Years ago, I remember how people used to purchase watches solely for the purpose of telling time. As time progressed, watches evolved, and some of them were even capable of displaying the date and year. In fact, there were watches that were considered “really cool” because they had a built-in calculator.
However, the advancements in watch technology since then have been remarkable. Nowadays, watches have become incredibly advanced devices. They go beyond simply providing timekeeping, date, and year functions. They now offer an array of impressive features such as blood pressure and blood oxygen measurement, fitness activity tracking, the ability to make phone calls, read emails, and much more.
It’s truly fascinating to explore the capabilities of the Apple Watch and delve into the possibilities of what it may offer in the future. Let’s take a closer look at all the incredible features the Apple Watch currently possesses and even speculate about the futuristic enhancements it might introduce.
1. Make Phone Calls
Apple Watch gives you the option to answer phone calls and make phone calls from your watch. We tried this out. The quality isn’t bad, but in comparison to the phone…there’s a difference. For short calls, it’s great. You tell what you got to tell and move on. But if you’re planning on having a more extended conversation, maybe grab your phone. The quality is superior in comparison. On the other hand, if you have your AirPods in – it doesn’t matter.
You can also get Apple Watch with LTE and make a phone call from anywhere you want, and if you have your AirPods, the quality is outstanding.
2. Text Messages
Yes, you can even send texts with Apple Watch, and you can even use apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, etc., on 41mm Apple Watch, texting wasn’t great on 44mm – not great either. You can definitely send one, if necessary, but it’s just not productive it takes at least x5 amount of time to send the text.
We concluded that it’s just great if you want to send short texts – OMW, OK, LOL, etc. If you want to send a long text, just grab your phone, don’t struggle.
3. Calculator
Yeah, that’s right, Apple Watch has a calculator, their own app. Even iPads still don’t have them by default. All the cool watches have a calculator. It might come in handy if you have to calculate a tip at the restaurant or for the taxi driver.
4. Walkie Talkie
The first Apple Watch I bought was a series 7, so I didn’t know beforehand about this feature, but it’s pretty cool. You can send audio messages to your friends whenever. Don’t worry. It won’t play out loud when you’re in an important meeting.
I found it to be convenient for communication purposes.
Learn more about Walkie-Talkie
5. Record Voice Memo
It’s exactly what it sounds like. There’s an app in your watch by default that allows you to record your thoughts, conversations, meetings, anything you would like. It’s easy to pause. It’s easy to resume. It’s a very straightforward app. I specifically don’t record my thoughts, but it was nice to know I have the option. It might come in handy if you’re a journalist.
6. Track Your Menstrual Cycle
Since I’m a man, my knowledge about this topic and app is limited, but the Apple Watch gives you the option to follow your cycle and get updates about your possible next period, ovulation, etc. If you type in your cycle accurately, it helps you predict the future more precisely.
7. Notes from Macbook
This is something I liked very much. Every time I have a meeting, I want to outline what I would like to talk to and know after the meeting. I usually made notes the previous day so the meeting could run more productively. I used my iPhone for this purpose, but a bit more convenient when you have your talking points/topics on your wrist.
Sure, it’s not a feature you would buy the watch for since your phone can do the same thing, but it’s more of a nice to have feature.
8. Flashlight
Yes, the watch has a flashlight. It’s not very bright. I tried it out, and I’m not sure what are the use cases for this. I guess you could use it if you drop your earplugs at night in your room or something, but on the other hand, you need to charge the watch at night, and you can turn on the light.
I’m not sure of other use cases you can use it for, but if you have something – drop a comment below.
9. You Can Use Apple Watch in Water
Series 7 Apple Watch comes with IP6X water-resistant rating. You can dive 50meters, and it will do just fine.
I used it while running, cycling, and showered with the watch. I didn’t face any issues. No concerns whatsoever.
You can read more about IPX ratings here.
10. Monitor Noise Levels
It’s exactly what it sounds like – with this app, you can measure the sound levels around you. Find out how loud the environment is around you. It might come in handy if you have sensitive ears or you have a baby, child, or pet that might be sensitive to loud noises.
