What apps should I get for my Apple Watch?

By Sabrina, 13 May, 2017

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

Hello. I got my very own apple watch today and would like to know what apps to get for it.

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Comments

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 22:41

What will you be doing with your Apple watch? If you are going to use your Apple Watch for navigation, check out Blind Square and Nearby Explorer. You can also use the maps app that is built right in to watchOS. If you want to turn off your Apple watch, don't press and hold the side button for 6 seconds. If you press and hold the side button for 6 seconds, your Apple watch will automatically call 911.

By david s on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 22:41

Hello,

The most useful app I have on my watch is pedometer plus. It lets me know how many steps and how far I walked/ran for the day. It’s very simple.

If you decide to get the app, it’s free, be sure to go to settings and turn on merge watch and iPhone data so your steps will still be counted if you decide to leave the phone at home.

HTH and good luck.

By Siobhan on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 22:41

Hi. I don't have a watch, but I'm guessing these will help. Uber, Lyft. Whichever ride sharing app you choose, should most definitely be on your wrist. This might be the key to getting a watch, as my phone is buried in my purse, usually missing the notifications. I dislike having to pull it out, as it's a big bulky because of the case six S plus. I'd also when it comes back, get google maps. Much better then the stock apple one. Though what you do is up to you. The main thing I can say is just explore the watch store and go from there.

By Tree on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 22:41

For me I have pared down the apps on my watch, because I find most of the useful things I do with it are done with the built in apps. The third party apps I do enjoy are the following. Just press record, which with the watch complication means you are always one tap away from being able to record audio with your watch. Auto sleep, which in my experience is the best sleep tracking app because you don't have to tell it to start or stop tracking, it figures out when you are asleep. A word of warning about this app, a good bit of its controls are not accessible, however setting it up is accessible and changing settings is accessible; you can read your sleep data in the health app, or in another service which is what I do. If you want another piton for tracking sleep data try sleep plus plus; it’s totally accessible, but you have to tell it when you’re going to sleep and when you are waking up. I use an app called calm face which gives you a watch complication that reads your heart rate and rates your current calmness as green, yellow, or red; it will also send you an alert if your heart rate jumps up quickly, which it is pretty good at doing sparingly.

There are several other apps and features that I use a lot on the watch, but as I already mentioned, they are all built in to the OS. I have tried dozens of other apps, but have not kept them in my every day work flow for one reason or another.

By That Blind Canuck on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 22:41

Hello, most of the time, you can look at the Watch app and most apps you currently have installed on your phone, if they have a watch app, you'll be able to install them on your watch. Do keep in mind that not all apps on your phone may be perfectly accessible on the watch. As for Pedometer++, I to have this app and have it set as a complication so I can keep track of my step count. A small tip though, in the app settings, you may want to disable the "Automatic Distance Estimation" as in my case, didn't seem to accurately calculate my distance. You simply need to manually enter your sex and height and it automatically calculates your stride length. I found doing it this way seems to calculate more accurately. But like I said earlier, look in the Watch app and all apps on your phone that have a watch app will be listed. Try installing those you want, try them out on the watch to see if their accessible, and then decide which one you want to keep.

There may be a few settings you want to change in order to preserve battery. For example, I've lowered my brightness all the way down, enabled "Reduce Motion" and "Reduce Transparency". I've also disabled "Wake on Wrist Raise" and limited the notifications to must haves. HTH and enjoy your watch.!

By Sabrina on Sunday, May 21, 2017 - 22:41

Thank you. I also found a couple of games that work on the watch. Timecrest and Lifeline. I really love this watch. All suggestions are really great. Thank you.

By Tim Noonan on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - 22:41

1. Just Press Record.

My all-time favourite watch app. Even better in WatchOS 4

Add its complication to your watch face and in a matter of a second you can record from your wrist.

Recordings are synced back to your iPhone and saved in iCloud Drive.

You can review the last ten or so recordings directly on the Watch, but in the current version of watchOS up to 4.1, their playback is very soft because Voiceover ducks audio for too long.

2. Any List (only available on Watch with annual subscription).

This is a really great list manager for the iPhone designed to shared lists with others.

the highly accessible Watch app allows you to review and check off list items from your writs.

It also allows adding items to a list via the watch app.

Items can be grocery or packing items etc or they can even be full ideas or sentences.

I use it when I'm preparing for a presentation or for a client where I want to capture ideas and themes as they come to mind. .

I create a list for the project and then whenever I have a thought I want to capture I dictate it into the watch app.

It remembers what ever list you last had open on the watch so adding a new item is quite efficient via a Hard Press, when in the list.

You can then email the full list to yourself via the iPhone app, so all items are collated in a single text document.

It also has an official Alexa skill so you can share lists with Alexa, capturing items on your Echo, and they turn up in Anylist.

3. ZonePlay

If you use a Sonos speaker, then ZonePlay is great on the iPhone and on the Watch. It allows you to select rooms, adjust volume skip tracks etc, as well as choosing from favourites.

In WatchOS 4 the iPhone now playing watch screen also allows some of these functions.

On the iPhone you can be in Apple Music and share any song, album or playlist to Zobneplay and it will be played on your Sonos.

4. Drafts

Drafts is a powerful iPhone app for quickly capturing text and then using tools to process it or send it to services. They could be social media, markdown interpreters, task managers and more.

The Apple Watch version of the app is very accessible, allowing you to capture textual information using dictation and accessing any drafts from your wrist that have been captured on the watch or iPhone.

Its main downfall is that Drafts aren't available on the Mac.

5. Twitterific and Tweetings both have Watch apps, and each has some merits. Neither, however, appear to be able to post a tweet without a connection to your iPhone.

By Roxann Pollard on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - 22:41

I also highly recommend the AnyList app, whether or not someone is using the Apple Watch. I could go on for a while about how much I enjoy the full version, but, just suffice it to say, this app more than meets my needs for its intended use as a grocery list, but I use it for so many other list-making needs. I have been in contact with the two-man team behind this app, as well. They are very responsive and seem to really care about the end-user. The longer I use this app, the more I see just how knowledgeable the team behind this great app really are. I can't say enough about this indespensible app.