6 Quick Tips and Tricks for the New Apple Watch Owner

While Find My iPhone is the best way to find your device when you may have lost it while you were out and about, there may come a time when you haven’t left your house all day, and you can’t find your iPhone. Is it in between the cushions in the couch? Did you leave it in the laundry room? Help find your iPhone by “pinging it” with your Apple Watch.

Access Glances on your Watch by swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen. Swipe left or right until you see the Settings glance. (Mine is on the left end of the lineup of Glances, meaning I just keep swiping my finger right until I see it.) Now, just tap the “Ping iPhone” button, (lower left corner of the Watch screen). and listen for your iPhone to make a noise. Marco! Phono!

Want to catch 20 winks in the middle of the day under your desk at work? (::COUGH!:: George Costanza! ::COUGH!::) Then set your Apple Watch to quietly wake you up with a gentle tap on the wrist.

To set an alarm, go to the Alarms app on the Apple Watch app screen. Firmly press the display, (this is known as “Force Touch”), then tap “New” and then “Change Time.” Now your Apple Watch will wake you up gently with a tap on the wrist via Haptic Feedback.

Want to take a group photo, and you want to be in the shot too? The Apple Watch makes a great remote viewfinder and remote shutter for the Camera app on your iPhone. For this feature to work properly, the Apple Watch and iPhone need to be within Bluetooth range of each other. (Around 30 feet or so.)

To get started, just open the Camera app on your Apple Watch, and press the shutter button, (it’s the solid white circle on the left). Boom! You’ve taken a photo on your iPhone without even touching it. Any photos taken in this manner will be stored on the iPhone. If you tap the button marked “3s,” there will be a three second delay before the photo is taken, giving you time to get in the photo.

You likely already knew about how to take a screenshot on your iOS device. If you’ve ever taken one on it, doing it on the Apple Watch will be a breeze.

Simply press the Digital Crown and the side button simultaneously. The screenshot will be captured and stored on your iPhone. To view it, just open the Photos app and view it like you’d normally do any photo.

While you may not ever have to restart your Apple Watch, it is basically a computer you wear on your wrist, and computers need to be restarted from time to time.

To force restart your Apple Watch, just hold down the digital crown and the side button simultaneously, until you see the Apple logo on the Apple Watch. (This should take around 10 seconds or so.) The Apple Watch will restart and everything should be good to go.

If you’re in a meeting or another important function, and you forgot to mute your Apple Watch, you can quickly do it using just the palm of your hand.

To make sure this feature is turned on, go to the Watch app on your iPhone, then go to “My Watch” -> “Sounds & Haptics,” and then toggle the “Cover to Mute” switch to the “ON” position. Now, you can mute alerts and notifications by covering the face of your Watch with your palm for three seconds. Your Watch will then vibrate to notify you that it has received the mute command.

Note: You’ll still receive a tap on the wrist to alert you of any alerts and notifications. Also, Mute will also not silence alarms or timers.

We hope you enjoy your new Apple Watch, and we also hope these six tips and tricks help you enjoy your new device even more! Stay tuned for more Apple Watch “how to” articles, coming soon!