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By Graham Bower 1:00 pm, September 23, 2022

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The big and rugged Apple Watch Ultra is a very different beast than the “normal” Apple smartwatches that came before it. With so many new features, there’s still a lot we don’t know about it.

But over the past couple of weeks, I have discovered nine fascinating factoids that most reviewers haven’t picked up on yet. So to celebrate Ultra’s launch day, I’m sharing them with you now.

Apple Watch Ultra hidden features

The first Apple Watch Ultra reviews rightly focused on the adventure-oriented smartwatch’s marquee features. The giant screen looks beautiful. The bigger battery brings longer life (at last). The orange, customizable Action button enables shortcuts that athletes and explorers will appreciate. And the beefed-up design might make it too gigantic for some wrists.

But these interesting Apple Watch Ultra features largely flew under the radar.

The siren makes two sounds

Just in case you get lost in the middle of nowhere, beyond the reach of a cellular connection, the Ultra includes an onboard siren. It’s not surprising a lot of reviewers did not test it. At 86 decibels, it’s way too loud to use indoors. As a result, few people know what it actually sounds like.

It turns out Apple’s engineers went to great lengths to create a sound that you would not normally hear in the environment. That means it can’t be mistaken for anything else. Plus, the siren emits two distinct sounds in an alternating pattern. One is a distress tone; the other pulses SOS in Morse code.

The Alpine Loop is not what it appears to be

The Alpine Loop is arguably the most iconic Ultra Band design. It features unique looped ridges along its entire length, with a titanium hook that slides into them.

It looks like it’s made from two separate layers of fabric, stitched together at regular intervals to form the loops. But looks can be deceiving. The Alpine Loop is actually something of an engineering marvel. Both layers are in fact a single piece of material, seamlessly woven as one, using an innovative technique developed just for this purpose. So, there’s literally no stitching on the Band.

Running Track Detection will only be available in the United States

GPS runs into problems when you run around in circles. Tiny errors get compounded because you’re moving on the spot. That’s a big problem for running track users.

Olympic tracks provide a precise way to measure running distance. One lap is exactly 400 meters. So any inaccuracies in the distance estimates generated by Apple Watch are easy to see.

To address this, Ultra will offer automatic Track Detection. When you use a running track, it asks which lane number you’re on, and snaps to that lane. At the Far Out event earlier this month, Apple said the feature would be available later this year.

Initially, Track Detection will be U.S.-only, which suggests Apple is storing the track locations on a central database, rather than recognizing the shape of your running route. Tens of thousands of tracks will be supported at launch. So if you’re in the United States, there’s a good chance your local track is on the list.

The Apple Watch Ultra battery runs out much faster if you leave your iPhone at home

The Ultra’s battery is 76% larger in volume than Apple Watch Series 8. Apple claims it will last for up to 36 hours.

At first glance, that figure might look impressive, but Ultra is not just another Apple Watch. It’s a premium sports watch, designed to compete with the likes of Garmin. That’s why, in an oblique dig at Apple, the sports watch specialist bragged last week that it measures battery life in days, not hours.

Garmin has a point. Its Enduro 2 boasts 34 days of battery life. Yes, that’s days not hours. And with solar charging, that increases to 46 days.

For a sports watch, 36 hours of battery life is not impressive. And if you leave your iPhone behind, that figure goes down to 18 hours, because Ultra must rely on its onboard LTE, rather than piggybacking on your iPhone’s internet connection. Furthermore, these figures assume you only do a one-hour workout between charges. They drop even lower if you do a longer workout, because GPS and continuous heart rate monitoring drain the battery faster.

You can squeeze the Ultra to pause a workout

Previous Apple Watch models allow you to pause a workout by pressing the side button and Digital Crown at the same time. On the Ultra, you can push any two buttons to pause a workout. The easiest combination is the side button and the all-new Action button. You just squeeze the sides on the bottom half of the watch.

Depending on how you wear your watch, you might occasionally press the Digital Crown and side button by accident. This risks pausing a workout at the wrong moment and losing precious credits for your Activity Rings. Ultra offers a solution to this. You can disable the Digital Crown and side button combo, and only use the Action button and side button to pause workouts.

