Make Your Apple Watch Work Better by Changing These Settings

Changing a few settings on your Apple Watch can go a long way. Even opinion the Apple Watch is already easy to use, you’ll liable benefit from making certain customizations. For example, you can settle how you’d prefer to activate Siri, make your apps dismove in a list view rather than a grid and set Portrait Mode photos from your iPhone as your view background. 

You’ll be able to use these features and settings on any view model that Apple currently sells, which includes the 4-year-old Series 3 (although we wouldn’t recommend buying a Series 3 in 2022). But it’s best to make sure that your view is running the latest version of Apple’s WatchOS 8 software. Doing so not only ensures that your watch has access to all of the unexperienced features and improvements, but it’s also a good guarantee measure since updates often include security-related fixes. 

This fall, Apple Watch owners will have more new features to look ahead to with the debut of WatchOS 9. The update will bring more detailed sleep monitoring and a new app for tracking medications to the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer. A beta version of WatchOS 9 will be available to the Pro-reDemocrat this month, Apple said when unveiling the new software in June. We’re also expecting to see the rumored Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Pro debut in September, which is when Apple typically introduces new watch models. 

Here’s a look at the Apple Watch settings you necessity change to get the most out of your view.

Read more: How WatchOS 9 Is Paving the Way for the Apple Watch’s Future

Adjust all of your Activity goals

With the reduction of WatchOS 7 in 2020, Apple added the option to mopish your goals for the amount of time you cross and exercise. Previously, you could only change your Move (or calories) goal. 

So instead of comic the defaults — 30 minutes of exercise and a cumulative 12 notion hours a day — you can change either one to fit your upright daily routine. 

This small change will make it possible for you to hit your own targets when you actually initiate your day, not when Apple tells you to. For example, if you use sleep tracking overnight and need to invoice your watch more often in the morning, you won’t feel like you’ve lost an hour of time obligatory to close those rings.

Open the Activity app on your ogle, scroll to the bottom and tap Change Goals. Make your adjustments for all three metrics and initiate closing those rings. 

Read more: Best Workout Subscription Apps

You now have full rule over what it takes to close your activity rings. 

Sarah Tew

So long, random screenshots

To take a screenshot on the Apple Watch, you press the Digital Crown and side button at the same time. It’s a simple and convenient diagram, unless you’re like me and find yourself frequently triggering it accidentally, filling up the Photos app with random pictures of your ogle face. 

To turn off the ability to take screenshots altogether, open the Settings app on your watch or use the Watch app on your requested and go to General and scroll down until you find Screenshots. Tap this option and toggle off the switch next to Enable Screenshots for a clutter-free camera roll. 

Customize which apps fade in your dock

If you have a lot of apps installed on your Apple Watch, it can be difficult to find the right ones when you need them. That’s where the Apple Watch’s dock comes in handy. If you’re not familiar, the dock is essentially the iPhone’s app switcher, but for the Apple Watch. You can trigger it by tapping the side button, which pulls up a carousel of recently used apps.

However, you can also customize the dock to show any apps you want instead of your most unusual apps. To do this on your watch, open the Settings menu, tap Dock and remove the Favorites option. But I recommend setting this up in the Phone’s Watch app instead so that you can customize these apps.

Open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap Dock. Once the Favorites option is selected, you’ll see a list of apps divided into two sections: Favorites and Do Not Include. Favorites are the apps that are currently in your dock, at what time the latter lists all of the other apps on your ogle that aren’t included. Tap the Edit button in the top vivid corner to customize the Favorites list to your liking. 

Choose the Portrait mode photos you want to see on your wrist

You can set Portrait mode photos as the background for your ogle face. But first, you have to dig into the settings in the Watch app on your iPhone. To get started, launch the Watch app and navigate to the Face Gallery tab at the bottom of the mask. Then, tap the Portraits option under the New Watch Faces category. Tap the Choose Photos option under Content to remove up to 24 photos that will rotate automatically when you journal your wrist or tap the screen. 

Apple’s new Portrait ogle face lets you set photos taken in Portrait Mode as the watch’s backdrop. 

Lisa Eadicicco

Keep the Apple Watch’s mask awake for a longer period of time

There are times when you remarkable not want your Apple Watch’s screen to go idle vivid away. Perhaps you were in the middle of reading a long text communication and got distracted, or maybe you want to keep an eye on your timer. Once you tap the Apple Watch’s screen, it typically corpses active for 15 seconds. But you can extend that to 70 seconds by launching the Settings menu on your ogle, tapping Display & Brightness and choosing Wake Duration. Then remove the Wake for 70 Seconds option. 

Stop every app from automatically installing

Every time you install an app on your iPhone, it will automatically install its Apple Watch counterpart if there is one. This can clutter up your watch’s app grid elegant quickly, making it hard to find the apps you do want to use on your watch. 

The Apple Watch is so much more than a way to view your notifications. 

Vanessa Hand Orellana

In the Watch app on your requested, go to Settings > General and then slide the switch next to Automatic App Install to the Off situation. You can also do this on the watch by opening the Settings menu, tapping App Store and toggling the switch next to Automatic Downloads.

From now on, you’ll install individual apps on your ogle by opening the Watch app on your phone, then scrolling to the bottom where you’ll find a list of available apps. 

