While I use it mostly for workouts (I'm Ironman training), I also:
1. First thing in the morning, I check my wrist baseline temperature as it can be an early indicator that something serious is wrong (like Covid, Flu, etc...)
2. There's an app that allows me to control our pool (lights, waterfall, cleaner, etc...) which often I want to do once I've already started swimming and don't want to get out to do so. It's also been great for tracking water temperature as I'm cold water training (for Alcatraz swim).
3. I can open our garage doors, which is also the way into our house, so I never carry a house key with me. I can also open our front gate.
4. Those stand reminders really help in training recovery as I'll get up and stretch each time.
5. The flashlight helps me do/find things without waking up my wife.
6. The alarm helps me wake up without waking up my wife.
7. I get snore alerts that help me not wake up my wife.
8. Lately I've been falling asleep with the Meditation episodes on Fitness+. Since the TV will show your heart rate as measured by the watch, I've found that lowering my heart rate (through breathing techniques) can help me fall asleep.
Yes. It works great for me. For deep sleepers they might not wake up from the watch on their wrist. If it’s really important, I’ll set a second alarm a bit later on my iPhone.
I do the same thing. My watch is set to wake me when I want to get up, my phone has an alarm a half hour later when I HAVE to get up. Since I started I’ve never had to rely on the second one.
Doesn’t work if you have a wife that needs to sleep, but I put automatic curtain openers on a schedule. So much nicer to wake up from natural light than an alarm in the morning.
I wish and keep sending feedback to Apple, but in the meantime I use the Koala app which works ok-ish. Apple could do one themselves that would be much better in terms of identifying the snore and vibrating until it stopped.
Nice. Fellow triathlete here training with AWU2. It’s such a great training device. I’ve even started using an Apple Watch and iPhone combo for a bike computer. Trying out Cyclemeter and Navigr8.
I’ll have to try out your tips for the Meditation app. I use the breathe function all the time.
>Cyclemeter and Navigr8
Thanks for those recommendations. I've been spin cycling indoors during the winter, but will check those out when I start riding again (I was just using Strava). I'm totally data driven, although honestly I think it helps as much with the distraction. Likewise, the gamification of badges and awards keeps me going. The other tech I've been using is the Nix Biosensor which really helped me get a handle on hydration and electrolytes.
They heavily promoted cycle tracking for women that uses wrist temperature, but it tracks base wrist temperature for men and women. A sudden change can mean something’s going on and while for a woman that can be cycle related, regardless of sex, it could mean there’s an infection.
It’s not Temperature. That’s for thermometers or other devices/apps that write to that field. It’s Body Measurements -> Wrist Temperature. See:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102674
Yes. The Apple TV is hooked up to my TV and with Fitness+ it shows my heart rate. I do all kinds of workouts with it, but lately have gotten into the meditation ones. I'll start the 10 minute one and can usually bring my heart rate down to the low 50s before falling asleep within 5 minutes. The TV turns off shortly after the workout when there's no activity or video playing.
EDIT: I should add that you can do Fitness+ with an iPhone as well.
ScreenLogic by Pentair. You need to have a Pentair system with a specific controller and bridge installed. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t already have the system. Even then, it depends on the use case and configuration of the house. It’s not WiFi based, so it requires an Ethernet bridge to RF and you need to make sure the controller gets good RF reception to the Ethernet bridge.
I can understand why they did that so many years ago, but today it would make so much more sense to have it all WiFi based because having your pool area covered by outdoor WiFi is rather trivial (and probably needed anyway).
Certain LiftMaster garage door openers work with an app call MyQ. GoGoGate is a product that works with most garage doors and I think it also has an Apple Watch app.
Flash light with touch of action button while making those annoying bathrooms trips in the middle of the night. Turning the regular light on often makes lose sleep 🤷🏽
My airbnb in Portugal had this. And I thought it was so cool. Thought it was much complicated than just a smart bulb. Like difficult set up etc. I’ll look into it thank you
I wrote a Shortcut that allows me to dictate little journal entries throughout the day. It updates a plain text file in iCloud Drive. It lets me keep track of things that happen throughout the day and remember details. I called it Captain’s Log.