Ultra is the first Apple Watch with six metrics on screen at once

The Workout app puts the Ultra’s massive screen to good use by displaying up to six metrics all at once. This is a first for Apple Watch. (Series models can only display up to five.)

But that’s not all. Thanks to the new workout views in watchOS 9, you can add a second view with a further six metrics. That puts 12 metrics on your wrist during a workout. That’s ideal for checking all the new metrics Apple introduced this year, including Running Power and Form.

You can wait to get a GPS signal before starting your run — finally!

Most sports watches make you wait to get a good GPS signal before starting your workout. But Apple Watch has always allowed you to start workouts without the wait. Its user interface doesn’t even display GPS signal strength.

Like so many Apple products, it’s supposed to “just work.” Trouble is, it doesn’t. The maps I get from Apple Watch are often wildly inaccurate. Especially at the start of a workout.

The Ultra’s new Precision Start feature addresses this problem. It allows you to pick a workout but delay the start until you press the Action button. A GPS signal indicator is then displayed at the top of the screen. This solution provides the best of both worlds. If you’re in a hurry, you can just get started. But if GPS accuracy is important to you, you can now wait until you have a good signal.

Ultra uses machine learning to map your runs more accurately

The clever folks in Cupertino are using machine learning to make route mapping more accurate — in places where even the Ultra can’t get a good GPS signal. For example, if you go for a run in downtown Chicago, the skyscrapers can interfere with satellite signals.

To solve this, Apple Watch calibrates itself on open skies runs. It combines GPS and accelerometer data to figure out the average length of your stride. Then, when your GPS is not so good, it can multiply your stride length with your step count to figure out how far and fast you’re running.

But that’s not all. The Ultra’s custom positioning algorithms use data from Apple Maps to correct GPS inaccuracies. For example, if you’re running alongside a river and your route appears to veer into the water, it snaps your route back to follow the river’s edge.

Apple Watch Ultra uses different microphones depending on the wind direction

Where regular Apple Watch models only have one microphone, the Ultra boasts three.

A three-microphone array isn’t new to Apple. iPhone has featured three microphones since iPhone 5. The smartphones use different microphones depending on whether you hold the phone to your ear to speak, use FaceTime or record video with the rear camera. In addition, iPhone uses all three together, along with a machine learning algorithm, to reduce noise.

The Ultra features a similar noise-canceling system. It also uses machine learning to automatically pick the microphone with the least wind noise. That means your friends will be sure to hear you when you call them to brag about your fancy new watch.

The Apple Watch Ultra is available now for 799.

Apple Watch Ultra Review: Big And Expensive, But A Powerful Tool For The Adventurous

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Apple Watch Ultra certainly lives up to its moniker, and will undoubtedly be hard to exclude from our list of the best smartwatches. After all, it represents the most dramatic update ever to Apple’s smartwatch lineup, and it does so with a completely different design, a bigger display and more sensors than found on Apple Watch Series 8. The resulting smartwatch has deep capabilities aimed at lovers of the extreme—sports, activities and environments.

Watch Ultra clearly shares some feature and design DNA with the Apple Watch Series 8, which itself this year gained a bigger display and added a new temperature sensor. But the Watch Ultra is a very different model, starting with the detail that it is the only Apple Watch model sold solely with cellular connectivity. That inclusion alone helps explain Watch Ultra’s higher price tag.

This model’s always-connected status speaks volumes to how it can be used: All the time, in places where you might not want to also carry your phone. The cellular advantage is clear, notes Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategies. While all smartwatches have varying levels of smartphone integration, “watches equipped with a cellular connection operate almost entirely independently of your phone. However, even cellular watches depend on a smartphone for setup and initial configuration.” This last point limits Watch Ultra’s audience to iPhone users.

It’s also the first Apple Watch that only comes in a titanium finish, designed to make the bigger unit more manageable in terms of its weight.

With its titanium finish, rugged design and activity-focused features, the Watch Ultra appeals to fans of extreme sports and outdoor adventures. But you don’t need to be a sports fan if you simply want the most advanced smartwatch Apple makes, with the longest battery life and biggest display. Is the Apple Watch Ultra the right smartwatch for you? Read on.

