10 Hacks Every Apple Watch User Should Know

The Apple Watch is both a companion to the iPhone and a very capable device in its own right. Out of the box, it offers notification mirroring, so you feel every alert from your iPhone on your wrist, plus workout tracking, so you can track your fitness goals. But this laptop can be so much more than that. In fact, it doesn’t take much to make your Apple Watch more personal and effective. If you own one, here are ten tips you need to know:

Turn off all possible notifications

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Keep your notifications under control. By default, Apple likes to forward every alert from iPhone to your watch. It’s just a recipe for distraction. You should turn off most of these alerts and keep only the most important notifications. An important Slack message or text from a close friend is worth distracting; an Uber promotion is not. Open the Watch app on your iPhone, go to Notificationsscroll down and disable most apps that mirror iPhone alerts.

While you’re at it, it might be helpful to keep your watch on silent at all times. Open Control Center by pressing the button Side and press the button Bell icon to silence your watch for good.

Master Apple Watch wrist gestures

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The Apple Watch’s recent wrist gestures have proven to be a success for me. What I thought was a gadget is something I now use multiple times a day. If you have an Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2, SE 3 or higher, you have access to two gestures: Double Tap and Wrist Flick. First, if you double tap your index finger and thumb in the air, you will perform the main action currently on the screen. This could include answering a call, stopping a timer, or stopping a workout. I use it all the time now, even when my hands aren’t busy. Second, you can raise your wrist to go back on a screen on your watch. This is an easy way to navigate back to menus or return to the watch face, without touching the screen.

Automatically unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

This is a feature I’ve used for years, but because it’s pretty deeply buried in the settings, many users aren’t aware of it. Once set up, you can unlock your Mac automatically as long as you wear your Apple Watch. It doesn’t even have to be on the same Wi-Fi network, so it works when you’re on the go.

To set this up, go to System Settings on your Mac, then choose Touch ID and password. In the Apple Watch section, simply enable the sync feature for your Apple Watch. Once authenticated with your Mac password, you’ll be good to go. The next time you lift the lid of your Mac, macOS will automatically log you in.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I loved customizing my watch face with all the various complications related to timers, shortcuts, and weather, just to name a few. But I was never really happy with how cluttered things were once everything was set up. This changed once I adopted the Photos watch face and moved all the contextual information and shortcuts to widgets. Keeping all these functions and data points in a stack of collapsible widgets, rather than all displayed on screen at once, looks much better.

To try it for yourself, scroll the screen using the crown or swipe up on the watch face to access your widgets. Go to the bottom and tap the Edit button to start customizing your widget stack. You can add three app shortcuts to the top widget. I usually save this for workouts, battery, and quick timer. Then I have dedicated widgets for my activity rings, weather, shortcuts, sleep, etc. You can pin widgets in any order you want, and watchOS will also automatically suggest relevant widgets based on your usage. Dive deeper with our detailed guide on customizing widgets.

Create your stack of watch faces and browse them

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Once you move your app interactions to widgets, your watch faces suddenly open. Take the time to create and customize two to three watch faces that you can switch between as you wish. It’s easy to do at any time: just swipe from the left or right edge to change the watch face.

Creating and customizing watch faces is actually easier on the Watch app on iPhone. In fact, it’s the only place you can configure my favorite watch face: the Photos watch face. This watch face alternates between photos of my wife, nature, and cityscapes, showing me a new selection each day. I really like this watch face. You can also create a watch face for fitness tracking and fitness modes, as well as a simple watch face for regular use. (My favorites here are the Typograph and Meridian dials.)

Adjust your activity rings according to your needs

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

For almost a decade, you couldn’t edit your activity rings. If you got sick or just wanted to have a quiet day, you would lose your fitness streak. Of course, this isn’t the healthiest approach to fitness. For this, you should consult the Gentler Streak app. However, since last year’s watchOS 11, you have the option to pause or change your activity rings. You can do this from the Fitness app on iPhone, which is slightly easier than using the Apple Watch itself. From the Fitness app, tap Activity Ringsthen scroll down, where you will see Change goals And Pause ringtones. Choose the appropriate option to get started. I have detailed instructions in my guide too.

Control your Apple TV from your wrist

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

If you use an Apple TV, you know how easy it is to lose the remote. You may be familiar with the Apple TV remote feature on the iPhone, but this same feature also exists on the Apple Watch. You will need to find the Remote app in the list of apps and then choose your Apple TV. It should appear as long as it’s on the same network as your watch and nearby. From there, you can use swipe gestures and buttons to control playback on your TV.

Make your alarms sound, even in silent mode

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

On the Apple Watch, silent mode and alarm sound levels are married, unlike the iPhone. But recently Apple added a feature that lets you revolutionary silent mode for a particular alarm: it is simply not activated by default for all alarms. To configure it, open an alarm from the Alarms app, go to Edit alarm menu, scroll down and enable Break silent mode.

Personalize Focus with Apple Watch in mind

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Focuses on iPhone are extremely powerful and underrated. And things get a lot more interesting when you add Apple Watch to the mix. Each Focus can be associated with its own watch face, so you can have a different watch face for your work Focus, another for your personal Focus, and a fitness watch face for your workout Focus. Go to Settings > To focus to personalize or create any Focus.

Track your sleep

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Your Apple Watch comes with built-in sleep tracking. To use it, you can either go to the Sleep app on Apple Watch and create a sleep schedule, or simply switch to Sleep Focus. When you are in sleep mode, your watch will automatically turn off and become silent, so you won’t be disturbed by any notifications.

With watchOS 26, your Apple Watch now also offers you have a sleep scorewhich offers more information about your sleep habits. I used sleep mode last year with my Apple Watch Series 10 and have already benefited greatly from the sleep tracking feature.