Whether you’ve got the best Apple Watch on the market, a humble Apple Watch SE 2, or even an older model, watchOS is home to a plethora of options, buried in the nooks and crannies of the settings menus, that can make or break your Apple Watch experience.
There are some settings I always change when I’m using my Apple Watch, be it the notification sounds, raise-to-wake tweaks, and others. But there are also a few settings that people often overlook when using their Apple Watch.
I’ve been using Apple Watch for 10 years, both as a tech writer and an Apple employee, and these are some of the most common mistakes people make – myself very much included.
1. Not updating your fitness goals
Even beginner Apple Watch users will be familiar with Apple’s addictive Activity rings that track your move, exercise, and stand goals throughout the day. Closing your rings is a great way to stay healthy and active, with fun rewards and badges on offer to make taking care of yourself ever-so-slightly easier.
That being said, there’s one aspect you might have forgotten about, and that’s your fitness goals. You select your fitness goals whenever you set up a new Apple Watch for the first time.
If you don’t buy a new Apple Watch every year, or you restore your new model from a backup, there’s a chance that you haven’t looked at your goals in years, and as such it might be time to change them.
If you set relatively modest goals when you first got your Apple Watch, and find that you’re crushing them on the daily, perhaps it’s time to increase those targets and push yourself a bit more.
Suppose your move goal is a very low number of calories, or you set your stand goal to a paltry one hour because you just wanted to get on with using your Apple Watch. Why not revisit those goals and give yourself a boost? Conversely, if you're struggling to hit goals that are too ambitious, why not revise them to more modest levels to help increase your motivation?
To change your fitness goals, simply head to the Activity app on your watch, scroll down, and tap the -+ icon in the bottom right-hand corner to change your goals. Remember to apply the principles of progressive overload here. If you’re happily managing 10 minutes of exercise, maybe try 15 or 20, but don’t overdo it and go for 60-plus – even 15 is a 50% increase.
Not managing your notifications
Even the most basic notification management on your Apple Watch is going to save you a world of frustration. Having on-wrist dings and pings sounds great, but after 10 minutes you’re going to find Apple Watch notifications hilariously annoying.
Notifications from your Apple Watch, especially superfluous ones, are distracting and drain your battery. At the very least, use the Apple Watch Do Not Disturb to get some reprieve – just remember that this also silences your iPhone.
A more effective way to manage your notifications is to use the Focus Mode feature on your iPhone, which can help sift notifications while you’re at work, exercising, or just trying to get some personal downtime.
Finally, head to the Notifications section of the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and toggle which apps from your iPhone you want to see notifications from on your Apple Watch – I guarantee you’ll turn off half of them, and your wrist will thank you for it.
Not using your Emergency Contacts
Formulating this list, I settled on Emergency Contacts as my final pick with a chuckle. “Who doesn’t have Emergency Contacts set up on Apple Watch?” I scoffed to myself quietly.
Me. That's who. I didn’t have Emergency Contacts set up on my Apple Watch.
I thought I did, but I’m not sure why. Maybe I assumed it was automatic, or maybe I thought about doing it once and then never got around to it.
In your Apple Watch app head to Emergency SOS, scroll down to Emergency Contacts to check yours. If your Apple Watch automatically calls emergency services after a crash or fall, or if you do it manually by holding the Side Button, your Watch can also automatically notify relatives and friends of your plight, including information about your location.
You should absolutely check you have a list of contacts including friends and loved ones in there. You should also check that any contacts you've set up are still relevant, and that their numbers haven’t changed. The Apple Watch Emergency SOS feature is a vital safety tool even Tim Cook has used, so don’t be a plum like me.
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