Apple Watch Ultra: Technical Specifications

Price: 799 |Case size: 49mm | Processor: Apple S8 64-bit dual-core | Display: 410 x 510 pixels, LTPO OLED always-on screen, 2,000-nit maximum brightness | Connectivity: GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, LTE cellular | Storage: 32GB | Water resistance: Up to 100 meters | Battery: Up to 36 hours (60 hours in low power) | Dimensions: 1.9 x 1.7 x 0.6 inches | Weight: 2.2 ounces

Best for

• Extreme sports athletes who need advanced sensors
• Adventurers and travelers who need pinpoint GPS accuracy
• Keeping connected on long days (or weekends)

Skip if

• You have smaller wrists (it’s pretty big)
• An 800 purchase isn’t a drop in the bucket
• You don’t need cellular connectivity

Apple Watch Ultra Design: Thick And Chunky

Watch Ultra is the chunkiest Apple Watch yet, a notable change in direction for a company which prides itself on small and sleek. Its rectangular display with curved edges is about the only thing which echoes the existing Watch Series 8 design.

Successive Watches have made the rotating side button (known as ”Digital Crown” in Apple parlance) completely flush with the casing, Watch Ultra bolsters the button so it stands proud once again. The button’s larger size makes it easier to press through thick gloves, for instance, and it has a new titanium guard wrapping to help prevent accidental interactions. The grooves on the crown have also changed to make them coarser—again making it easier to rotate even when you’re wearing, say, ski gloves.

On the opposite side of the casing sits a big new button, called the Action button. Unmistakable in its size and shape, the button is large enough to locate with gloves on and stands out visually thanks to its international orange coloring.

You can customize this button so one quick press launches the Workout app or turns on the flashlight. Press twice and you’ll achieve a different end, such as starting a workout rather than just launching the Workout app. Not all apps work with the button but a good variety do, including Stopwatch, Shortcut, Dive and Backtrack.

When I put the Watch Ultra on my wrist, I could tell immediately that the 49-millimeter titanium casing was noticeably larger than the base models. Sure, Watch Ultra is light for its larger size, but at 2.2 ounces, it’s heavier than the 45-millimeter stainless steel Apple Watch Series 8 (1.8 ounces), and weighs more than twice the smaller Apple Watch SE (1 ounce).

Watch Ultra also has a choice of three sturdy straps, each designed for intense activities. Alpine Loop is made for outdoor adventures and has a G-Hook loop for secure closure. Trail Loop targets athletes and hikers, and has an easy pull-tab adjustment. The chunky Ocean Band can be worn over a wet suit and is optimized for swimmers and recreational divers. If you want alternatives, you can also use bands designed for 42-millimeter, 44-millimeter and 45-millimeter Apple Watches on the Watch Ultra’s case.

In use, I really liked the design of Watch Ultra and found it easy to navigate with the Digital Crown. The Watch Ultra may be too much watch for normal day-to-day use. And some users will balk at its size, while the extra weight may make night-time wearing challenging. Similarly, Apple Watch traditionalists may find the new design too different, with the deeper case and the protuberance to protect the Digital Crown less elegant than Apple’s original.

Apple Watch Ultra Display: Big And Bright

If you want the biggest display on an Apple Watch, look no further than Watch Ultra. But Watch Ultra’s display story isn’t just about its size. Where other Apple Watch displays use curved glass or sapphire crystal, the Watch Ultra display is completely flat. Although it doesn’t mimic the cliff-edge designs of the iPhone 12 and later, the flat display is modeled exactly like the phones, minus the phones’ camera cut-out.

At 2,000 nits, the Watch Ultra is twice the brightness of Watch Series 8, so you can read the watch face in the brightest sunlight. The 7% bigger display also means you get more room to display data onscreen. The Workout app shows up to six lines of metrics, for instance.

Apple Watch Ultra Features: Sensors Galore

The Watch Ultra’s guts are the same as the Watch Series 8, with the same Apple chip inside. It’s certainly fast—everything about the Watch is happily responsive—but the Watch Series 8 and Watch SE both have the same performance.

Like Watch Series 8, Watch Ultra has a temperature sensor and improved sleep monitoring. When you’re sleeping, it measures your temperature every five seconds so after five nights, it can spot trends in your sleeping temperature and sleep stages. It also has cycle tracking, fall detection and crash detection, where it will use the available cellular connection to contact emergency services and share your exact location.

Unsurprisingly, Watch Ultra has a few unique tricks up its sleeve. For starters, it carries EN13319 diving certification and has a new Depth app, which measures how deep divers go in the water. The watch also supports the Oceanic app (80 annual subscription) to turn it into a capable dive computer. These are useful additions for those so inclined and can record your dives down as far as 40 meters. It can also warn you when you reach your maximum depth, tell you if the water is too cold or if your ascent is too fast.

Like the other watches in Apple’s lineup, Watch Ultra has emergency calling and emergency SOS. But unlike the others, Watch Ultra adds a siren. If you get stuck somewhere, you can activate the siren and it will grow noisier over time to attract searchers’ attention. Watch Ultra has dual speakers and three beamforming mics, both improvements over the standard Watch Series 8.

Watch Ultra also adds better GPS navigation. With a dual-frequency (L1 and L5) GPS, this watch is made for accurately navigating areas where GPS gets spotty, including the skyscraper canyons of cities. The Compass app is redesigned on Watches with watchOS 9 to add multiple views, Backtrack and waypoints to make navigation easier than ever.

Apple Watch Ultra Battery Life: All Day Performance

The battery is 76% bigger than on Watch Series 8, and according to Apple can push its life to 36 hours of use, double the time on other current Watch models. Since Apple’s calculations are done assuming 18 hours is a full day (with the rest of the day being sleep), Watch Ultra is expected to last two days of use between charges. This estimate matched my experience: I found the Watch Ultra did last me almost two days between charges in the normal use mode. You can possibly go up to 60 hours using the new low power mode which turns off the always-on display, among other things. In my testing, the 60-hour estimate felt about right. The bottom line: Watch Ultra has extremely good battery life.

Apple Watch Ultra Verdict: A Splurge For Non-Sporties

No questioning the facts: Apple Watch Ultra is big and beautiful, with impressive battery life and a bright display. And it has a bevy of new features unique to to this premium tier, including the depth gauge for divers. Plus, it has all the marquee features found in Watch Series 8, including crash detection and the temperature sensor for cycle and sleep tracking.

But it really is much bigger than previous Apple Watch models. So much so—and this is something I say regularly about max-sized iPhones—you really need to try it out for size in person before you buy. Whether the Apple Watch Ultra works for you is going to be a very personal decision, one dependent on how the larger watch fits on your wrist—and how you feel about Watch Ultra’s design breaks from Apple’s established norms.

You may be pleasantly surprised: Watch Ultra’s weight is much less than you might expect from its size. And the display is spectacular with superb brightness and lots more real estate, which in turn makes all activities easier to navigate and consume. Battery life is also extremely good. It’s enough to glide you through the better part of two full days without a worry, and it can get you through a weekend hiking trip on low power mode with no additional charging.

Apple Watch Ultra offers the biggest upgrade Apple has ever introduced. It won’t be for everyone, but for those who like the look and the size—and don’t mind its sky-high price—it’s a real showstopper.

Apple Watch Ultra: Should You Upgrade?

Watch Ultra is not just for sports junkies. There’s a lot to recommend it even for those who simply like the idea of a bigger, more capable Watch that lasts longer. But if you don’t like the larger size, or don’t plan to use the cellular connectivity which comes standard on Watch Ultra, then you should consider the Apple Watch Series 8, which will do most things for most people.

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I’ve been writing about technology for two decades and am routinely struck by how the sector swings from startling innovation to persistent repetitiveness. My areas of specialty are wearable tech, cameras, home entertainment and mobile technology. I also work as an actor, enjoying equally the first Mission Impossible movie, a season at Shakespeare’s Globe and a part in the fourth series of The Crown.

I’ve written for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Times, the Daily Mail, the Sun, Metro, Stuff, T3.lint, Wareable.com and Wired. Right now most of my work away from Forbes appears in the Independent, the Evening Standard and Monocle Magazine. Follow me on Instagram: davidphelantech, or : @davidphelan2009.

Every Apple Watch Ultra Feature Designed to Keep You Alive

Cory Gunther

@xguntherc

The all-new Apple Watch Ultra isn’t your ordinary smartwatch. It does everything Apple’s other watches can do, but it’s also built to handle harsh conditions and is perfect for adventurists enjoying the great outdoors.

While it probably can’t handle extremely cold environments like Apple is advertising, It’s still a rugged gadget with more life-saving features than you probably realize.

Some of the features mentioned below are available on Apple’s other watches we’ve all seen in commercials, while many are exclusive to the new Ultra. Either way, you’ll want to take advantage of them all. So, here’s every Apple Watch Ultra feature designed to keep you alive.

Crash and Fall Detection

For those unaware, Apple added a new car crash detection feature on all iPhone 14 models, the Apple Watch Series 8, the Apple Watch Ultra, and the second-generation Apple Watch SE. For its watches, like the new Ultra, the company developed an improved 3-axis gyroscope and a high g-force accelerometer sensor. These can detect up to 256g forces that occur in a crash.

Thanks to an advanced “sensor fusion” algorithm built off years of lab tests and real-world results, your Apple Watch Ultra can accurately detect when you’re in a crash. When this happens, the phone can automatically alert emergency response teams if you don’t cancel the alert within 10 seconds. It’ll call 911, share your location, and even contact friends and family on your emergency contact list.

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If you’re badly hurt or injured and cannot call for help, this nifty feature could save your life. Additionally, the company already had a similar “fall detection mode” that is still available, and they’re both great.

Emergency Siren (SOS)

The Apple Watch Ultra has an upgraded speaker that can blast a loud emergency siren at nearly 86 decibels, and it’s a great idea. Many hikers have whistles for emergencies, but you won’t need one with the Apple Watch Ultra. If you get injured on a trail, lost, or can’t get out of a hairy situation, this siren could be a lifesaver.

There’s a big new customizable orange “action button” on the side of the Apple Watch Ultra, and if you push and hold it down, it’ll activate the siren.

Apple says its new emergency siren has two unique sound signatures with alternating patterns and can go off for several hours if necessary. There’s a distress mode that’s loud and audible, while another that mimics an SOS. Apple says someone can hear it from over 600 feet away.

And while it doesn’t use the international Alpine Distress Signal for hikers, it’s still an excellent feature we wish every Apple Watch had. This could be helpful in daily life situations, like an assault or robberies, too, making it pretty neat.

Compass Waypoints and Backtrack

For avid backpackers or outdoor enthusiasts, you’ll love the upgraded Compass app in WatchOS 9. While it now features more in-depth information and views on a single screen, you’ll love the Waypoints and Backtrack features.

For one, you can now quickly access the Compass Waypoint feature and drop a pin showing your location. You can add more as you go, showing the direction and distance from the previous spot. These location points could even help emergency services find a lost hiker.

Additionally, using GPS data from the Ultra, owners can use the new Backtrack feature. This creates a chronological path of all the waypoints as you hike, camp, travel, or go off-grid. It happens automatically in the background, too. If you get lost or need to retrace your steps to return to camp or civilization, this will give you step-by-step instructions to make it home safe.

Dual GPS for Improved Location Accuracy

Accurate location information is undoubtedly important, but it’s crucial in an emergency. Whether you’re using the Backtrack feature mentioned above, hiking over a mountain ridge, or need improved location data, the Apple Watch Ultra has you covered thanks to an all-new dual GPS setup.

Apple added dual-frequency GPS that’s better than any Apple Watch yet. It uses both L1 and L5 GPS frequencies and improved positioning algorithms to deliver the most accurate GPS signal of any smartwatch on the market.

As you can probably imagine, this is helpful for various situations, from adventures to emergencies.

Cellular Connectivity

The regular Apple Watch comes in a standard Wi-Fi model or one with Wi-Fi Cellular connectivity. The cellular version basically puts the same connectivity as your phone inside your wrist for making calls, sending a text message, or viewing Apple Maps. If you only have the Wi-Fi model, it can’t do those things unless paired with your phone.

Every Apple Watch Ultra comes with cellular connectivity, meaning it’ll work without being connected to a phone. You can go for a run and still make phone calls or send a text, follow map routes during a bike ride, and much more.

If you get stuck in an emergency and can’t reach your phone, lose it, or the battery dies, you could theoretically use the Apple Watch Ultra to make it out safely. Use the Ultra to call for help, send a text message to a family member, view Backtrack mode, or follow a map to safety even when your phone isn’t available.

Remember that you’ll need to pay for an additional line of cellular service from your carrier for this functionality to work.

Water Depth and Temperature Sensors

The new Apple Watch Ultra is also perfect for water sports or scuba diving. The Ultra can handle depths and temperatures the regular Apple Watch can’t. It has a rating of 100 meters under ISO standard 22810, and it’s even certified for recreational scuba diving (EN 13319), which is pretty neat.

When you go underwater, it’ll automatically open a new Depth app that can show the time, current depths (down to 40 meters), water temperatures, and several other stats. It’s basically an underwater computer.

And while this is more of a novelty feature than anything, showing this automatically instead of a diver having to navigate to this critical information could be helpful in certain situations.

Apple claims the watch can survive in temperatures ranging from negative four degrees to 131 degrees Fahrenheit. So whether you’re diving in deep cold waters or hiking a mountain on a warm summer day, the Ultra is up for the job.

Emergency SOS Call

Similar to Apple’s new emergency siren on the Watch Ultra, all of Apple’s watches have an emergency SOS mode that’s readily available and could potentially save a life. This isn’t exclusive to the new Ultra, but it’s absolutely worth mentioning.

Press and hold the button below the digital crown (how you power off the watch), and you’ll find the emergency SOS option. Drag the SOS slider from left to right, and it’ll immediately make a call, alert your emergency contacts, share location data (if allowed), and more.

Or, if you cannot look at and interact with your watch, push and hold the button endlessly, and after 20 seconds, it’ll automatically call emergency services.

Medical ID

While it’s nothing new, Apple’s Medical ID section in the health app on phones and watches is a hidden gem everyone should take advantage of. In the case of an emergency, where your watch detects a fall or crash, as explained above, or you send an SOS signal, the Medical ID can share important health information about you with first responders.

This information includes your blood type, medical history, medical notes, conditions, allergies, and more. You’ll want to open the Health app on your phone, fill out all the Medical ID cards, and then sync it to your Apple Watch Ultra. From there, you can customize when that information is shown, and it’ll even default the medical ID stats on your watch lock screen in a true emergency.

It might sound like a minor feature that’s not worth filling out, but depending on the situation, it could save your life.

ECG and Heart Monitoring

And finally, we wanted to mention Apple’s continued efforts in health with its heart monitoring and ECG capabilities on the watch. Again, this isn’t new or exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra, but it can keep you alive if it catches an irregular heartbeat or other issues.

The ECG app on your Apple Watch can take an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), similar to what you’d find in a doctor’s office. The ECG app can record your heartbeat and rhythm, then check for atrial fibrillation (AFib) or a high/low heart rate.

Remember that Apple’s ECG app can’t detect heart attacks, but it’s still one aspect of the watch that can have big consequences. You can even share results instantly with your primary physician, which is neat. These watches even have a Blood Oxygen sensor to track health, fitness, and wellness.

According to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, the company specifically designed the Ultra for “exploration, adventure, and endurance.” Then, Apple carefully created helpful features that can take advantage of the design, durability, and technology.

When you combine all that, it’s a capable watch that could potentially keep you alive. Most people will wear the Apple Watch Ultra for regular activities, but for outdoor enthusiasts, it has a slew of benefits you can use and appreciate.

If you like what you’re seeing, grab your own Apple Watch Ultra from the link below.

