Settings to change after unboxing your Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is full of all kinds of settings to improve the user experience. Here are 9 that might need to be changed.

If you’ve just owned an Apple Watch, you’ll quickly realize that you can do a lot with this connected watch. On the other hand, all the settings to control the features are pretty well tucked away in the Apple Watch, iPhone, and the Settings app itself. In fact, it’s easy to feel a little lost right after unboxing the device and connecting it to your iPhone for the first time.

Whether you have an Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch SE, or Series 3, they all run watchOS 8 and have pretty much the same features and settings. Whether it’s your first Apple Watch or you’re changing models, you’ll already be familiar with a number of these settings. For example, sometimes you get a crazy amount of screenshots. But this is not inevitable. Don’t let the number of apps installed on your watch overwhelm you. And don’t be discouraged if Siri asks you about it from time to time. All this is parameterized. We’ll take a look at 9 settings that will make it easier for you to work with your Apple Watch.

Set up your activity goals

With the release of Watch OS 7 last year, Apple added the ability to change your goals for how long you stand or exercise. Previously, you could only change the number of calories.

Instead of using the default values ​​of 30 minutes of exercise and 12 hours of standing per day in total, you can set values ​​that are more in line with your days. This way you can start when you actually start your day, not when Apple tells you to start. For example, if you use sleep tracking at night and need to charge your watch in the morning, you won’t feel like you’ve wasted an hour doing various laps.

Open the Activity app on your watch, scroll down and tap Change Target.

Goodbye random screenshots

To take a screenshot on Apple Watch, press the Digital Crown and the button on the side at the same time. It’s simple and practical, unless you frequently launch an operation without intentionally, which unnecessarily fills the Photos app.

To turn it all off, in the Settings app on your watch, in the Clock app on your phone, go to General, then scroll down to Screenshots. Tap the option and turn off the “Enable Screenshots”option.

Select the portrait mode photos you want to see on your wrist.

With the watchOS 8 update, you can set portrait mode photos as watch wallpaper. First, you need to dive into the Watch app settings on iPhone. To get started, open the Watch app and navigate to the Watch Face Gallery tab at the bottom of the screen. There, tap on the “Portraits”option under the “New Watch Faces”section. Click “Select Photos”under “Content”to select up to 24 photos that will automatically change when you lift your wrist or touch the screen.

Stop automatic installation of applications

Whenever you install an app on iPhone, the Apple Watch version of it is installed on the watch, if it exists. This can quickly fill up the memory and tidy up the apps on your watch.

In the Watch app on your phone, under Settings > General, select the toggle for Install apps automatically. You can also do this on your watch by opening the Settings menu, then tapping on App Store and turning off Automatic Downloads.

You will now need to manually install apps on your watch by opening the Watch app on your phone and scrolling through the list of available apps.

Make text easier to read by increasing the font size.

Notifications and other text can be difficult to read on such a small screen. Fortunately, on the Apple Watch, you can increase the font size. To do this, launch the Settings app on your watch and scroll down to Text Size. Spin the Digital Crown or tap on the letters that appear to adjust the size to your liking. The Apple Watch Series 7 has more options because the screen is bigger.

Get rid of these messages reminding you to “breathe”

Every few hours, Apple Watch reminds you to catch your breath. The first time is pretty comical. Then it gets pretty annoying.

This reminder was thoughtfully and intended to remind you to take a few minutes to yourself to clear your mind, control your breathing, lower your heart rate, and maybe also refocus and calm down. It doesn’t suit everyone. If you get bored, take a few seconds to turn it off.

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, scroll down and tap the Mindfulness option. Next, turn off notifications. If your watch is not running watchOS 8, it will be Breathing instead of Mindfulness.

Make it easy to find your apps

At first glance, the app layout may look very good, but it can be difficult to find the app you want to launch, especially if you have a lot of apps installed. Applications can be displayed in alphabetical order.

In the Clock app on your phone or in the Settings app on your watch, tap View Apps > List View. Now when you press the digital crown, you will see a list of apps that you need to look through to find what you want.

Control the appearance of Siri

There are various ways to activate Siri on Apple Watch. You can bring your wrist to your mouth and start speaking, press and hold the Digital Crown, or use the “Say Siri”passphrase.

It may happen that Siri works by accident. To avoid this, in the Clock app on your phone or in the Settings app on your watch, select Siri, then you will see three buttons to control Siri. Toggle the ones you want to disable to disable one method or the other.

Rearrange control center

Similar to Control Center on iPhone, Control Center on Apple Watch gives you access to a range of settings such as Do Not Disturb mode, Airplane mode, flashlight, and more.

If you don’t like the default options list, you can change its order. To access the control center on your watch, swipe down from the bottom of the screen, or when you’re in an app, press and hold the bottom of the screen until the control center appears. The same goes for accessing notifications from anywhere.

You can change the order to hide certain buttons by clicking the Edit button at the bottom of the list. The icons will start shaking and you will see a little red minus sign to hide it. Drag the icons in the order you want or click the red minus button to remove them.

When you’re done, tap Done or press the Digital Crown on the side of your watch.