App suggestions for New Apple Watch user

[shodipo]

Hi guys
I'm trying to give the Apple Watch a try

Please suggest apps that actually make you enjoy using the Apple Watch

Thanks
Paid and free apps are welcome suggestions

 

[Beards]

Where to start:- I suppose the first question to ask you is 'what category or type of apps interest you'?

 

[shodipo]

Where to start:- I suppose the first question to ask you is 'what category or type of apps interest you'?

No category in particular
Fitness apps,games,weather,finance,Social media,Reminders,Sleep tracking,
Just tell me the 10 apps you use most on the Watch

 

[Beards]

No category in particular
Fitness apps,games,weather,finance,Social media,Reminders,Sleep tracking,
Just tell me the 10 apps you use most on the Watch

Google Maps. ~. With turn directions. FREE
My Water Balance: Daily Drink Tracker & Reminder ~ Has an excellent watch compilation. PAID but cheap.
Battery Watcher ~ Shows details of your iPhone battery on the watch including graphs etc. FREE
Blue Sky Weather ~ Very good watch compilation FREE
HealthView Your Health & Fitness Data Dashboard ~ Very good accessory to the standard Health App. FREE
HeartWatch Heart & Activity Monitor for Watch ~ Excellent watch and iPhone app. PAID but cheap
AutoSleep rack Sleep from Watch Automatically ~ This app is a must if you want to track your sleeping habits. The app itself does not get installed on the watch meaning it does not effect the battery on the watch..... but what it does do is measure your sleep with excellent results. PAID but cheap (written by the same dev as HeartWatch)
MyAltitude free altimeter for climbing & hiking ~ Good watch compilation FREE
mycl - my current location ~ Believe me this one works great on the watch. FREE
Microsoft OneNote ~ If you use OneNote then you must install this one. FREE
PCalc Light ~ Excellent watch calculator FREE version
SkyGuide View Stars Night or Day ~ Good watch compilation. FREE

There's 12 to start you off.

 

[gordol]

Weather: Currently I use BeWeather. I'd use Weatherbug, but their nearest weather station is too far away.
Google Maps
Camera +, remote trigger on the watch
EventBright - event passes on the watch
FB Messenger
Voice Record Pro, mic on the wrist instead of holding the phone out.

 

[imwjl]

Beyond built-in apps I appreciate:

Dark Sky
LastPass
Weather Underground
Office 365
Drafts
Gaia GPS
Cyclemeter (Abivo, same as Runmeter...)
Living Earth
MyRadarPro
Wall St. Journal
NY Times
Remote camera and video recording apps
Airline apps

The native apps them selves are a big part of why we enjoy the watches. I say that because it started out as a hers n his experiment with my wife. We enjoy the fitness challenges. The text messaging is great.

I've also come to appreciate Apple's own navigation. I like the wrist reminders more than blaring through the car system, looking at phone, and even looking at the dash with our car that has built in navigation. The Apple map system is not the joke it once was.

You life will determine what you enjoy. Mine's full of alarms and messages because I'm an enterprise IT admin. It's less looking at the phone. My wife likes messages, weather and news in a work scenario where she can't have a computer screen or phone giving her that info.

 

[tcuprof]

The top 10 apps I use are stock Apple apps. The most often used 3rd party apps for me are Medisafe (this is a GREAT app if you need to take medicine on a multi-times per day schedule) and HealthFace (lets you have a pedometer or any other Health app metric as a complication).

 

[thejasonhowell]

Poncho / Dark Sky / Radarscope
Pillow
CNN / Associated Press
Flipboard
Tile
Automatic
MacID
Tweetbot - if you use Twitter
Starbucks - if it's your thing
Amtrak and airline apps
ProCam / FiLMiCPro
Cardiogram
Foursquare
Shazam
1Password
MyFitnessPal
Pokemon GO
Pedometer++
Seven
Uber
Bing translate

 

[Just_Me_D]

Hi guys
I'm trying to give the Apple Watch a try

Please suggest apps that actually make you enjoy using the Apple Watch

Thanks
Paid and free apps are welcome suggestions

I've had an Watch for almost two years, and I've worn it every day since getting it. With that said, you need to first understand that it is an iPhone companion that excels in notifications, dictation, quick reply, fitness & health as well as keeping track of the time. With that tidbit, choosing the right apps should be fairly simple, in my opinion. The only 3rd-party apps I have installed on my Watch are weather apps and the WaterMinder app. I've had numerous installed, but many weren't practical for my usage and so I uninstalled them and only keep the ones I actually use.

 

[Mac Guy]

I've had an Watch for almost two years, and I've worn it every day since getting it. With that said, you need to first understand that it is an iPhone companion that excels in notifications, dictation, quick reply, fitness & health as well as keeping track of the time. With that tidbit, choosing the right apps should be fairly simple, in my opinion. The only 3rd-party apps I have installed on my Watch are weather apps and the WaterMinder app. I've had numerous installed, but many weren't practical for my usage and so I uninstalled them and only keep the ones I actually use.