WhatsApp on Apple Watch explained: How to send and receive messages

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Getting WhatsApp notifications on your Apple Watch is a great way of staying connected. and can help you become less attached to your smartphone.

It’s important to understand that there’s no official WhatsApp app for the Apple Watch. However, it is possible to receive notifications and reply to messages straight from the wrist, thanks to built-in integrations.

With WhatsApp on Apple Watch, you can:

However, you cannot (as standard):

• Browse received messages
• Initiate a conversation with a contact
• See multimedia, such as pictures or videos

Learn how to use WhatsApp on the Apple Watch by following our guide below, where we’ll provide the key steps on setting up WhatsApp notifications and a very cool workaround to get you sending messages from the wrist.

Get WhatsApp notifications on Apple Watch

If you’re going through standard, official channels, you can receive notifications and also reply from the Apple Watch.

However, you will need to ensure notifications are turned on first in order to have them mirrored on your phone.

On your iPhone, go to the Watch app.

From the My Watch tab, tap Notifications.

Scroll down to WhatsApp and ensure the switch is turned green. You’ll see the option to mirror iPhone alerts to bring those WhatsApp alerts to your wrist.

Once notifications are turned on, you’ll notice that your wrist buzzes whenever a message comes in.

Reply to WhatsApp messages from your Apple Watch

You can also send messages on WhatsApp with the Apple Watch.

That is a lot easier now thanks to the QWERTY keyboard introduced with the Apple Watch Series 7 (and also found on Series 8/Ultra).

First up, you can pick from a list of simple options to reply, such as, ‘Hello’, ‘What’s up?’, ‘OK’ or ‘On my way’.

What’s more, you can record a custom reply via voice recognition and send that straight back to the recipient.

And if that’s not enough, you can even type out your response on the keyboard. It’s tiny but quite intuitive.

How to reply to a WhatsApp message

Go to the received WhatsApp message notification on the Apple Watch.

Tap Reply.

Scroll down and choose one of the custom responses.

If you want to craft your own reply, you can hit the microphone and record your message.

Send WhatsApp Messages from Apple Watch

At the top of this article, we said that (as standard) you couldn’t send WhatsApp messages from your Apple Watch. But there is a workaround.

The tip came from Fabian Heuwieser, who specializes in using the Apple Shortcuts app. He’s created a shortcut that enables you to send a WhatsApp Message from the wrist. even if you’re using LTE.

To get started, just head to his blog and download the pre-written Shortcut, which will automatically be added to your Apple Watch.

There are two Shortcuts, one that opens your contacts (which we found fiddly to choose a recipient) and a second that enables you to pre-set some favorites. We explain how below.

To set up the WhatsApp Apple Watch Shortcuts:

Download the Shortcuts using the link above.2. Head to the Shortcuts app on your iPhone.3. Choose the Template option and tap the button to edit.4. Rename the first contact.5. Now scroll down below to the entry. It will say Send [Text] to [X]. Tap this last entry.6. Choose a contact. Repeat for other entries.

To send a WhatsApp message:

Head to the Shortcuts app.2. Run the Shortcut.3. Choose a contact.4. Write your message (we prefer to use Siri in this instance).5. Press send.

WhatsApp alternative app

As we alluded to up top, there’s no official WhatsApp app available for the Apple Watch. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t third-party alternatives to choose from within the Apple Watch App Store.

It’s worth noting that there are many to choose from, both free and paid-for, and it can be difficult to work out which third-party WhatsApp solutions are the most effective and reliable in providing a fuller experience.

In our experience, WatchChat 2 (which costs 2.99/£2.99) is probably the pick of the bunch, at least for now.

Not only does it let you view and send messages in all your existing chats, as well as dictation and Scribble, watch videos, and view stickers, but it’s also fairly simple to get started. Here’s how:

On your iPhone, go to the Watch app and tap on the App Store.

In the search box, type in ‘WatchChat 2’, then download the app to your Apple Watch.

Once downloaded, open the app on your Apple Watch.

Then, head to WhatsApp on your iPhone, before going to Settings WhatsApp Web Scan QR code.

Scan the QR code that appears on the Apple Watch.