The Best Apple Watch Tips and Tricks to Know

If you’ve new to wearing an Apple Watch or just want to get more out of the Apple Watch you’ve owned for years, try these tips and tricks out.

By Tucker Bowe

Published April 24, 2023

Apple hasn’t changed the design of the Apple Watch much over the years (with the Apple Watch Ultra being the one big exception). Yes, it’s made the display nicer and greatly improved the features and capabilities, but the current Series 8 has the same basic design — consisting of a touchscreen display, a digital crown and a side button — as the Series 1 from 2016.

The good news with this is that as long as your Apple Watch supports the latest watchOS —which the earlier Apple Watch models (specifically the Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3) do not — it basically works the same. If you’ve recently bought an Apple Watch or just want to get more out of the one you’ve owned for years, try these tips and tricks out.

Note: The Apple Watch Ultra is the company’s most capable smartwatch to date. If you have an Ultra, you can take advantage of everything below, but there are a few extra features that you can access as well. We’ve listed those features at the end of this article.

Apple Watch Tips and Tricks: What You Should Know

All Apple Watch models pretty much work the same. So long as your current model supports the watchOS 9 — which is the Apple Watch Series 4 or later — they should be able to take advantage of the below features. In fact, most of the below features have been available in an earlier watchOS so older Apple Watches should be able to take advantage of them, too.

How to change the layout of your Apple Watch

When you first set up your Apple Watch, the default layout for its Home screen is a honeycomb of apps. Apple calls it the Grid View and it looks pretty, but it can be very frustrating to use — especially for new users who don’t know what each app looks like and does.

This is why we suggest switching the layout to List View, which gets rid of the honeycomb and replaces it with a list of apps (in alphabetical order) that are scrollable and easy to find. You’ll thank us later. Here’s how:

Find the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Select App View.
Select List View.

How to ping your iPhone from your Apple Watch

If you misplace your iPhone somewhere in your house (or anywhere within earshot), you can use your Apple Watch to get your iPhone to play a ping sound to help you locate it. You’ll likely use this feature a lot because, let’s be honest, everybody misplaces theirs. iPhone from time to time.

Swipe up on your Apple Watch to open the Control Center.
Press the iPhone button to ping your iPhone.

Each time you press the pinging button, your iPhone will play a sound. So you’ll likely have to press the button several times to pin-point the exact location of your iPhone.

How to hide the third-party Apple Watch apps

Sometimes third-party apps you download on your iPhone also appear on your Apple Watch. These are apps like Bank of America (or whatever your bank app is), Nike Training and Google Maps, which you might never intend to open on your Apple Watch. Fortunately you can declutter them for your app list quite easily.

Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
Make sure you’re in the “My Watch” tab.
Scroll down to the “Installed on Apple Watch” section.
Toggle off the third-party apps that you’ll never use.

How to mute Apple Watch notifications

If you’re new to wearing a smartwatch, it could be quite jarring how many push notifications your Apple Watch actually receives — most people don’t like their wrist vibrating that much. This is why you want to manage which push notifications you get on your Apple Watch, just like on your iPhone, so that you only get notifications from apps you want to get notifications from.

Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
Select Notifications.
Under the “Mirror my iPhone” list, toggle off the button next to the app you don’t want notifications from.
For the apps not in the “Mirror my iPhone” list, select a specific app and select “Notifications Off.”

How to turn on Low Power mode

One of the newer features that Apple rolled out with watchOS 9 (released fall 2022) is a new Low Power mode. Apple has had a Power Reserve mode for years, but that disables most apps and is meant for more emergency situations. The Low Power mode turns off a lot of the Apple Watch’s normally-on features — such as its always-on display (if you have a newer Apple Watch), automatic workout and heart rate detections — but it also still logs your steps, keeps track of your data and you can even do workouts. Basically you can extend the life of your Apple Watch by almost double and still keep your fitness goals in check.

Swipe up on your Apple Watch to initiate the Control Center.
Tap the battery percentage button.
Turn on Low Power Mode.

How to make your Apple Watch a few minutes fast, on purpose

It’s not uncommon for people to adjust the time of their watch — or any clock that they use — so that it runs fast. That way, they’re always early or ahead of schedule. By default, your Apple Watch pulls the time from your iPhone (or the internet), but you can manually set it so that it runs fast.

Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Select Clock.
Tap the “+0 min” bar and spin the digital crown.
Set the number of minutes ahead that you want the time to display.

You’re able to set your clock so that it runs up 59 minutes fast. It’s important to note that this will not change the clock on your iPhone. It also won’t factor in when you set alarms — those times will continue to be set for the “real” time.

How to use your Apple Watch as an alarm clock

You can easily turn your Apple Watch into a digital alarm clock by putting it into Nightstand mode, which displays the date and time while charging at night. The catch is that your Apple Watch needs to be charging for Nightstand Mode to work properly.

Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Select General.
Select Nightstand Mode and toggle it on.

With Nightstand Mode turned on, every time you connect the Apple Watch to power it will display the date and time. If you’ve set an alarm, it will also display your alarm.

