

I also have a series 5. I primarily got it for the fitness tracking stuff. I like being able to share my rings with friends and the workout achievements, (although I wish Apple would let you see the ones your friends have). I thought of it like a new game. The novelty of that quickly wore off for me, but there's still something that makes you want to finish it off if you get really close to closing a ring. I like how watchOS7 lets you customize all your rings, not just your move ring. I'm interested to try out Fitness Plus if it's accessible.

I love the hand washing detection in this on going age of covid. It's neat how the watch starts a countdown to make sure I get the full 20 seconds, though it starts at different points each time; sometimes it will start counting down from 14 seconds, others 10 or less. I haven't figured out why it does that though. And if I stop before the countdown finishes, I get a gentle reminder of the recommended time, but it doesn't do it in a disciplining parent kind of way. Yeah, there are hand washing siri shortcuts you can use on your iPhone that give you a timer with and without music, but with the watch on you don't have to think about it. I did have it wrongly trigger the countdown once though. I was playing with my dog and my watch thought I was moving my hands in and a way that it started the hand washing countdown. lol

I thought I would use it to play music with my airpods Pro, but I don't really because VO sounds and speech get in the way. There's no way to mute the speech from the watch or turn off audio ducking. It gets annoying when I'm playing a song and the sound of my screen locking suddenly pops up. I do however, like how the now playing app comes up whenever you start paplaying media on your iPhone, which gives you a quick way to turn the volume up rather down with the digital crown.

My first AppleWatch in 2017 was a series 1, I went to a Series 3 last year, and I went to a Series 6 two weeks ago. Having the move goals definitely got me motivated. I wasn't interested in sharing them with friends but I like following my own progress. Every 20 days I increase my move rings and now I've consistently beaten them for nearly 800 days, my joint pain is gone. I also love the watch for tracking sleep, but as I struggle with a regular bedtime, I prefer a non-native app for that. I use the breathe feature during meditation. All the heart related features are very handy too. I do use it for answering calls and checking messages when I can't get to my phone. I have never regretted having an AppleWatch, even though I deleted a lot of apps I prefer to use on my iPhone.

A few other things. I thought the sleep tracking would be cool, but I don't use it because I find wearing the watch while I sleep to be uncomfortable; I have a sport loop.

The thing that had me considering the watch a few years ago was the breathe app for meditation. I really need to use that more.

As for switching music between phone and watch, I don't use that much since I mostly just use the now playing app on the watch as a remote control for whatever I have playing on my phone. I've found that my air pods switch perfectly fine when I start playing music on the watch after playing from the phone. It won't autoswitch when VO starts talking on the other device, which is what I think everyone wanted. I don't really care about that, though.

Taking calls on the watch feels kind of futuristic, it's neat. I can't get it to work with FaceTime though; the call always drops after a couple minutes.

Hi. For me, I dislike samantha with a passion only compared to people who prey on children for their own means. So I wouldn't do it, and i've heard the Siri voices may be lagging but don't quote me on that. Do i secretly harbor a watch wish? Yep. ;)

I do use it for lots of things.

• Fitness tracking, workouts and all that jazz. I've set personal goals to complete and it actually makes me to go and do stuff so I guess it works well on making me more active
• Recorder: In combination with Just press record, although i guess you could use built in VoiceMemos for that, I use the watch as a recorder to capture quick audio if needed. I am a journalist, and it's actually saved me a few times when I need to talk to a source on the phone quickly and am not at my desk where I can record calls easily.
• I also use Drafts extensively in my workflow. It's on my watchface and tapping the complication allows me to dictate a note for later processing on my iPad or Mac.
• I use Omnifocus for my tasks and it's very convenient to display for example a shopping list on my watch while in the store, ticking off things I already added to my basket.
• Apple pay for paying in places. I've actually ditched my wallet for most occasions and don't bother to bring it with me.
• Calls, Thats mostly at home.
• Using it as a remote for audio playback on the Homepods or Apple TV.
• In general an extension for my phone to check important notifications. I distinguish important and less important apps, so if it buzzes my wrist, I know it's probably something I'd need to know. Less important stuff appears silently just on the phone.

I don't use the sleep as it doesn't provide enough data, I have another device for that, and wearing a watch to bed mostly seems weird.