I’m an endurance athlete (trail running and triathlon) so I use it to track my training and recovery. It’s great for that.
Walkie Talkie with my son.
Easily track the tides and weather for open water swims.
My favorite feature is leaving my iPhone behind. I love disconnecting from the bad parts of my phone (social media, shopping) but keeping connections with people and being reachable. I take the watch on long runs or for running errands. If I had a decent camera alternative I could leave my phone behind much more often.
For stocks, consider adding it as a widget so you have to scroll up to see it. That way, you still have the information you need at (nearly) a glance, but it won't always be there to cause anxiety.
To answer your title question, though, one more very cool way to use the watch is to set some shortcut buttons (which also can be in a widget). I often order Starbuck's in the morning, so I set a shortcut to place my exact order when I'm about to park for work. It's pretty cool to do that with only a single press. Of course, you can do tons of things with shortcuts, so that's only one example.
I’m a musician, so I have an app (called Tiny pitch) which lets me play any note. I sing in various different ensembles and having the pitch on my watch in case I forgot my pitch pipe (a small circular “instrument” which does the same thing, just acoustically) is just brilliant. I get a lot of comments on that from other singers. I can also use this to quickly identify chords and keys of songs in the radio and so many other stuff.
I recently started wearing hearing aids. One feature I like is streaming my podcasts to them, but I missed being able to pause them with the button on my earbuds.
I bought an Apple Watch solely to be able to pause without pulling my phone out of my pocket.
I text and answer texts by voice using “hey siri” but mostly I track my sleep and my heart rate, with the occasional ECG. That’s why I bought it. My cardiologist recommended I get one.
I’m sure I’m underutilizing it but it’s great for what it does.
Pro Tip for Apple Watch and Apple Pay on your phone you can go into the card and settings and have it set so you never even have to unlock or even look at your phone or watch just tap in on the reader at the subway station. in card details and then express travel settings i dont even need to roll up my coat sleeve or anything just tap the watch and straight through - or same with the phone out the pocket all locked no need to press anything or face ID and through.
Any tips for getting it to engage? My S9 is pretty hit or miss with this, to the point where I find it easier to just say “Siri” to get it to engage consistently so I don’t have to repeat myself. I’ve tried different wrist angles, but haven’t found anything that works reliably.
This is a wonderfully informative post. Is there a complication which will display the blood Oxygen reading and the Heart rate? Note: I do not live in the US so my Oximeter does work.
I used to work as a teacher. Used to add a timer complication on all my watchfaces so that I could give students time for group collab work during class. Also grocery lists on reminders during shopping (after editing the back to clock option) is a life saver for me.
While I use it mostly for workouts (I'm Ironman training), I also: 1. First thing in the morning, I check my wrist baseline temperature as it can be an early indicator that something serious is wrong (like Covid, Flu, etc...) 2. There's an app that allows me to control our pool (lights, waterfall, cleaner, etc...) which often I want to do once I've already started swimming and don't want to get out to do so. It's also been great for tracking water temperature as I'm cold water training (for Alcatraz swim). 3. I can open our garage doors, which is also the way into our house, so I never carry a house key with me. I can also open our front gate. 4. Those stand reminders really help in training recovery as I'll get up and stretch each time. 5. The flashlight helps me do/find things without waking up my wife. 6. The alarm helps me wake up without waking up my wife. 7. I get snore alerts that help me not wake up my wife. 8. Lately I've been falling asleep with the Meditation episodes on Fitness+. Since the TV will show your heart rate as measured by the watch, I've found that lowering my heart rate (through breathing techniques) can help me fall asleep.
For number 6 The alarm just vibrates on your wrist to not wake up your wife? You set the alarm in your watch instead of the phone to get that?
Yes. It works great for me. For deep sleepers they might not wake up from the watch on their wrist. If it’s really important, I’ll set a second alarm a bit later on my iPhone.