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How to download music on your Apple Watch from Apple Music or Spotify

iwatch with apple music and spotify — Left: Apple music, Right: Spotify

For years, Apple Music was the only service that allowed you to download music on your Apple Watch for offline listening. That’s recently changed, thankfully, and today you can do the same if you’re a paying subscriber to Spotify (as well as Pandora, Deezer and Tidal) too.

If you subscribe to Apple Music:

Make sure your Apple Watch is nearby and connected to power.
Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
Make sure you’re in the “My Watch” tab. Select Music.
Find the playlist or album you want to download. Select “Add Music.”

If you subscribe to Spotify (downloading from iPhone):

Open the Spotify app on your Apple Watch.
Find the playlist, album or podcasts you want to download.
Select the playlist, album or podcast and press the down arrow.

If you subscribe to Spotify (downloading from Apple Watch):

Open the Spotify app on your Apple Watch.
Find the playlist, album or podcasts you want to download.
Select the playlist, album or podcast and press the down arrow.

Once the playlist, album, or podcasts in your library are downloaded, you’ll see a little green arrow next to them.

How to turn on auto pause for workouts

how to use to turn on auto pause for workouts

If you use your Apple Watch for running or cycling workouts (a lot of people do), but you find your data is a little off because you’re constantly stopping for things like traffic, you’ll want to enable the auto pause feature. It will detect when you’re not moving during a workout, pause the time and then start it again when you start moving again. This way you get more accurate metrics (like pace and splits) when running or cycling outdoors.

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
Scroll down and select the Workout tab.
Select Auto-Pause and toggle it on.

How to use your Apple Watch as a running light at night

If you run on the road at night, it’s important to wear reflective gear or even bring a flashlight (or torch) to make sure that cars can see you. If you wear an Apple Watch, you can also use the flashlight app and make it flicker (or strobe) to make yourself more visible as well.

(The only problem with using the flashlight app is that if you touch your Apple Watch, either to change music or check your workout progress, the flagship will automatically turn off and you’ll have to manually turn it back on. It’s not a huge deal as the flashlight app is easily accessible through the Control Center, but it can be a little annoying to do mid-run.)

Swipe up on your Apple Watch to get to the Control Center.
Scroll down and select the flashlight app.
Swipe right to make your flashlight flicker.

How to unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch

The pandemic has caused a huge problem for iPhone owners, as Face ID doesn’t work if you’re wearing a mask. However, Apple created a work-around for people wearing an Apple Watch (running watchOS 7.4 or later) that allows them to unlock their iPhone via their Apple Watch. Here’s how:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Scroll down and select “Face ID & Passcode.”
Type in your passcode when prompted.
Scroll down and toggle on “Unlock with Apple Watch.”

Once turned on, when Face ID doesn’t work you’ll get a quick prompt on your Apple Watch and you’ll then be able to quickly swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone screen to unlock it.

How to unlock your Mac with an Apple Watch

If you have a Mac (mid-2013 or later) with macOS 10.13 or later, you can turn on a feature that will allow you to unlock it by tapping your Apple Watch — no need to type in a password. There are a few parameters, however. Both the Mac and Apple Watch have to be registered under the same Apple ID. Your Apple Watch must have a passcode. And your Mac has to have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.

Select the Apple menu on your Mac.
Select System Settings.
Select Login Password.
Select “Use Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac.”

How to race against yourself with the Apple Watch

an apple watch ultra with a grey strap displaying a running app on its screen

“Race Route” is a relatively new feature for the Apple Watch that’s designed for runners who frequently run the same running route over and over again. It allows you to compare your running times against your previous running times — essentially, it allows you to race against yourself. To use Race Route, you have to have run a specific route with your Apple Watch at least twice. After that, the route will automatically be saved as a Race Route.

Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
Scroll down to Outdoor Run and select the three dot ellipsis button.
Select the Race Route you’re going to do.

(Note: Race Route works with Cycling workouts as well as Outdoor Runs.)

Apple Watch Ultra Exclusive Tips and Tricks

The Apple Watch Ultra is different than all other Apple Watch models in a lot of ways. It’s bigger, more rugged, longer lasting and, maybe most significantly, the Ultra has a completely new button called the Action Button. Because of these things, Apple has given the Ultra a couple exclusive features that other Apple Watch models don’t have access to.

How to use Precision Start on the Apple Watch Ultra

“Precision Start” is a really convenient feature for runners as it eliminates the countdown — 3…2…1…Start — that comes up when starting a workout on every other Apple Watch. When Precision Start is turned on, it’ll start your workout right when you press the Action button (or initiate the workout through the app).

Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch Ultra.
Scroll down and select the Workout app.
Scroll down and toggle on Precision Start.

How to use the Ultra’s special Low Power mode.

an apple watch ultra watch on a wrist with the low power mode being set on the screen

The Apple Watch Ultra supports Low Power mode just like other Apple Watch models, but it has an additional setting called “Fewer GPS and heart rate readings” that will stretch the Ultra’s normal 36-hour battery to roughly 60 hours…and that includes 15 hours of workout time.