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Smartwatches are rather nifty little devices that serve a greater purpose than your typical timepiece. An Apple Watch presents you with many apps that provide ways to enhance your newly purchased, multi-purpose gadget.
There are plenty of available workout apps to track your calorie-burning activities such as running, swimming, and cycling. Other similar apps will help you to count your steps throughout the day. A few that can help with daily task management and keep a record of passwords and other information you may have trouble remembering.
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Those who also happen to have an iPhone will find that it can be synced with your Apple Watch (Amazon, Best Buy) to enable additional interaction. Some apps will require that you already use them on your iPhone.
The same can be said for additional attachments like the Apple Watch speaker which can be used as your personal music player. Listen to your favorite podcasts at work or don a pair of Bluetooth headphones and head out onto a jogging trail.
As you can tell, you’ll get plenty of use out of an Apple Watch. So, to avoid wasting time, it’s important to know which apps are the best apps.
Password, Data Organizing & Task Management Apps
1Password is incredibly handy for anyone who uses two-factor authentication. This app will display a one-time log-in key for use whenever one is needed, should you not have your iPhone readily available.
Cheatsheet is a notation-taking app that allows you to jot down everyday useful information. Things like Wi-Fi passwords and lock combinations can be stored with relative ease for later use. You can even add a familiar icon, like a lock or car, next to the information in order to help remember what it pertains to.
Things is a user-friendly task management tool that will always keep you updated on what you’ll need to do throughout the day. You have the option to sync this app from your Apple Watch to your iPhone so anytime you mark a task as complete, it will appear as such on the other end.
You’ll see all tasks due for the day and will be able to flip through the calendar to check out all tasks for the upcoming days that you’ve laid out.
This app is not free and will run you a one-time purchase of $10. But for those who tend to need a helpful reminder, it’s a small price to pay.
Physical Activity Tracker Apps
Strava is an app that tracks your workout sessions, including the length and the rate at which the exercises are performed. The app will allow you to save the data of each session and sync it with your account on other devices. This is particularly useful as the Apple Watch version has only the basics of that which the smartphone version possesses.
You’ll be able to see your current heart rate and also receive a warning if the app determines you should slow down to get back into rhythm.
On the iPhone, you can add additional information to the saved sessions such as equipment used and your GPS location at the start and finish of the session.
ActivityTracker Pedometer is another great physical activity tracker. Instead of being focused exclusively on workouts, it lends its aid to those wishing to calculate steps taken throughout the day. This includes the distance, time, burnt calories, and other information one may find pertinent.
You can set goals and track all of your activities in hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly increments. There is also an option to import data from other devices so that you may have the entire app history available on your Apple Watch.
Music & Quality Of Life Apps
If podcasts are your thing, the Overcast app for Apple Watch now allows you to browse and control the podcast playback directly from your watch. You can skip forward and backward between episodes, without the interface feeling overly crowded.
You can sync all of the episodes you’ve downloaded on another device, directly to your Apple Watch. This will allow you to listen to the podcast directly from the watch with Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
A bit odd, but Apple Watch doesn’t come with a built-in calculator. Luckily, PC CalcLite is a totally free calculator tool with all the necessary features you’ll need. Well, mostly.
The app lacks some features normally found in more premium calculator apps. However, unless you’re attempting some serious mathematical equations, it offers just enough to satisfy.
Spark is one of the better email apps available for the Apple Watch. It attempts – and succeeds – in keeping things simple, electing to focus exclusively on email for better email management on a smaller screen.
Spark utilizes the same intelligent mail sorting found on the iPhone version and passes it on to the Apple Watch. Each category in your mailbox has a big colorful button that will illuminate whenever a relevant message is received.
In addition to the categories, you’ll get to see the entire inbox, pinned emails, your archive, and your sent messages just as you would have had you been using an iPhone.
Consider yourself a big shopper? The Deliveries app will allow you to see a list of packages that you can expect to receive. This includes the total remaining days until arrival, the current location of the package, its status, and a map of said location just in case you feel that an image speaks louder than words.
The slight drawback is that you’ll only be able to place the deliveries via the iPhone app. The Apple Watch app serves as more of a quick check, which could come in handy around the holidays.
