How to control Apple Watch from iPhone

Controlling your Apple Watch from your iPhone is possible thanks to a dedicated accessibility feature.

The Apple Watch was designed to be worn on the wrist, but sometimes you want to control it from your iPhone. When the watch is on a charger in another room and you want to check a particular function or continue updating, you need to press to go to the next screen. Keep in mind that it is possible to mirror the Apple Watch screen to iPhone.

Apple Watch can be controlled from iPhone

This feature isn’t just for using your Apple Watch remotely. Its main use is to help those who have problems with the small watch screen. The Apple Watch is no longer as small as it once was, but still quite small. Whether it’s the 40mm Apple Watch SE or the 49mm Apple Watch Ultra, screens measured in millimeters are really small.

No matter what you need, being able to mirror your Apple Watch screen to iPhone is very handy. You can view your watch from another room, show the feature to a friend more easily, and access what you want on the big screen.

To use this feature, you need an Apple Watch Series 6 or later running watchOS 9. The watch itself must be paired with an iPhone running iOS 16, i.e. iPhone 8, X or later. The watch doesn’t have to be on your wrist. As long as it’s within Bluetooth range of your iPhone, this feature works.

thanks to a special accessibility function

Go to Settings > Accessibility, then under Physical & Motor, find Apple Watch Mirroring. Click on the button, a window will appear and you will see a simulated version of your watch with its name. Once connected, you will see the clock screen on your iPhone. If you’re not currently wearing it, you’ll need to enter your passcode, but once unlocked, you’ll be able to control your watch right from this window.

If you know how to use your Apple Watch, you know how to manage it from here. You can swipe and tap the screen to open and interact with apps like you would on a watch. If you can’t rotate the Digital Crown on the screen, you can press it to exit the app and keep it pressed and then release to activate Siri. Touch the side screen on the screen to open the app switcher. Hold and release to display the power menu. You can even take a screenshot by pressing both on-screen buttons at the same time.

And best of all, the watch will not go to sleep until you exit the Mirror Image feature (by pressing the “X”in the window) or place your palm on the screen. Since your default clock turns off the screen pretty quickly as soon as you stop using it, it would be pretty annoying to keep waking it up from your iPhone. That being said, it’s pretty easy to forget this when using this feature, in which case your watch’s screen will always stay on, draining your battery quickly.