The Unofficial Guide to Using Apple Watch (3 page)

The Apple Watch is locked and needs a passcode to use.

Your watch is in “Do Not Disturb” mode and will not make any sounds or light up until enabled again; alarms, however, will still work.

The Apple Watch is in Airplane mode and only non-wireless features work—Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are not turned on.

Your watch is no longer paired with your phone.

There’s wireless activity happening or some other kind of active event—an app loading for example.

With such a limited space, Apple really made use of something called Gestures. Gestures is essentially your watch doing different things based on how you touch or swipe the watch. Below is a quick overview of the gestures and shortcuts that let you do what you need to do quickly.

The one shortcut you will use the most is the Digital Crown; pressing it will always get you back to the home screen. It’s like the square button on your iPhone.

Force Touch measures not just what you are touching, but how hard you are touching it. On your watch/clock screen, pressing a little harder on the screen will let you change the watch face. In apps, Force Touch is used a bit like right clicking on a computer--it brings up options.

When you swipe up from the bottom of your watch, you will bring up what Apple calls "Glances"; Glances lets you swipe to view information like stock, weather and fitness.

You can organize the Glances too; so if there’s a glance you don’t want to see, then you can remove it. To do this, go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then tap My Watch and tap Glances. Tap to remove to any glance you don’t want (Note: you can’t remove the Settings glance). From this menu, you can also pick the order that they appear.

When you swipe down from the top of your watch, you bring up recent notifications (things like emails and messages), which you may have missed when they first came in.

There are two buttons on the Apple Watch: the digital crown (the knob) and the side button. Any time you press the side button, you will bring up your friend’s screen. Once your friend’s screen is brought up, you can use the digital crown to scroll through it.

You may be used to pinching and zooming on your iPhone and iPad; be prepared to be disappointed...on a smaller screen this method just doesn't work. In its place is the digital crown, which can be used to zoom in and out by turning the knob. You can use it to magnify things like photos and maps.

There's no physical button to turn off the Apple Watch. To turn the screen off you can either put your hand down, or cover the watch with your hand. You can also silence alarms by covering your hand over the screen.

There are two quick ways to launch Siri: one, press and hold the Digital Crown; two, lift up your wrist and say "Hey Siri"--no buttons are required.

If you can’t find your iPhone, you can quickly ping it with your watch to see if it’s nearby. Go to your watch face, swipe up to bring up Glances, swipe to the Settings glance, and then tap the button under Pink iPhone.

This will make your phone start beeping (Note: for this to work you must enable Find My iPhone from iCloud).

Most airlines will let you leave your watch turned on while you’re flying, but they will want it in airplane mode (which turns off settings that might interfere with the plane).

To put the watch in Airplane Mode, go to your watch face, swipe up from the bottom to bring up Glances, and go to the Settings glance, then tap the button that looks like an airplane. Repeat the step to turn the mode off.

If you’d like the watch to go in Airplane Mode whenever your phone does, then go to the Apple Watch app, tap My Watch, then tap Airplane Mode and turn on Mirror iPhone. Repeat the step to disable.

To use Apple Pay, double tap the side button; it will come up with your credit card and tell you to put it near the reader (your phone does not need to be nearby); once it is by the reader you enter your passcode. Worried about someone taking your phone and using your credit card? It won't work when it's taken off your wrist.

When you get to a reader that supports Apple Pay, simply double tap the side button. If you want to use a different credit card, swipe to the left. When you find the card you want, turn it to face the reader. When the transactions goes through, you’ll hear a beep and you’ll feel a tap—this alerts you to the fact that the transaction is complete.

Before you can use Apple Pay, however, you need to set it up. This is done on the iPhone. From your iPhone, tap the Apple Watch app, and then scroll to “Add Credit or Debit Card,” and then tap it. You can either use a card on file with iTunes or add a new card. In either case you’ll have to add your security number (or the full number if you are adding a new card); depending on the card, you may need to verify with another step, which is usually a text message with a code from your bank. When you get the code, just tap Verify and enter it. You’re all set to use your watch to buy things!

Handoff lets you toggle between your watch and your phone without losing your place. If you are reading an email on your watch, and want to reply on your phone, then go to your phone; on the standby screen you will see an icon in the lower left corner; swipe up over that icon and the email you were reading on your watch is now on your phone. (Note: For this to work, your phone does need to be near your watch.)

As of this writing, Handoff supports the following apps: Mail, Maps, Messages, Phone, Reminders, Calendar, and Siri.

You can turn Handoff on and off by opening the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, going to My Watch, then tapping on General and Enable Handoff.

Arranging icons on the watch isn’t that much different from arranging them on your iPhone or iPad. To start, go to your home screen, then touch and hold an app icon; you can now drag it to a new location.

To install a new app, open the Apple Watch app from your iPhone (Note: you have to use your iPhone to install apps), and then tap the App Store to find apps for the Apple Watch. Once you download them from your phone, you’ll see a message on your watch asking if you want to install them. Just tap yes and you are done. When you are on the normal app store, you’ll see a little round icon and “Offers Apple Watch App” if it’s an app with a companion app for the watch.

The watch doesn’t have as much room as your phone, so you might run out of space. To view how much storage is being used by an app, go to the Apple Watch app on the iPhone, then tap on My Watch, then go to General and Usage. Finally, view the storage being used by each app.

If you would like to remove an app, go to the home screen on the watch, then tap and hold the app you want to remove; when an X appears over the app, tap it. It will remain installed on your iPhone unless you remove it from there as well. Apps that were installed by Apple (such as the Settings button) cannot be removed.

If you find the screen a bit to small for rearranging icons, then you can also do it right from your iPhone; just open the Apple Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, and tap Layout. You rearrange the icons just as you would on your watch.