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How to Add Apps to Apple Watch

By Rachel Needell

How to Add Apps to the Apple Watch (iOS 17)

Most apps on the Apple Watch need to be downloaded via the iPhone before you can download them directly from the App Store. However, if you've downloaded the app previously and it's still in your iCloud, you can re-download it to your Apple Watch without your iPhone. But did you know that you can automatically download the companion watchOS version of an app you’ve added to your iPhone? You can also turn this feature off and choose only specific apps to download to your Apple Watch if you'd like to save space. Here's how it works!

A little known trick of the Apple Watch is that you can use it as your shutter remote for taking pictures with your iPhone. When you open the Camera app on your Apple Watch, you’ll see whatever the iPhone’s camera can see. This is perfect for taking family photos since you can station the iPhone on a tripod, join the group, and tap the button or activate the three-second timer right from your Apple Watch. Here’s how to take iPhone photos using your Apple Watch.

Gone are the days when sharing photos and videos meant tediously transferring them from your camera to your computer via wires and SD cards. Thanks to email, AirDrop, and the ability to upload content directly to social media, sharing memories with your friends and family has become easier than ever.  Apple has taken that ease even further, allowing you to instantly send photos and videos directly from the Messaging app. Here’s how to instantly send photos in messages.

Save iPhone Battery by Changing Mail's Fetch Frequency (iOS 17)

By default, your iPhone or iPad will continually check for new mail and immediately "push" it to your device as a notification. This ensures you get new emails as soon as they arrive. However, the Push setting can also end up draining more battery since your device is checking for new emails continuously. Here's how to switch the Push setting to Fetch and save a little more battery.

How to Turn Off Repeat Message Notifications on Your iPhone

You may have noticed that your Message alerts sound twice: once when you get the message and again two minutes later, if you haven't opened it yet. If this isn’t your cup of tea, there’s an easy way to change it. Repeat Alerts can be found and changed in the Settings app. You can choose to set repeat message alerts from never all the way up to 10 times. Here’s how to turn off repeat message notifications.

By default, when you raise your wrist, the Apple Watch screen wakes up. Also by default, it shows you the Watch Face, assuming you want to see the time and have access to complications. But perhaps you’d rather see the most recent app or activity you were using instead. You can change the setting for Wake Screen from Watch Face to Last Activity. Here’s how to automatically reopen an app on your Apple Watch.

The absolute best iPad Pro accessories on the market aren’t always easy to find. I’ve scoured lists across the internet and created a few of my own, but the iPad Pro is still relatively new and companies are releasing products all the time. Once you have a top-notch keyboard, it’s fun to see what other awesome items are out there. Look no further, here’s the seven best iPad Pro accessories available now.

Signing a contract via email used to entail a printer, pen, and scanner. But now you can do the whole thing right on your iPhone in the Mail app. Once you’ve perfected your on-screen signature, you can continue to use the same one and even change what color it is. To do this, we’ll use the Markup feature that was introduced with iOS 9. Here’s how to sign a PDF document in the Mail app.

How to Make Hands-Free Calls on the iPhone (iOS 17)

Do you find yourself answering the phone and quickly putting it in speakerphone mode so you can use your iPhone hands-free? Do you find it annoying to scroll through contacts, calls, and messages just to make a phone call? Well, there’s an easier way. You can set your iPhone settings to place and receive calls hands-free, automatically, within the Settings app. It’s part of Apple's accessibility and Hey Siri features. Here’s how to use Siri to make calls and have them automatically answer on speaker so you never have to use your hands.

There are plenty of keys and character variations that the small keyboard of the iPhone simply can’t fit on the screen. However, accented characters and other extra options are available—they’re merely hidden so as to take up little space. You can use this tip anytime you’re using the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard to see more options. Here’s how to view alternate characters on the keyboard.

Whether you want to use this feature to take travel journaling notes about your adventures or to remember a particular place you went that you liked, saving a Map location in Notes is easy to do on your iPhone. You could add the location to your Map Favorites as well, but placing the location in Notes gives you a chance to add extra information. Here’s how to save a map location in notes.

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