The best Apple Watch features you can try on day one

If you’ve unboxed your new Apple Watch this holiday season, we’ve got plenty of tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your new wearable. Read our guide to some of our favorite Apple Watch features for health, activity, customization, and more.

Set up Apple Watch Activity Rings

For many people, the Apple Watch is a wearable device that focuses on fitness first and foremost. The core of this is the three rings, each colored in a different color: red for movement, green for movement, and blue for stand.

By default, the green Exercise ring closes when you log 30 minutes of vigorous activity, the blue Stand or Roll ring closes when you move for at least one minute out of 12 hours, and the red Move ring closes when you reach a personal goal. Active calories burned per day.

Apple also includes features to customize your workouts and set goals. Maybe you’re recovering from an injury and standing for 12 hours and working out for 30 minutes may be too much for your body to handle. People have also been asking Apple to integrate rest days into the Apple Watch ring system, a feature that would at least give users more control over their goals.

Here’s how to change your Move, Exercise, or Stand goals on your Apple Watch:

1. Open the Activity app on your Apple Watch.
2. Scroll down to find the ‘Change Goal’ button.
3. Use the + or – buttons to adjust your aim, or use the Digital Crown.
4. Click “OK” to confirm the changes.

Exercise rings can be lowered or raised in 5-minute intervals for a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 60 minutes. The stand goal can be changed in 1-hour increments, from a minimum of 6 hours to a maximum of 16 hours.

You can also create a custom schedule in the fitness app to help you maintain as healthy a lifestyle as possible. This includes the ability to schedule rest days and completely pause Apple Watch rings.

Customize your watch face

The heart of Apple Watch is the watch face. Watch faces allow you to add information called info displays, including weather, activity data, heart rate information, and more. The easiest way to create an Apple Watch face is to use the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

You can find the entire watch face library in the app’s ‘Face Gallery’ tab, and when you create a watch face you can add it to your personal collection. Once you’ve created multiple watch faces, you can easily swipe between them on Apple Watch to adjust them on the fly to suit different situations.

Apple Watch App Store

You can find apps created specifically for Apple Watch in the watchOS App Store. Press the digital crown on your Apple Watch and look for the App Store icon. Here you can easily find and install dedicated Apple Watch apps without using your iPhone at all.

Share your activities

One of the ways I stay motivated using my Apple Watch is by sharing my activity data with friends and family. This way, you can see when your friends have completed their workouts, how much progress they’ve made toward their goals, and when they’ve won new prizes.

To share your Apple Watch activity data with others, follow these steps:

1. Open the Fitness app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the share icon in the bottom right.
3. Tap the “+” button in the top corner.
4. Start typing a name, then tap the name you want to add. If the other person has an Apple Watch, their name will turn red.
5. Hit the Send button, then wait for your friend to accept your activity request. If you accept, a notification will appear on your Apple Watch.

This is one of my favorite features of the Apple Watch, and it even lets you start head-to-head weekly competitions with your friends.

Status monitoring function settings

The Apple Watch is not only great for intentionally tracking your fitness progress, but it’s also great for passive monitoring in the background.

fall detection

One such feature is called fall detection, which uses gyroscopes and accelerometers to detect if you’ve fallen and, more importantly, if you’ve fallen and can’t get back up. By default, fall detection is disabled for users under 65, but you can manually enable it using the following steps:

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Emergency SOS.
3. Look for the fall detection toggle
   • Apple warns that more physically active users may trigger fall detection even when they haven’t fallen. It is caused by high-impact activities and may manifest itself as a fall.
4. Tap OK.

mind

In the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, you can also enable a series of features that help Apple Watch take care of your mind. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and find the Hearts category. In this section you can enable the following features:

• To take an electrocardiogram on your Apple Watch (Series 4 or later), install the ECG app.
• Set cardio fitness levels and reminders that are powerful indicators of your overall health.
• Irregular Rhythm Notification to get notified when Apple Watch identifies multiple heart rhythms that may be atrial fibrillation.
• High heart rate notifications are for you to receive notifications when Apple Watch detects your heart rate rising to a certain level while you are inactive.
• Low heart rate alerts to notify you when Apple Watch detects that your heart rate drops below 50 bpm for 10 minutes.

collision detection

Crash Detection is designed to detect serious automotive crashes such as frontal, side, rear-end and rollovers involving sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks and other passenger vehicles.

If a serious motor vehicle collision is detected:

• Apple Watch chimes, taps your wrist, and identifies you on the screen. If you only have a watch, you’ll see an emergency call slider on the screen. If you have a watch with cellular capability or your watch is connected to Wi-Fi, you can call emergency services.
• If you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch, the emergency call slider only appears on your watch, and the call connects and calls audio plays on your watch.
• If possible, you can call emergency services or turn off the notification.
• If you are unable to respond, the device will automatically call emergency services after a 20 second delay.
• If you have added emergency contacts, your device will share your location and send you a message notifying you that a serious car accident has occurred.
• If you have set up a Medical ID, you will see a Medical ID slider on your device to help emergency responders access your medical information.

Suppress notifications

Apple Watch makes checking your notifications incredibly easy. Every time an app sends a push notification, you tap your wrist and hear a sound. But for many people, this can actually be burdensome and unnecessary.

To manage notifications on your Apple Watch, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and choose the Notifications category. Here you can see the list of applications and manage notifications as needed. My recommendation is to limit notifications on your Apple Watch as much as possible. Otherwise, you may feel overwhelmed.

Check out Apple Fitness+

Apple Fitness+ gives you access to a library of hundreds of on-demand workouts across popular categories like running, cycling, HIIT, rowing, yoga, and more.

Apple Fitness+ integrates tightly with Apple Watch, displaying real-time data from your Apple Watch on the screen during your workout. Plus, if you recently purchased a new Apple Watch, you’ll get three months of free access to the service.

You can find Apple Fitness+ in the Fitness app on your iPhone or Apple TV. It’s also available for iPad, and you can get started by downloading it from the iPadOS App Store.

Apple Watch Accessories

Finally, you may want to complement your new Apple Watch with accessories like a charging dock or watch band. Here are some of our favorites:

Best Apple Watch Charging Docks:

Best Apple Watch Bands: