Settings On Your Apple Watch That Are Ruining Your Experience

Who could have anticipated something like smartwatches becoming such a polarized topic? People bicker constantly online, unable to reach common ground on when, exactly, it's okay to wear a smartwatch, and when it's not appropriate — like when wearing black-tie clothes or going to a job interview. Photographers pick on their clients for keeping Apple Watches on during photoshoots, and USA Today notes that especially vocal social media users say that 24/7 smartwatch-clad people look like dorks, comparing them to "Spy Kids" from the movie with the same name. Rebuttals usually point out that Apple Watches track critical health data for users with medical conditions, that watch bands and faces can be changed out for more classy looks, and that a smartwatch means you can still communicate even if you misplace your phone.

Whether you agree with one of those opinions or share our thoughts on the matter —which is that it's not that serious, and people who argue online over what kind of watches you should wear to a wedding are weird — it can't be debated that smartwatches bring a ton more utility to your fingertips than a traditional watch does. With a cellular-connected smartwatch, it's no big deal to go for a walk or run to the store without your phone — not because it's impossible to go a few minutes without it, but because smartwatches give us peace of mind that we can still reach someone or be reached by someone if there is an emergency. But if your Apple Watch experience has been subpar, don't revert back to your old Fossil timepiece yet. Here are some setting changes to make that may improve your smartwatch experience.

Have you ever been stuck on hold in an annoying customer service call, engrossed in a heated back-and-forth with a coworker, or fuming over a new piece of furniture that just won't come together even with the instructions? These moments are agitating enough, but there's nothing to tip the scales quite like that infamous "Breathe" reminder popping up on your Apple Watch at the zenith of your frustration in these scenarios. Breathe reminders come from a native Apple Watch application, also called Breathe. It's a simple app that guides users through short periods of medication and mindful breathing. This app can be deleted altogether, but it is a nice tool to have and manually open when you need some help re-centering after things get heated.

By default, the Breathe app is programmed to remind users to "bring attention to your breath" at predetermined times throughout the day. We can certainly give some appreciation to Apple's intentions behind this setting in theory, but the reminder to breathe can just feel more taunting than anything in practice. Contrary to popular belief, your Apple Watch doesn't tell you to breathe because it detected a heart rate spike or other stress level indicator but you can change the frequency of how often the notifications occur, with a maximum of 10 Breathe notifications per day — or, you can turn them off altogether if you find the watch's cheerful reminder to be less stressed during periods of stress to be doing more harm than good. 

The wrist-wake settings on an Apple Watch describe whether your wrist is up — which wakes up the watch's screen — or down, which triggers the watch to sleep. If a too-short battery life is plaguing you as an Apple Watch user, turning off the wrist-wake settings is a good practice to prolong the battery life. This can also help if you've ever found your Apple Watch to just be too distracting.

However, if you don't feel like you're getting the bang for your buck out of an Apple Watch, disabled wrist-wake settings may be why. This capability is part of what sets smartwatches apart from traditional timepieces and makes hands-free call answering, text reading, and notification checking hassle-free. An easy way to temporarily disable wrist-wake settings in order to lessen distractions or preserve battery is by enabling theater mode — but keep in mind that this will also put your watch on silent. 

If your Apple Watch has gradually gotten more buggy, slower, and overall less agreeable with new applications, don't chalk it up to the old device curse just yet. Running an out-of-date WatchOS could be why your experience with an Apple Watch has turned sour. Just like other Apple devices, the smartwatch's software updates can be installed automatically, but there are several factors that may get in the way of autonomous software installs such as a prolonged time with no wifi connection, a watch that isn't put on its charger for adequate periods of time, or issues with the paired iPhone. According to Apple, while you technically shouldn't need your iPhone if your watch already runs WatchOS 6 or later, out-of-date iOS on the phone or a broken pairing between the phone and watch may be preventing updates from occurring.

It is definitely a good idea to keep your smartwatch up to speed on the most recent software, as this could not only keep the device running smoothly but also address any bugs related to operations or security that you may not even be aware of. WatchOS 9 is the latest version of the Apple Watch operating system as of this article's publishing, but we have bad news for Series 3 users — your devices are officially considered too old for this software update, so you're faced with upgrading your watch or using it until it goes kaput.

Who doesn't want their personal devices to be more secure? There's no harm in adding another layer of protection between your sensitive data and prying eyes. Passwords on computers and phones are pretty normal, and all Apple Watch Series models are capable of being locked with a passcode. However, passcodes on smartwatches are tricky and none too convenient. One somewhat helpful function in the Apple ecosystem is the "Unlock with iPhone" feature, which means that your watch will be automatically unlocked when your iPhone is unlocked. However, the watch will then remain unlocked, even if you put your wrist down and the watch face goes to sleep until the device is once again removed from your wrist. This doesn't protect your watch in any way while you're using it.

And if you turn on a watch passcode without the automatic unlock-with-iPhone feature, you must manually enter your passcode every time you wake the watch up, since Apple Watches aren't capable of FaceID reading ... yet. This turns into a huge hassle when trying to check the time or use your watch while you're hands aren't free.

While it seems logical that allowing your smartwatch's apps to refresh more would be harder on the battery, the opposite is actually true. Background app refresh on Apple Watch is meant to maximize your battery — it does so by freeing up RAM while your watch is running since apps aren't working so hard to gather data and get up to speed when you reopen them. If you've turned off background refreshing, you may find that your apps have started taking longer to open for this purpose; they're sending out one big ping rather than more frequent smaller ones.

One area where background refreshing siphons from your watch is in cellular data. You can adjust settings to only background refresh when connected to wifi, but otherwise, your watch (assuming it has a data connection) will draw on cellular data to refresh apps in the background. It seems a catch-22 — to background refresh or not to background refresh — but if this setting is disabled on your watch and you find the battery life suffering, try turning it back on. On the other hand, if data consumption is an issue, toggle the setting to off. Apps may still run slowly even if background refresh is on; this could be a WatchOS issue, a slow data connection, or the device becoming overwhelmed by its operations plus the background refreshing. In this case, turn the background refreshing off and see if your watch's performance improves.