11. Compass
I’m not really a hiker or a camper, but I assume this feature might come in handy if you’re into things like these. It works like a regular compass. The app is on your watch by default. It shows you the direction you are facing, incline, elevation, altitude, longitude, etc.
12. Watch Faces
There are so many watch faces. For different tastes. Classy, casual, modern, etc.
There are hundreds of options to choose from. You can even customize some of the faces, add your picture, motion, time-lapse from your gallery, etc.
You don’t need to buy a new watch when you get bored with the design. You can just install a new Watch Face.
13. Podcasts
I’m into podcasts and audiobooks, and it’s a pretty cool feature if you have an LTE Apple Watch; if not, then there’s no update. You can just play your podcast/audiobook from your phone.
You can use Spotify, Amazon Audible, and of course, a lot of other apps.
14. Track Your Fitness
If you’re into fitness or getting a better shape, it’s nice to monitor your stats. You can check your progress in multiple ways – how many steps have you taken today, what was your movement, how much time you spent on exercise, and how much time you spent standing. It also measures calories burned, calories burned, exercising, etc. You can even track your treadmill workouts. The Apple Watch will also notify you when it’s time to stand up to reach your calorie goals. You can, of course, modify the notification as you need.
I honestly enjoyed checking how many steps I have taken per day, and I try to keep the numbers up. If you can measure, you can improve.
15. Activity Competition
It’s great to check up on your progress, but it’s even better if you can compare it to your friends. Gives you an extra boost of motivation.
When you see that your friend has done 10k steps already, it motivates you to go for a run a do a bit better. I guess I’m pretty competitive by nature.
16. Silence Mode
You can turn on Silence/movies mode at any time. You won’t receive any notification in the meantime. That comes in handy. I got to be honest, some of the notifications may sound fun and cool at the beginning when you buy the watch, but after some time, they are annoying, and you will turn most of them off since they are distracting you quite often, but with a press of a button you can turn off all of them at once. Distraction-free.
17. Measure Your Heart Rate
Which, in my opinion, is one of the coolest options, especially if you’re facing some problems with your heart.
It measures your heart rate automatically, and you can view a report on how your heart is doing. We also compared it to a blood pressure device, and surprisingly it was very accurate.
18. Notifications On Your Wrist
At first, it seems great, but it gets old really fast. I turned off 80% of the notifications due to the constant distractions. But overall, it’s a great feature, and you won’t miss a phone call for sure.
19. There’s a Wallet on Your Wrist Now
Your Apple Wallet is on your wrist now. You can make card payments, scan your boarding pass, scan your covid pass and even unlock your car with this feature.
20. You Can Improve Your Memoji Game
I didn’t find it useful, but if you have a good Memoji game, you can also start sending them from your watch to your friends, family, etc.
21. BMW Keys
Yes, it’s possible. You can unlock your car if it’s a BMW 2020 or younger and if your watch is WatchOS 6.2.6 or higher. It’s a relatively new feature, and I assume in the future you will also be able to unlock different brand cars besides BMW.
You can share your heartbeat with your family, friends, and loved ones, so they know you are all right. Nice and lovely feature.
At first, I didn’t even know about this feature, and I thought it was not really useful, but I changed my mind. Especially when you’re driving, you have navigation right on your wrist. I felt it’s a lot less of a distraction than checking your phone every 30 seconds.
It is also great if you’re on your feet. There is no need to pull out your iPhone.
24. Siri
Of course, there’s Siri on your Apple Watch as well, you can ask to turn on directions, make notes, show your calendar, make a phone call, send a text, but your watch needs to be connected with iPhone if you don’t have an LTE watch.
25. Photos
You can access your photo gallery from your Apple Watch. I didn’t find it useful. Perhaps it’s useful if you’re planning to cheat on your exams or something. But overall, I think it’s much easier to pull out your iPhone from your pocket and show a decent size picture.
26. Music
Lately, I feel like my head is not a great place to be, and I often listen to Spotify(you can use other Music streaming apps), and it’s great. But you can really take advantage of this if you buy the LTE Watch. You can go for a run without your iPhone. Just your smartwatch and AirPods.