This.

The iPhone is the place for bunches and bunches of apps. The Watch has only 8G of storage, less because of the wOS. Loading it up will only slow the Watch down. With most apps, using it as an extension is key.

What Watch are you using? The Series 2 has it's own GPS so there may be an app or two it will benefit from where the other Watches don't.

Outside of the Apple apps, I have:

Navigon (a genuine nav app for offline navigation
WF at Hand ( a quick look at my Wells Fargo accounts)
Carrot Weather (I didn't pay/subscribe(?) for the complications feature
Hue (for my Philips Hue lights)
Deliveries (for the status of all my online orders)
Calcbot (calculator, unit converter)
TV Show Tracker (I have a lot of spare time for TV!)

I've a few more apps on the phone, paid and free, but I've yet to use them so they remain uninstalled on the Watches.

I have several weather apps (paid and free) but then to use Apple's app most of the time. Whatever you choose, a weather app you like makes a good complication (if that's an option) for just about any Watchface.

FYI— if you're not familiar already familiar with the term— 'complication' is a term in the watch world for something in addition to a watch's ability to tell the time. This applies to the date, extra dials for seconds, minutes, and hours, moon phases, etc. On a smartwatch, there are even more options.

Finally, the biggest thing for me is Notifications. Be they from email (VIPs for me), Messages, Activity, or any of my third party apps, being able to quickly read and or respond from the Watch without dragging out the phone is HUGE for me.

Answering a call on it giving me a chance to get to the phone before missing the call is pretty cool too. Since it doesn't have it's own cellular radio, it has to be near the phone or on the same WiFi network as the phone. Still pretty cool.

 

[gordol]

I agree with most of what you say. Except for this:

I have several weather apps (paid and free) but then to use Apple's app most of the time. Whatever you choose, a weather app you like makes a good complication (if that's an option) for just about any Watchface.

I don't use the Apple Weather app because it does not appear to have a location-aware option. When I check the weather on my watch, I want it to tell me what the temp is HERE.

 

[imwjl]

I agree with most of what you say. Except for this:



I don't use the Apple Weather app because it does not appear to have a location-aware option. When I check the weather on my watch, I want it to tell me what the temp is HERE.

I tend to use Dark Sky, Weather Underground, Living Earth (same data as latter) plus MyRadarPro because they have more specialized and detailed data for my outdoor sports and activities. In my region Dark Sky or apps using their data are are extra good.

 

[gordol]

I tend to use Dark Sky, Weather Underground, Living Earth (same data as latter) plus MyRadarPro because they have more specialized and detailed data for my outdoor sports and activities. In my region Dark Sky or apps using their data are are extra good.

I do prefer Wunderground sourced apps. The Wunderground app itself can be a bit problematic for me. And despite its flaws, BeWeather still works the best for me of all the apps I've tried.

 

[tcuprof]

I don't use the Apple Weather app because it does not appear to have a location-aware option. When I check the weather on my watch, I want it to tell me what the temp is HERE.

Maybe there's a setting you have wrong. I have the temperature complication (customization setting called Weather) on my watch face. I'm pretty sure it's getting the temperature from the Apple weather app and it always shows me the temp for wherever I am in the world.

 

[gordol]

Maybe there's a setting you have wrong. I have the temperature complication (customization setting called Weather) on my watch face. I'm pretty sure it's getting the temperature from the Apple weather app and it always shows me the temp for wherever I am in the world.

I can only get it to show me the conditions and forecast for configured locations.

 

[Mac Guy]

When I check the weather on my watch, I want it to tell me what the temp is HERE.

Ok, so either Apple doesn't have a setting for HERE, or you travel a lot and haven't turned on location services for Weather.

I don't travel enough to need to turn on Locations Services for it, and don't because of it's limited Never or Always On choices. I always prefer On While Using App as it's easier on the battery. My 5s isn't getting any younger.

 

[Just_Me_D]

?.. And despite its flaws, BeWeather still works the best for me of all the apps I've tried.

Same here. BeWeather 2 is my go-to weather app. Its overall design is on-point with what I prefer.

 

[gordol]

Ok, so either Apple doesn't have a setting for HERE, or you travel a lot and haven't turned on location services for Weather.

I coulda swore I had turned location services on for it...

Now that it's working, I don't like the layout.

 

[eyecrispy]

I don't use a ton of 3rd party apps.

I like stock features with a splash of third party in there.

Stock quick reply for texts
Stock workout
Stock maps
Stock Siri (sometimes)

Todoist
Strava
Wunderground (but it's not reliable)
Messenger
Enpass
Alarm.com

That's mostly it for now.

 

[Rob Phillips]

I use Carrot Weather, WaterMinder, Spark (email client) and Pedometer++. Pretty much everything else is stock.