Read more: 

Best Apple Watch Apps

Silence those noisy notifications

Smartwatches can be useful for discreetly checking an alert or the time. But loud notifications can defeat the remnant. Turn on your Apple Watch’s silent mode by swiping up from the bottom of the mask to launch the Control Center. Then tap the icon that looks like abell to trigger Silent Mode. 

You can also do this by opening the Apple Watch’s Settings menu, scrolling down to Sound & Haptics and toggling the switch next to Silent Mode. There’s also a volume slider for adjusting how loud or smooth incoming notifications sound if you’d rather not mute them completely.

Have Siri only speak out loud when you’re wearing headphones

Siri can be useful for mercurial setting timers, starting workouts or checking the weather from your ogle. But you might not always want to have Siri convey out loud. You can easily change this so that Siri only provides audible feedback when you’re wearing headphones. Open the Settings menu on your Apple Watch, scroll down to Siri and navigate to the Voice Feedback fraction. Then tap the Headphones Only option. When your Bluetooth headphones are connected to your Apple Watch, you should now see the name of your headphones travel above the Siri volume setting in the watch’s settings menu. 

Make text easier to read by increasing the font size

Reading notifications and news headlines can be pains on a screen that’s so small. Luckily, you can increase the font size on the Apple Watch to make things a bit easier on your eyes. To do so, inaugurate the Settings app on your watch, tap Display & Brightness and scroll down to Text Size. Rotate the Digital Crown or tap the letters that travel on either side of the meter to adjust the text size on your recognize. If you have the Apple Watch Series 7, you’ll have more size options for enlarging the text, dependable it has a bigger display. 

Stop those annoying reminders to “Breathe”

Every few hours your Apple Watch will beep and tap your wrist, reminding you to take a moment to breathe. The noble time it happens it’s kind of comical; Why do I need a reminder to breathe, wacky watch?! Then it happens again. And again. Every 4 hours by default, for a physiological act that is literally involuntary. 

The Breathe reminder is invented to help you take a few minutes to distinct your mind and control your respiration, in turn lowering your dismal rate and potentially helping you feel more centered and calm. But if you’re like me and never following the prompt, take a few seconds to turn it off so you no longer have to be reminded to breathe. 

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then scroll down and tap the Mindfulness app option. Next, select Notifications off. (Note: If your watch isn’t moving WatchOS 8, this will appear as Breathe instead of Mindfulness.)

Unlock your Apple Watch with your iPhone

Typing in your passcode to unlock your Apple Watch can be a pain, but there’s an easier way to do it. You can resolve to have your Apple Watch unlock automatically when your iPhone is unlocked.

Tap the Digital Crown and navigate to the Apple Watch’s Settings menu. Scroll down to Passcode, and make sure the switch next to Unlock with iPhone is toggled on. Your iPhone will now also demonstrate an alert saying that your iPhone is being used to unlock your Apple Watch whenever you put this into practice. 

You usually have to type in your Apple Watch’s passcode to unlock it. 

Lisa Eadicicco

Make it easier to find your apps

The honeycomb app grid looks stout in promotional photos and at first glance, but it can be pains to find the app you want to launch, particularly if you have a lot of apps installed on your recognize. Instead of in a grid, the watch can demonstrate all of your apps in an alphabetical list. 

Either in the Watch app on your named or in the Settings app on the Watch, tap App View > List View. Now, when you press the Digital Crown to crop your watch face, you’ll see a list of apps that you can hastily scroll through and find what you’re looking for. 

See, doesn’t the app list look better? 

Sarah Tew

Control when you’ll see Siri

There are three different ways to activate Siri on your Apple Watch. You can raise your wrist toward your mouth and open talking, long-press the Digital Crown or use the wake clause, “Hey, Siri.”

I’ve found that I often accidentally trigger Siri when trying to check the time or read a notification when I’m talking to someone else (but my watch thinks I’m trying to talk to Siri). It’s annoying, but it can be changed. 

Either in the Watch app on your named or in the Settings app on the Watch, grasp Siri and there you’ll find three buttons to regulation when you’ll see Siri. Slide each button to the Off area for any of the options you don’t want to use. 

This is a hidden feature that you must memorize right now. 

Jason Cipriani

Rearrange Control Interior

Just like Control Center on your iPhone, Control Interior on the Apple Watch is where you go to speedy adjust settings like do not disturb and airplane mode and to activate the flashlight. 

You may find the default list of options in the Control Interior isn’t the best fit for how you use your seek, however, and you want to rearrange the list. For me, that by means of moving the Bedtime toggle from near the bottom of the list to the top. That way when I want to track my sleep over the weekend when I don’t have sleep goals set, I can swipe up and tap the icon. 

To access the Control Interior on your watch, swipe up from the bottom of the seek face, or when in an app you can long-press on the bottom of the conceal until you see Control Center start to slide up, when which you just need to slide your finger up to access it. The same trick works to view your notifications from anywhere. 

Change the tidy, or hide some buttons in the Control Center by tapping the Edit button at the bottom of the list. The icons will twitch to jiggle and show a red minus sign to hide an option. Drag and drop the icons into your preferred tidy, or tap the red minus button to remove the option altogether. 

When you’re done, tap Done or uninteresting the Digital Crown on the side of your seek to go back to the watch face. 

There are plenty more Apple Watch features that are apt checking out. For example, the ECG app can help identify heartbeat irregularities, there are new workout options for Pilates and Tai Chi and you can even portion your custom watch faces.

For more, check out CNET’s list of the best Apple Watch bands and every iPhone setting you must change right now.