If you don’t have the LTE watch, you can, of course, still use Spotify and other apps, but you will need your iPhone with you at all times. You can skip, repeat, shuffle from your Apple Watch.
I love this feature. Honestly, every time you arrange a meeting, someone is always late annoying. Share your location before you leave your house, so everyone knows where you at. You can do it with your watch now, which is a bit more convenient. Comes in handy.
28. Email
Nice to have feature. You can check your emails. I honestly didn’t use it, I tried it, but that’s it. I’m the person that likes to read my emails from my laptop. I don’t even read them from my iPhone. I like to read and reply; otherwise, I forget them. But I’m sure for some it might be very useful.
29. Apple TV Control
If you own and use Apple TV and you have lost your remote, or it’s just too far away, and you’re not in the mood to get up – no worries, change the movie or skip to the next episode just by using your Apple Watch.
30. Find your iPhone
I don’t really have the issue that I lose my iPhone, but I tested it anyway. You can press a button on your Apple Watch, and your iPhone will start beeping. After that, it’s pretty easy to locate your lost phone.
I definitely should teach this to my Mom. She’s losing her phone 5 times a day.
31. Timer
I liked this feature a lot. I’m not that great at cooking pasta. It’s hard to get it right. Now I just read the instructions, set the times, and do my own things.
I’m sure there are other use cases, especially if you’re into sports or you are a coach—definitely a useful feature.
You can even set up multiple timers at once—5min, 10min, 15min, 20min, etc.
32. SOS
Press and hold the side button on the Apple Watch to activate the SOS feature. You will still need a WiFi connection or your iPhone nearby or LTE version.
The watch also knows your location, and it will call the appropriate number.
33. Virtual Asistant
You will have a private assistant on your wrist that reminds you of your upcoming meetings, appointments, etc. It will even remind you to take deep breaths every now and then. You can, of course, make notes by using Siri and setting meetings as well.
34. Smart Home
If you used your iPhone/iPad to control some of your smart gadgets at home now, you can skip that and control everything from your wrist.
35. Weather App
It’s easier to plan your day if you know the upcoming weather. It shows you the temperature and what to expect. I don’t know why but I never checked the weather from my phone, but I checked the weather on a daily basis when I got my first smartwatch. Let’s you know if you need your umbrella or not and how to dress for the day.
36. Stock Apps
Are you into investing? Like to follow trends and the market? Good, you can check up on your stocks from your wrist, you can’t get as much analytics data as you would get from a laptop, but you can get out the basics.
37. Cryptocurrency
You bought Bitcoin and want to know how it’s doing? You can download the Coinbase app and follow and monitor all cryptocurrencies.
38. Translation App
It might come in handy, but a lot more convenient to use your phone for this. The texting part is hard, it’s just too small, but you can just use your voice instead.
39. Sleep Tracking
The Apple Watch has a built-in sleep app. You can set up your schedule when you go to bed and when to wake up, and it will automatically set all your devices to “do not disturb” mode. To track your sleep quality, you will need to get a different app from the App Store.
40. Passwords On Your Wrist
You can get the LastPass app for your Apple Watch. You can add all passwords for all the services and websites there and keep them safe. You can, of course, keep them in your notes, but that’s not recommended. LastPass gives your more security over your passwords.
41. Check Blood Oxygen
That’s right. You can check Bloox Oxygen with your watch. It has a built-in SpO2 sensor. Nice feature if you are an athlete or work out a lot or just like to check on your health from time to time. It takes around ~15-20sec to check your oxygen levels.
42. Track Your Cycling/Skiing/Snowboarding Results
These are the things you can track – vertical distance and horizontal distance, average and maximum speed, time spent, and of course, how many calories you burned during your exercise.
43. You Can Unlock Your MacBook With Apple Watch
You can unlock mac with a fingerprint, you can open it with a password, and now you can unlock your MacBook with the Apple Watch. Nice to have, but I didn’t find it very useful.
44. Unlock iPhone with Watch
You can also unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch. There is no need for a fingerprint or passcode again; I didn’t find it useful, but I suppose it’s a feature that’s nice to have.
