During setup, you will be asked to enable things like SOS and automatic watchOS updates, and it is a good idea to enable both. SOS allows you to make a quick call to your local emergency team, holding down the crown of your watch until you hear an alert and see a countdown. If your watch is not a cell phone model, remember that your phone must be nearby to make calls from your wrist.
You can also activate fall detection, which will contact emergency services and predefined contacts for you when it is detected that you have fallen. Don’t worry, you will have the option to confirm before such a call is made, but as the SOS feature, it is better to have everything set up in advance instead of looking for them when an emergency happens.
Apple
Health and fitness settings
Having automatic updates enabled will ensure that you have the latest security features and fixes. With the latest version of watchOS, for example, you will have access to Apple’s new Fitness + video service. You will have a three-month free trial with your watch, and it’s worth checking out the programs, especially if you are a beginner. Training is easy, the instructors are friendly and the integration with the Apple Watch is excellent.
One of the best things about Apple Watch (and smartwatches in general) is its ability to maintain control over our health and activities. During the setup process, you will be asked to choose your activity goals. At this stage, it’s okay to use what Apple recommends, such as 30 minutes of exercise every day and a 10-hour Stand goal (or Roll goal, for wheelchair users). You will probably adjust them over time as you begin to understand your body and preferences better. To adjust these settings, swipe all the way to the bottom of the Summary page in the watch’s Fitness app and select “Change Goals”.
If you need extra motivation to close your rings, you can also activate reminders to get up and move when you’re idle for a long time. Better yet, add some friends (if they are other Apple users) to send and receive alerts when someone finishes a workout. This adds a touch of competitiveness, a touch of guilt and opens up the possibility of bragging. If that is not attractive, you can simply disable these things.
Valentina Palladino / Engadget
For those who exercise a lot, activating training start / end reminders can help ensure that your sessions are recorded, suggesting that you start or end a workout when the watch detects changes in your heart rate and movement. It is a kind of alternative solution, instead of the automatic automatic detection of exercises, but it can still help to keep you responsible. Enable these reminders by going to the Training section in the Watch app on your phone. You can also get suggestions for launching guided breathing sessions throughout the day to help you stabilize.
Another important component of your well-being is the amount of sleep you sleep. With watchOS 7, Apple added sleep tracking to its wearables to help you understand your sleep. While other devices, like Fitbits and Samsung watches, do a better job of automatically detecting when you fall asleep and analyzing which sleep zone you are in, the Apple Watch can still help you understand your sleep patterns.
Be sure to set the time to sleep and wake up, as well as the duration of the target sleep. If you’re not going to have enough hours before the morning alarm, Apple will suggest that you come down a little early. It is important to have your sleep schedule set up because, at least during our tests, it looks like the watch uses this information to detect when you go to bed. Automatic sleep detection is not the most sophisticated at the moment, but getting warnings to go to bed can be helpful.
You can also activate a vibrating alarm (by activating Silent mode) if you sleep with a partner or have hearing problems. If you prefer to remove the watch when you go to sleep, turning on Nightstand mode (Watch app> General> Nightstand Mode) will turn your device into a bedside clock. The screen will darken for the most part, but if you need to see the time, just move the device (or even your desk) a little bit so that the screen wakes up.
Finally, one more way that the watch can help you stay healthy is by ensuring that you are following the recommended hand washing guidelines. Turning on the hand wash timer will start a 15-second countdown each time the watch thinks you have cleaned your hands for 5 seconds. It is not always useful, as sometimes you are just cleaning up the dirt and do not need to froth for 20 seconds, but it is not very intrusive and is useful when you are away from home.