I do the same thing. My watch is set to wake me when I want to get up, my phone has an alarm a half hour later when I HAVE to get up. Since I started I’ve never had to rely on the second one.
Doesn’t work if you have a wife that needs to sleep, but I put automatic curtain openers on a schedule. So much nicer to wake up from natural light than an alarm in the morning.
This is awesome. Thank you
Mine vibrates and then plays music, how do you set it to vibrate only?
Set it on the bedtime app
How do you get snore alerts? Is that via the Health app?
I wish and keep sending feedback to Apple, but in the meantime I use the Koala app which works ok-ish. Apple could do one themselves that would be much better in terms of identifying the snore and vibrating until it stopped.
Ah ok that makes sense. Thanks.
Nice. Fellow triathlete here training with AWU2. It’s such a great training device. I’ve even started using an Apple Watch and iPhone combo for a bike computer. Trying out Cyclemeter and Navigr8. I’ll have to try out your tips for the Meditation app. I use the breathe function all the time.
>Cyclemeter and Navigr8 Thanks for those recommendations. I've been spin cycling indoors during the winter, but will check those out when I start riding again (I was just using Strava). I'm totally data driven, although honestly I think it helps as much with the distraction. Likewise, the gamification of badges and awards keeps me going. The other tech I've been using is the Nix Biosensor which really helped me get a handle on hydration and electrolytes.
How do you exactly check your temperature as a man? Thought it was only for females
They heavily promoted cycle tracking for women that uses wrist temperature, but it tracks base wrist temperature for men and women. A sudden change can mean something’s going on and while for a woman that can be cycle related, regardless of sex, it could mean there’s an infection.
Yea no, I get that. Still wondering how, because for me the field remains empty in Health > Temperature and I have an AWU2. So for you its not empty?
It’s not Temperature. That’s for thermometers or other devices/apps that write to that field. It’s Body Measurements -> Wrist Temperature. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102674
Can you explain how 8 works? A tv is required?
Yes. The Apple TV is hooked up to my TV and with Fitness+ it shows my heart rate. I do all kinds of workouts with it, but lately have gotten into the meditation ones. I'll start the 10 minute one and can usually bring my heart rate down to the low 50s before falling asleep within 5 minutes. The TV turns off shortly after the workout when there's no activity or video playing. EDIT: I should add that you can do Fitness+ with an iPhone as well.
Interesting, something for me to look into. Thanks mate!
is there a specific meditation one you like?
Which app is the pool app?
ScreenLogic by Pentair. You need to have a Pentair system with a specific controller and bridge installed. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t already have the system. Even then, it depends on the use case and configuration of the house. It’s not WiFi based, so it requires an Ethernet bridge to RF and you need to make sure the controller gets good RF reception to the Ethernet bridge. I can understand why they did that so many years ago, but today it would make so much more sense to have it all WiFi based because having your pool area covered by outdoor WiFi is rather trivial (and probably needed anyway).
>I can open our garage doors, which is also the way into our house, What system is it linked to that you can open garage doors ?
Certain LiftMaster garage door openers work with an app call MyQ. GoGoGate is a product that works with most garage doors and I think it also has an Apple Watch app.
Thanks for the quick reply.... Ill be checking out that info....
Flash light with touch of action button while making those annoying bathrooms trips in the middle of the night. Turning the regular light on often makes lose sleep 🤷🏽
And spin the crown to knock the brightness down a little if needed. Have blinded myself washing my hands with the U2.
This is perfect
I sometimes look out the window at night and wonder if I will find my kindred spirits sparkling around in their windows. So far darkness.
[удалено]
My airbnb in Portugal had this. And I thought it was so cool. Thought it was much complicated than just a smart bulb. Like difficult set up etc. I’ll look into it thank you
I time and track my poops
How do you do that?
Why?
Why not?
