5 sublime Apple Watch features you probably don’t know yet

The Apple Watch is of course the ideal smartwatch to wear while exercising or to pay with. But you can do much more with it. One More Thing editor Jeroen Kraak highlights five less obvious, yet useful features.

I can’t live without my Apple Watch myself, and for good reason. The smartwatch is extremely useful. I mainly bought it to monitor my health and workouts, but you can do a lot more with it.

Five features for your Apple Watch

Apple Pay, mindfulness, and sleep tracking may be familiar features, but there are still plenty that aren’t as well known. I will now discuss five with you. Here they come.

#1 Control your Apple Watch without touching it

Did you know that you can control your Apple Watch without touching the screen? All you have to do is move your hand. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and go to Accessibility > Assistive Touch.

With hand gestures you can see the different movements that the Apple Watch can recognize. There you can also add commands to control your smartwatch with gestures, and that is of course very useful.

#2 Play games

You probably mainly play games on your iPhone when you have nothing to do. But there are also several games available for the Apple Watch.

One of the best games for the Apple Watch is Pocket Bandits. This game costs 99 cents and takes full advantage of the device’s features, such as taptic feedback and the crown.

#3 Take better photos with your iPhone

Your Apple Watch is the ideal gadget for taking photos with your iPhone. Sometimes you want to take a photo, such as a group photo or a selfie, but you can’t hold your phone far enough away from you. Your iPhone can then serve as an alternative if you don’t want to work with a timer.

It is possible to use your Apple Watch as a kind of remote control for the camera of your iPhone. Open the dedicated camera app on your smartwatch. You can even switch between the front and back camera. You even see a preview. When you’re happy, hit the timer and you’ve got a top shot.

#4 Find your way unseen

If you go on holiday to certain countries, you don’t want to show off with expensive stuff. But you want to be able to find your way effortlessly. Normally you walk around with your phone in your hand, but it can be much more discreet.

When you’re in a safe place, open Maps and select your destination. Then silence your devices. Now if you walk around with your Apple Watch, it will indicate the right direction through vibrations.

For example, when turning to the left, it gives three short sets of two vibrations. For a right turn, the device vibrates ten to twelve times. When you arrive at your destination, it gives a long vibration. That’s very handy!

#5 Use ChatGPT on your Apple Watch

ChatGPT is present almost everywhere, and that includes your Apple Watch. You can simply speak to your chatbot via the watch on your wrist. Unfortunately, no dedicated app has yet been developed by OpenAI, but luckily there are others who have used the code to create an app for the iPhone.

One of the best options right now is Petey. You can dictate as well as type your question. This way you literally always have the gadget at hand to answer your questions.