The 8 Best Apple Watch Tips I Didn't Know

Thanks for these, dear readers!

May 25, 2026

In a recent “Pogue’s Posts” column, I wrote that the original 2014 Apple Watch didn’t really have a killer app. Everyone said, “What does it do that my phone doesn’t do?”

But according to you, dear readers, the Apple Watch’s motley assortment of features really does add up to something useful and worthwhile. (Well, most of you. A few of you are Apple Watch haters, and your venom is something to behold.)

So far, you guys have posted 233 comments on that article. Many of them contained some fantastic tips, including several that have changed my own routine.

I’ll spare you reading 233 comments. Herewith: The best “Pogue’s Posts” reader tips for the Apple Watch. Happy routine-changing!

Use the good cameras for iPhone selfies

The iPhone has cameras on both the front and the back. But Apple dedicates most of its expensive research to the ones on the back. They are drastically better. For example:

The light sensors are much bigger, for better shots in low light and better dynamic range (the range of dark to light shades it can capture)
The back cameras have much higher resolution: 48 megapixels instead of 12, for example, which gives you freedom to crop in and also further helps with light sensitivity
The main rear camera has a wider aperture, allowing faster shutter speeds, meaning less motion blur.

Too bad, then, that whenever you take a selfie, you have to use the front-facing camera and just accept the lower quality. Right?

Wrong!

Take off your Apple Watch and strap it to the phone, so that the watch’s screen lies on the back of the phone.

Now, on the watch, open the Camera Remote app: a super useful little app that remote-controls the iPhone camera. Most people use it for group shots or selfies in situations when they’ve propped up the phone out of arm’s reach.

But here, you’re going to use the watch as nothing more than a screen on the back of your phone. That’s right: You can use the higher-quality rear camera without sacrificing a screen to see what you’re doing!

(The other day, a teenager showed me a viral tip that suggests using the .5 lens—the super wide-angle one on the back—and then shooting blind. That is, you and your pals look at the back of the phone without a preview of the shot. Because it’s so wide angle, nobody gets cropped out. Unfortunately, this technique results in some fisheye distortion. I like the Camera Remote solution better.)

How to Unlock Your Mac with Your Face

In my original column, I noted that I’d never used a passcode on my watch. It always seemed absurd to have to type in a password every morning just to use my watch.

Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t use my watch for Apple Pay, which is amazingly convenient, especially when passing through subway turnstiles.

But several of you gently informed me that I don’t have to enter the passcode every morning. I can set things up so that the instant I first look at the iPhone to unlock it, the Apple Watch also unlocks! After all: Why should you have to prove your identity twice?

(To set this up, grab the iPhone; open the Apple Watch app. Tap My Watch > Passcode > Unlock with iPhone. Details here.)

Already, that’s some slick engineering—but that’s only the beginning.

Now that your phone has unlocked your watch, the watch can unlock your Mac. All you do is come near the Mac, and marvel as it unlocks itself—no passcode, no fingerprint needed.

To set this up, start on the Mac. From the Apple menu , choose System Settings. Click Touch ID & Password (or Login Password). Where it says Apple Watch, turn the switch on. (Details here.)

So there you have it: Three devices, no passwords. As Noah Salzman puts it: “Face ID unlocks my phone, my phone unlocks my watch, and my watch unlocks my Mac.”

Thanks, readers! That’s a good one!

Speak directly to Siri

For the three years I’ve owned an Apple Watch, I’ve always triggered Siri by pressing the digital crown while speaking my command: “Set a timer for ten minutes,” for example, or “Make an appointment for Tuesday at 2 pm: ‘Status call with Casey.’”

But you guys have informed me that that’s an unnecessary two-handed, two-step process!

As PTWithy wrote: “You can just raise your watch and speak to Siri. No need to click or say ‘Hey.’ When cooking, I just raise my watch and say, ‘Set a fish timer for 12 minutes.’ You can create as many labelled timers as you need: ‘Set a potato timer for 45 minutes,’ etc.”

[UPDATE: Bill K notes that you don’t even have to say “Set a timer for 12 minutes.” Just raise your wrist and say, “12 minutes.” That’s all it takes!]