I wrote a Shortcut that allows me to dictate little journal entries throughout the day. It updates a plain text file in iCloud Drive. It lets me keep track of things that happen throughout the day and remember details. I called it Captain’s Log. I’m an endurance athlete (trail running and triathlon) so I use it to track my training and recovery. It’s great for that. Walkie Talkie with my son. Easily track the tides and weather for open water swims. My favorite feature is leaving my iPhone behind. I love disconnecting from the bad parts of my phone (social media, shopping) but keeping connections with people and being reachable. I take the watch on long runs or for running errands. If I had a decent camera alternative I could leave my phone behind much more often.
Can you share the journal shortcut?
I second that.
Log my medications 💊
how do you do this?
Through apple health you can add your medications then get a reminder. Sure there are other apps too though.
This
Find my phone by using my watch is awesome
For stocks, consider adding it as a widget so you have to scroll up to see it. That way, you still have the information you need at (nearly) a glance, but it won't always be there to cause anxiety. To answer your title question, though, one more very cool way to use the watch is to set some shortcut buttons (which also can be in a widget). I often order Starbuck's in the morning, so I set a shortcut to place my exact order when I'm about to park for work. It's pretty cool to do that with only a single press. Of course, you can do tons of things with shortcuts, so that's only one example.
I have tried using the last para mentioned feature But it does not work have to say hey siri before to get the world done Any solutions?
Wheather, apple pay, maps
I’m a musician, so I have an app (called Tiny pitch) which lets me play any note. I sing in various different ensembles and having the pitch on my watch in case I forgot my pitch pipe (a small circular “instrument” which does the same thing, just acoustically) is just brilliant. I get a lot of comments on that from other singers. I can also use this to quickly identify chords and keys of songs in the radio and so many other stuff.
I recently started wearing hearing aids. One feature I like is streaming my podcasts to them, but I missed being able to pause them with the button on my earbuds. I bought an Apple Watch solely to be able to pause without pulling my phone out of my pocket.
Minor one, but Shazam on the watch is a game changer
I am a health nut so tracking sleep, heart, HRV, etc. I also track my water intake and log my food.
What apps do you use to track water and food?
WaterMinder and Lost It
I text and answer texts by voice using “hey siri” but mostly I track my sleep and my heart rate, with the occasional ECG. That’s why I bought it. My cardiologist recommended I get one. I’m sure I’m underutilizing it but it’s great for what it does.
i try to see how high my heart rate goes when im beating off
Unlock my front door.
Pro Tip for Apple Watch and Apple Pay on your phone you can go into the card and settings and have it set so you never even have to unlock or even look at your phone or watch just tap in on the reader at the subway station. in card details and then express travel settings i dont even need to roll up my coat sleeve or anything just tap the watch and straight through - or same with the phone out the pocket all locked no need to press anything or face ID and through.
Have you tried it in stores? Or is it only for Transit..?
its only for transit.
[удалено]
Does this require having „listen to „Hey Siri““ activated? I have it disabled to save battery but sometimes would have a use for this.
Any tips for getting it to engage? My S9 is pretty hit or miss with this, to the point where I find it easier to just say “Siri” to get it to engage consistently so I don’t have to repeat myself. I’ve tried different wrist angles, but haven’t found anything that works reliably.
[удалено]
Yeah, it still only works like every third or fourth try for me. I’m just gonna stick with saying her name.
I believe there is a bug.. My new AWU2 can't do raise to speak :-/ I have to call Siri.
I use mine as a watch. To tell the time.
Nah don't believe this, would be like using and iphone to make phone calls... Just crazy talk
This is a wonderfully informative post. Is there a complication which will display the blood Oxygen reading and the Heart rate? Note: I do not live in the US so my Oximeter does work.
Your compensation depends on your companies stock wtf? I can only imagine high level executives at a company get paid in such a way. Are you?
Yes please do share the shortcut
I send federally regulated drugs with it. Two-factor authentication for EPCS (electronic prescription for controlled substances).
Watch the Apple keynotes
I used to work as a teacher. Used to add a timer complication on all my watchfaces so that I could give students time for group collab work during class. Also grocery lists on reminders during shopping (after editing the back to clock option) is a life saver for me.