The Apple Watch is a new smartwatch that will connect to your iPhone and accomplish numerous tasks. You’re probably very familiar with the new device’s name that’s coming out soon by now, but you want to know more about the things you can do with it, am I right? The Apple Watch release date will be set in April and until then we want to share with you 20 Apple Watch features that we believe are the best and most exciting.
More Apple Watch features are sure to be reveled in the near future in an event where the company will share the exact release date of the new device and its full specifications. Even though there are a lot more features we don’t know about the Apple Watch, we do know some things this new smartwatch can do as the company revealed much of them in 2014.
The price of the Apple Watch starts at $349 for the Sport edition but we expect that the high-end models to reach up to and over $1,000.
To use the Apple Watch you will need an iPhone, of course, because many of the things that you will be able to do with the smartwatch rely on the connectivity between the two devices. This smartwatch won’t replace the iPhone; it just offers a way to access more quickly your daily activities. Even though this device is not the first smartwatch on the market and not even the first to connect to an iPhone, it’s still the most anticipated one.
To help you decide whether the Apple Watch is a great investment or not, we made a list of 20 Apple Watch features that we believe are the best and most useful.
1. Answer calls
You can use the Apple Watch to answer calls by using it as a Bluetooth speaker. However, after using the Samsung smartwatch that has a similar feature, we now know that you should only use this for small conversations and never answer calls that you wouldn’t take on speakerphone either.
2. Monitor your heart rate
The Apple Watch has sensors on its back that can monitor your heart rate. However, it’s still not clear whether the smartwatch will record your resting heart rate or not, so the usefulness of this feature will definitely depend on how regular the watch will monitor it. We really hope to find out more about this feature at an event held by Apple in 2015.
3. Glances
The smartwatch has a feature called Glances. These are small pieces of info that you can look and swap through on your Apple Watch. They can include sports scores, maps, stocks, meetings and the weather. They aren’t the same thing as the notifications on your iPhone, but are similar in nature to the Today panel in Notification Center on your phone. Third party apps can also share Glances on the screen of your watch.
4. Change the watch faces
You can pick a new face for you Apple Watch to be relevant to the event you’re taking part of. We’ve seen 12 faces that range from functional and fitness to formal. There is a classic analog look, a face with Mickey Mouse, numerous digital ones and others that include info from the calendar and details such as the sunset and sunrise.
5. Track your fitness activity
The smartwatch from Apple makes use of numerous sensors to track your movement and your fitness activity progress. You will be able to see your progress in three categories: exercise, time spent standing and movement. Your fitness activity information will also be available on your iPhone.
6. Tickets on your Apple Watch
With the Passbook app on your Apple Watch you will be able to have tickets and loyalty cards right on your wrist. When you will need a ticket you will only have to show your watch to the gate agent or cashier and you will be all set to go.
7. Find your iPhone
You can find where your misplaced iPhone is with your Apple Watch, as long as it’s connected to it. However, you can’t find a stolen or lost iPhone, or even one that’s out of the Bluetooth range but it’s still a pretty useful feature for those who are constantly misplacing their phones.
8. Remote viewfinder for your iPhone camera
You can use your smartwatch as a remote viewfinder for the camera on your iPhone. By using this function you can place your iPhone somewhere, then get into frame and take the shot. It’s a way easier and better way of taking your own shot without the front facing camera or with the help of a selfie stick.
9. View and reply text messages
You can see the iMessages or text messages you receive on your wrist with the help of the Apple Watch. You may also reply to them with template messages. It’s a pretty useful feature that will save you the trouble of constantly taking out your iPhone out of your pocket. On top of this, you will also be able to use Siri to compose messages.
10. Check your emails
You can get email notifications on your Apple Watch. You will also be able to flag, delete or read them on the watch or open them on your iPhone for full view. This features works with the Mail app on the iPhone and it’s unclear at the time whether it will work with third party apps too, or not.
11. Browse through all your Apple Watch apps
There will be a lot of apps that you will be able to install on your Apple Watch even though it may be a while until a vast library of apps will be available for it. However, the apps will appear as small circles on the screen of the watch and you will be able to browse through them by using the small Digital Crown on the side of the smartwatch to leave the screen empty for better viewing.
12. Send Emoji
If you’re a big fan of Emoji on your iPhone, you’ll be glad to find out that you will be able to send better, bigger and animated Emoji from your watch.
13. Get notifications from your iPhone
The smartwatch can display the notifications from your iPhone. This includes notifications from third party apps such as Gmail, Facebook and pretty much anything you can think of. You can customize the notifications you will receive so you won’t be overwhelmed by invites from Candy Crush and other apps that send annoying, frequent notifications.
14. Share your heartbeat with other Apple Watch users
The smartwatch can track your heart rate and fitness activity, but this is not all it can do. If you want, you can share your heartbeat with a friend that also has an Apple Watch. When you share this with a close friend, an animation will appear on the other person’s watch that will show your heartbeat. Apple says that this is an intimate way of showing someone how you feel.
15. Use Apple Pay
You won’t need to take your iPhone out of your pocket to make a payment through Apple Pay; you can do so just with the help of your watch. Apple Pay allows you to add multiple credit cards in the service so you won’t have to worry about carrying them with you. The service allows you to pay with your Apple Watch in stores that support this kind of payment.
16. Exercise reminder
If you’re getting a little lazy and you’ve been sitting around doing nothing for quite some time, Apple Watch will remind you it’s time to get up. While this isn’t the first smartwatch to do this thing, it’s a very nifty feature.
17. Access contacts
You can push a small button next to the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to quickly access all your contacts. By doing this, you can select a contact to send a message to or call. This is also how you send your heartbeat to someone, a tap or a drawing. The tap feature is similar to the Facebook poke.
18. Use Siri
You can access Siri on your Apple Watch by saying “Hey Siri” or by holding down the Digital Crown button. To use this feature you will have to have your Apple Watch connected to your iPhone.
19. Share your current location
Apple Watch can be used to share your current location with a friend. This feature is already available in Messages on the iOS 8 and makes it easier for people to know where you currently are and in the near future you will be able to do the same thing through your Apple Watch.
20. Control your music and Apple TV
You can use the smartwatch as a remote control for iTunes and Apple TV. This is a pretty cool feature as it’s almost never easy to find that small remote and you sometimes really need to pause the music or TV when you can’t do so by using the iPhone Apple TV remote app. You can use the Apple Watch to browse through lists, menus, choose the movies you want to see and listen to the radio or music on iTunes.
So there you have it. This was our list of the best 20 Apple Watch features so far.
Images source: gottabemobile.com
Roxanne Briean
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