In effect, the simple act of lifting your wrist replaces saying “Hey Siri.” It’s pretty great.

(If you don’t think it’s so great, you can turn off “Raise to Speak.”)

Medicine reminders

187 million Americans (58 percent) are on at least one prescription drug. And 50 percent of us don’t take our medicines as prescribed (wrong times, wrong amounts, wrong meds). And 125,000 of us die as a result. Every year.

And you don’t have to be old and feeble to have trouble. When I was recovering from a kidney stone, my doctor told me to take ibuprofen, two pills, four times a day; phenazopyridine, one pill, three times a day; ciprofloxacin, two pills twice a day; docusate sodium, one capsule, three times a day; and solifenacin succinate, one pill, once a day.

Seriously? You’d need a spreadsheet.

But John Hunter observed that the Apple Watch can keep you on track. “I never could remember which medications I’d taken when, or if I’d taken them at all,” he wrote. “Gamifying that process has helped me stay on track with that much better.”

The watch can remind you, through the day, when it’s time to take each med—and then logs which ones you took or skipped.

Start by recording the meds you’re supposed to take—the dosage, pill colors, frequency, and so on—in the Health app on the phone; details are here.

Thereafter, the watch lets you know when it’s time to take your next dose, and you can record whether or not you did.

Talk about a lifesaver!

Sunlight tracker

Spending time in sunshine, it turns out, is really good for you. It boosts your body’s vitamin D supply (great for neuromuscular and immune system functions), benefits your heart and bone health, heals some skin conditions, improves your mood, regulates sleep, and even helps prevent nearsightedness.

But Steve Stroh pointed out that, amazingly (to me, anyway), the Apple Watch can sense and record when you’re in sunlight. Your daily exposure shows up as one of the graphs in the Health app on the iPhone.

And why would you care about tracking exercise, sleep, and sunshine exposure? (Some of you, in the comments, were distinctly dismissive of this kind of tracking.)

For many people, the mere act of tracking these health metrics keeps them front of mind. If you’re aware that the Watch is Watching, you’re more likely to get exercise, sleep, and sunlight.

Mutual grocery list

Joan Robotham wrote: “My husband & I put grocery shopping lists on our watches. On the Notes app, we always have a note for each store (‘Costco List,’ ‘Wegmans List,’ etc.). We set each up with the Collaborate option so that either of us can quickly add something (using our Macs) whenever we run low on something. Then, when at the store, the current list automatically appears on the watch when we open the Notes app.”

Ordinarily, you can’t edit Notes on the watch. Fortunately, the one form of editing you can do is checking off list items.

Split-the-tip calculator

C Chausis pointed out that the little Calculator app on the watch—which I’d never opened in my life—has a restaurant-tip calculator, complete with a split-the-check feature!

Enter the total amount of the bill; tap Tip, and turn the watch’s crown to specify what percent tip you want to leave.

Now tap People, and turn the crown to specify how many people are splitting the bill. And boom: The watch shows the tip amount, the total, and how much each person owes.

In case of emergency

Many of you reported that the Apple Watch had alerted you to potentially life-saving medical situations. For Jim the Geek, that was when it detected his wife’s atrial fibrillation. “This came without warning during a quiet evening watching TV,” he says. “After a terrifying night in hospital, we had a cardiac procedure done that fixed it. For this alone, the watch was well worth the investment.”

Michael Strauss’s experience was similar. “Two years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling weird. My heart was racing. I don’t wear my watch to sleep, but I put it on and checked my EKG. It said I was in A-fib. Wife drove me to the ER and they confirmed what the watch said. I was admitted, and they got my heart under control. Since then, I have new meds and haven’t had another incident.”

Ann Zeise pointed out that, should something bad happen to you—to the point of being nonresponsive—the watch can offer emergency responders essential information like your name, age, weight, allergies, and meds. All of this is critical information if you ever have to go to the emergency room.

The trick is to set up these data items now, while you’re conscious. You do that on the iPhone, in the Health app; details are here.