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Whether you are one of the lucky few who have already received your Apple Watch, or are still waiting for it to come to your doorstep, we have a treat which you might find handy. We decided to share a number of tips & tricks for the new Apple super-device. Some of these are actually hidden features, so there may be something surprising for even the most experienced new user.
Of course, this list is not meant to be exhaustive, so feel free to sound off and share any cool features you have figured out with the Apple Watch. Here are just a few suggestions below:
Launch apps with Siri - This one is the most obvious, but it still bears mentioning. It can be tough for those with large or thick fingers to tap on the tiny app icons on the Apple Watch. Because Apple knew that we all have different sized fingers they were wise enough to build Siri functionality into the Apple Watch. You can launch apps with voice commands using Siri to bypass this issue. All you need to do is either hold down the Digital Crown button, or say "Hey Siri," to activate the voice prompt. After that you just have to say "launch" or "open" and then the name of the app. It makes things super easy if you don't mind others observing you talk to your watch.
Use Digital Crown fast switching between apps - For those who need to move quickly between apps, Apple built a cool way to do that more efficiently. There's a fast switch feature between apps that is activated by double tapping the Digital Crown. If you tap it again, it will simply go back to the last thing you were doing. It even works if you simply want to switch between an app and your watch face.
Fully utilize AirPlay Controls - One of the coolest new "hidden" features of Force Touch on the Apple Watch allows you to interact with your device in handy new ways. You can use Force Touch within the Music app. If you Force Touch while playing a song, it allows you to choose a new iPhone Airplay target for your music. (This feature can only be found in the song-playing screen if the Music app.) This isn't the only handy hidden feature. You can also stream music straight from your Apple Watch by choosing "Source" from the same menu. This lets you stream music via Bluetooth directly from your Apple Watch to a new target.
Take a screenshot of your customized Apple Watch face - If you have spent hours fiddling with the customization options on the Apple Watch and created what you consider to be the perfect arrangement for the watch face, Apple created a way to let you show it off to your friends! Yep! You can take a screenshot of your customized Apple Watch face, and it's super easy. All you need to do is click the Digital Crown and the button underneath it at the same time. Handy!
Pass-back any Apple Watch Notification to your iPhone - Apple Watch users were probably already aware that the Apple Watch can handoff app activities from the Watch back to your iPhone. What you might not know is that you can also do that with any push notification too. Users can simply move back through the Apple Watch notifications missed by swiping down on the watch face. You can then pass those back at a later time. The relevant iPhone app doesn't even need built-in support for this to work!
"Glances" for the Battery and Control Center are nifty- Apple created something for the Apple Watch called Glances. These are basically quick looks at your various apps. This will let you do a few things without needing to open an app and get you some useful info. The best examples are the Battery Glance and the Control Center Glance. The former will give you a quick look at your battery percentage and let you manually start Power Reserve mode. The later will let you turn on Do Not Disturb mode, Airplane mode, mute the sound, or even ping a sound on your iPhone to help you locate it!
That's all the tips we have for you guys today. Be sure to add to this list anything you figure out with your Apple Watch.
