First, congratulations on your newApple Watch. Once you have gone through the basic steps of setting it up, including connecting it with your iPhone, there are a few things you should do right off the bat. Some of these tasks will be included as prompts during the initial set-up process, but your excitement may have caused you to breeze by them and choose to set up later.
You just want to get it on your wrist and start tracking those steps and exercises right away, after all, but definitely ensure todownload the new watchOS 11. Once you’re done powering through the initial set-up process and going over these tips, consider exploring some of the extra hiddenfeatures you probably didn’t realize your Apple Watch had.
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1Familiarize yourself with navigation
What does this button do?
From the touchscreen interface to the Digital Crown and the side button, you’ll want to play around with them all to get a feel for how to navigate the watch and its many menus and apps. Go ahead and swipe, scroll, and press to your heart’s content so you can see how it functions.
Don’t worry, you won’t break it. At any time, just push the Digital Crown in to return to the Home Screen.
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2Tap the apps
Learn what each one is
The Apple Watch comes with many pre-loaded apps, including Activity, App Store, Calendar, Blood Oxygen, Find My, Maps, Photos,Sleep Tracking,ECG, and more. Take some time to sit down and click on each app icon to familiarize yourself with what it is and what it does.
In most cases, the image on the icon itself is indicative of what the app is. But, some aren’t as easy to figure out – you’ll find potentially useful apps, like the app for logging menstrual cycles, medication reminders, and the new Vitals app. Getting better acquainted with these apps will be helpful.
Once you know what’s what, you can also press and hold on the screen until the apps begin to jiggle – just like you do on an iPhone – then move them around until you have the layout exactly how you like.
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3Change the watch face
Personalize the look to you
The first step to making Apple Watch your own is to change the watch face to something personal to you. There are tons from which to choose from, and luckily you aren’t beholden to just one forever. In fact, you can download and add many to your Watch gallery and swap among them.
To change your watch face:
From activity-focused ones to chronograph styles, Infographs, Memoji, digital, and even animated characters like Snoopy and Mickey Mouse, there’s a plethora of options. Yes, you can even change the watch face to display one of your own photos.
However, my favorites are the Modular watch faces, which you can customize by color and change the complications (icons) that appear to the ones that are most useful to you. You might prefer to use the Watch for some time before you decide what complications make the most sense for you based on how you use the Watch. I have mine set to workouts, camera trigger, and Apple Wallet. But the good news is that you can go back in and tweak the options any time.
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You’ll use it more than you think
Add your relevant credit and debit cards as well as compatible ID cards, transit passes, and more, to the Apple Wallet app for Apple Watch:
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Apple Pay makes purchases more convenient with just a tap of your iPhone or Apple Watch. You can also checkout online without digging out your wallet.
You might not think you’ll use it, but you’ll find having cards accessible on your wrist convenient to pay for items right or tap on and off the bus, subway, or local train without fishing in your wallet or pocket for a card or even your phone.
Along with adding the Apple Wallet app as a complication to your home screen, you’re able to double tap the side button at any time to instantly open it up and swipe up and down to toggle between cards.
5Create Apple Fitness goals
Set yourself up for success
The Apple Watch works with three separate apps: The Watch app, the Health app, and the Fitness app.
The purchase of a new Apple Watch typically includes a free trial to Apple Fitness+, so it’s worth trying out.
To get you started with working towards health and wellness goals, you’ll want to set up the Fitness app itself:
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There’s also a new scheduling option with watchOS11 that allows you to adjust these goals for specific days. So, you can change your Move goal for Sundays, for example, from 500 calories to 350, if Sundays are your rest days.
In this same profile menu, it’s a good idea to double-check your health details, including date of birth, height, and weight, as this plays into your stats. You can also adjust the units of measure if you prefer to use kilometers over miles, for example, or yards versus meters for pool swimming.
6Personalize the Fitness app
Make the Summary tab yours
How to personalize your fitness app:
Personalizing these summaries lets you make the view truly personalized for you. Plus, you can go back any time and adjust as your needs or preferences change. Maybe you want to add a card to your summary, for example, that shows your friends' summaries for each day for added motivation. Here, I moved up the new Training Load feature so it’s instantly viewable when I open the app.
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7Add friends
Get some friendly competition going
Add friends that you know own Apple Watches as well in the Fitness app so you can engage in friendly competition. Unfortunately, Apple only permits one-to-one competitions. These also only run by default for seven-day periods. Nonetheless, it’s a great way to push one another to work harder:
Once connected, you can see what information each friend chooses to share, including their goals, the ongoing status of their rings, and what workouts they have completed recently. You can also cheer them on via notifications that appear on your Watch, and they can do the same for you.
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8Learn how to swap bands
Freshen up the look
The Apple Watch is compatible with awide range of bands, both from Apple and third-party companies. It’s useful to learn how to remove and put on bands so you may get used to the process. It’s nice to have a silicon band for workouts, for example, a fabric or metal band for the office, and even something more fun and playful for nights out on the town.
Once you understand the mechanics of how to remove and put on an Apple Watch band, you’ll be much more inclined to invest in, maybe even collect, a variety of bands for it.
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9Choose your apps
Get notifications you want
Typically, Apple Watch will sync with whatever apps you already have on your phone that are also compatible on the Watch. If this wasn’t set up the way you want it, or if you have since downloaded new compatible apps that didn’t sync, you may do it manually:
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You can also download apps that are exclusively available for Apple Watch right from the Watch itself:
Enjoy your new purchase.
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