45. Alarm
This might be obvious, but we have to mention even the obvious features – you can not only set a timer, but you can also set an alarm clock.
46. Apple Watch Also Tells Time
Yes, I know. Mind-blowing. Apple Watch tells time, you can set multiple timezones if you’re traveling a lot, but of course, it will change automatically since it knows your location.
47. Swap Bands
I know girls love this feature. I personally prefer all black, and I don’t need anything else, but there are so many new brands that create Apple Watch bands specifically. Of course, you can also buy bands officially from Apple. There are some cool options out there. I got to admit – gold bands, silver bands, metal bands, etc.
Some of these bands actually look a bit better than the original ones.
Why Do Apple Watch Bands Smell? How To Fix That
48. Track Your Kids
There’s a new feature starting from watchOS 7 – now you can add a second Apple Watch to your already existing Apple ID and add your kid’s watch. This allows you to track their locations, and they will also be able to make calls and enjoy other features that Apple Watch offers. LTE Apple Watches only support this feature.
49. Volume Up / Volume Down
You can turn your podcast or music louder or more quitter just with Apple Watch. It comes in handy if you’re working out or on a call. Nothing special, to be honest, but nice to have, again.
50. Stream Music Without iPhone
This only applies if you have an LTE Apple Watch. You put your watch on, you put in your AirPods, you turn on Spotify, and you go for a run or a walk. Leave your phone at home. Honestly, this is one of the best features the watch offers. I hate to bring my phone with me when I go for a run or a walk, but I love to listen to some good music or a good podcast. It feels like I’m killing two birds with one shot.
51. Focus Mode
Want to be productive, but your family and friends keep sending you texts? Put on focus mode and get s*it done.
52. Order Food
Not all of the food delivery apps allow this, but for example, Dominos Pizza allows you to repeat your saved/favorite orders. You can also track the delivery through the Watch. If you want to step up your “Lazy” game, you should try it out.
53. Rear iPhone Camera
Do you love selfies? Not a big fan of the front-facing camera? Well, you can check the rear camera with Apple Watch. “Siri, show me the rear camera of my iPhone.” You can take some pictures on the timer and step up your selfie game, and you can probably do some spying, which we don’t recommend.
54. Tell Time Out Loud
This is a feature I didn’t know Apple Watches had, and many people don’t. You hold two fingers on the screen, and it will tell you the time out loud. You can, of course, ask Siri, but this also seems a good option in some cases.
55. Find People
If you share your location with friends & family, you also can check upon them. Know their whereabouts at all times. Share your location only with people you trust. It might come in handy also if someone loses their watch.
56. NightStand Clock
I usually charge it at night, and you can put it down as a nightstand clock to see the time. I mostly used it to know how much time I had left for sleep.
57. Instagram
Well, if you can check your photo gallery, you can also check Instagram. I tried it out, and my feedback stays the same – it’s not an enjoyable experience. The screen just isn’t big enough.
58. Check News
You can check the news about what has happened in the world, but it’s not an enjoyable experience. It’s much more convenient to take your iPhone/iPad/Mac, etc.
59. Send Money
With Apple Pay Cash, you can transfer money to your friends, family, colleagues, etc., in seconds.
60. Take A Screenshot
This feature is not enabled by default in order to enable it: Watch Companion App > General > Toggle Screenshots on
Now you can take a screenshot by pushing the Digital Crown and the Action Button below, both at the same time.
61. Gaming
You can get some very basic games on your Apple Watch – Tiny Armies, Pocket Bandit, BubbleGum Hero, and many others. You can pass the time with these.
Verdict
Overall I enjoy owning an Apple Watch. Is it worth the money? That’s not a question for me to answer, you definitely can find some of these features helpful, and they can honestly increase your overall productivity and the way how you interact with the world.
I bought my first smartwatch in 2018 and have been wearing one ever since. It might get frustrating at times to receive 100 notifications a day. That's why we need to know how to make the best of them and how to use them to improve our daily lives, not the other way around. I write about the newest smartwatches, I create top picks, and I write helpful guides and simply explain complicated things.