If you’ve unwrapped a new Apple Watch this holiday season, we’ve already put together some of our top tips to get started. There are also a variety of third-party Apple Watch apps that you can install to take your experience to the next level. Here are some of the best Apple Watch apps you can try.
The best Apple Watch apps |
Movement type
While Apple Watch offers some innovative ways of entering text on a small screen, FlickType is a powerful and mandatory application that adds a real QWERTY keyboard to the device. FlickType uses gesture typing to make text entry as easy as possible, and a powerful algorithm is activated to ensure that the application is always recording the correct word.
Unfortunately, watchOS includes several limitations that affect how well FlickType is able to integrate with system applications. There is also an SDK that third-party developers can adopt to bring FlickType to their applications.
FlickType is available on the App Store as a one-time purchase of $ 1.99. If you’re looking for a way to streamline the Apple Watch typing process, FlickType is a great solution.
AutoSleep
This year’s launch of watchOS 7 brings support for native sleep tracking for the Apple Watch for the first time, but I still recommend AutoSleep to people as a way to get more comprehensive sleep data from the Apple Watch. I’ve been using AutoSleep for years and it has proven to be a reliable and consistent way to monitor my sleep habits with the Apple Watch.
AutoSleep features include:
- The use of Advanced Heuristics AutoSleep calculates how long you have slept, so it is not necessary.
- If you use your watch to sleep, you don’t have to do anything. AutoSleep will monitor your sleep and quality and send you a notification in the morning.
- AutoSleep also analyzes sleep quality. Using sleep time, restlessness, awake time and heart rate, it can assess the quality of your sleep and provide comprehensive nighttime analysis
AutoSleep is available on the App Store for $ 3.99.
Watchmaker
If you used Widgetsmith to personalize the iOS 14 home screen, you should also check Watchsmith for Apple Watch. As we detailed in our full review, Watchsmith allows you to create dynamic Apple Watch complications that can change throughout the day.
Here’s how developer David Smith describes the app:
It starts with a wide collection of highly customizable complications, which vary according to date, climate and astronomy. Each can be precisely adjusted to best suit the desired function and appearance.
This set of complications can then be dynamically scheduled to appear on the watch face according to the rules you define. For example, a specific complication interval can show the weather early in the morning, then your calendar during the workday, and then change to the progress of the activity ring as you end the day. This allows you to make the most of each slot on the watch face without the need to constantly switch between the dials.
You can download Watchsmith from the App Store for free with in-app subscriptions.
CardioBot
One of the most useful features of the Apple Watch is the ability to measure your heart rate throughout the day and during workouts. CardioBot is a powerful third-party application for viewing this data. You can view the data in the CardioBot app on your Apple Watch or iPhone:
CardioBot is an iPhone application that reads heart rate data stored by Apple Watch on HealthKit. The app separates low, normal, high and high heart rate readings using different colors and graphics, allowing you to see averages quickly.
CardioBot also supports the visualization of data captured during exercises and meditations, and can also provide sleep analysis information for a complete panel of your heart rate. All of this is done with a minimalist and elegant interface that makes it easy to view statistics for individual days, browse detailed schedules and compare changes from day to day.
CardioBot is a free download on the App Store with in-app subscriptions to unlock all features.
Chirp
Chirp for Twitter is one of our favorite Apple Watch apps here at 9to5Mac. As the name implies, Chirp allows you to browse Twitter directly from your Apple Watch, including access to your timeline, direct messages, trend topics and more.
Chirp is available on the App Store as a free download with in-app purchases to unlock all features.
Delivery
A staple of the Apple community for years, Deliveries is an easy way to monitor your Apple Watch’s upcoming package deliveries. Deliveries support dozens of services, including UPS, FedEx, US Postal Service, DHL, TNT, Canada Post and more, so you can track all your deliveries in one place.
Deliveries are available on the App Store as a free download with a $ 0.99 monthly subscription or $ 4.99 annual subscription.
PCalc
While watchOS offers an integrated calculator app, PCalc takes things to the next level with a variety of additional and more powerful features.
PCalc is the powerful choice for scientists, engineers, students, programmers or even anyone looking for a feature-rich calculator. Includes an optional RPN mode and multi-line display, a choice of button layouts, an extensive set of unit and constant conversions, a paper tape, multiple undo and redo, engineering and scientific notation, as well as support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations.
You can download PCalc from the App Store as a one-time purchase of $ 9.99.
Overcast
If you are looking for a podcast player that is more powerful and capable than Apple podcasts, my first choice is Overcast. For Apple Watch, Overcast includes support for standalone playback and mobile streaming, so your iPhone doesn’t have to be around to hear the latest episodes of your favorite shows.
Overcast is available on the App Store as a free download with a $ 9.99 annual subscription to hide ads.
Spotify
If you’re a Spotify user, you can now stream Spotify directly to your Apple Watch. After years of user complaints, Spotify finally added support for streaming music and podcasts directly to the Apple Watch last month. If you are a new Apple Watch user who subscribes to Spotify, this is one of the most useful features to try on the first day.
Download Spotify from the App Store for free.
Out
If you are a HomeKit user with an Apple Watch, HomeRun is something you need to add to your setup. HomeRun is the best way to run Apple Watch HomeKit scenes with support for custom complications and more. Essentially, it’s the HomeKit app for Apple Watch that Apple should have done from day one.
Set up daily routines on your watch with complications that change context, icon and color throughout the day. In the morning, your complication can start your day, make your coffee, then at night, you can turn off your lights to sleep.
Download HomeRun for HomeKit on the App Store for $ 2.99.
Carrot climate
Last, but certainly not least, Carrot Weather unlocks a number of different complications for your Apple Watch. With Carrot Weather, you can add data like forecasts, real-time precipitation alerts and more directly to your Apple Watch.
In addition, Carrot Weather takes full advantage of the latest support from watchOS 7 for multiple complications. This means that you can use various complications of Carrot Weather to “build your own watch face” or also select the pre-configured watch option.
Carrot Weather is available on the App Store for $ 4.99 with in-app subscriptions to unlock all features and data sources.
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