Apple Watch: Three Tips on Contacting Your Pals

One of the best things about the Apple Watch is how easy it makes communicating with your friends, especially if they’ve got Watches too. I know my pals are quickly gonna get tired of me sending them inappropriate drawings 47 times a day, but YOU GUYS CAN JUST DEAL. YOU HEAR ME?

Ahem. 

Three tips on getting and staying in touch, comin’ right up!

1. Get More Digital Touch Colors

If you want to reach out to one of your favorite people using your Watch, it’s simple. First you’ll press the so-called side button. 

Tap a contact from the list to select him or her, and you’ll be able to call that person, compose a text message, or use Digital Touch (assuming your pal has an Apple Watch).

If you pick Digital Touch (the “poking hand” icon above), you have three possible actions. You could touch the display to tap your friend or hold down two fingers to send your heartbeat. Or if you wanna send your friend an example of your artistry, you could draw on your Watch’s screen.

I think “artistry” should’ve been in quotes in my case.

If you want, you could also switch the color your artwork will be in before you start drawing. Do that by touching the small colored icon in the upper-right corner.

You’ll see a color wheel to pick from.

Want a color that you don’t have? Just press and hold on any of the colors in the outer ring, and then you can pick a new color to occupy that same space on the wheel. 

2. Force Touch in Messages

There are two different ways to use Force Touch within the Messages app. Press firmly on your screen when you’re looking at your list of conversations, and you can choose to start a new one.

Alternatively, if you do the same thing while you’re within a conversation, the choices will be different.

The handiest option, I think, is “Send Location,” which’ll let you tell your friends where you are in a flash. That’s some Dick Tracy–level Watch stuff right there!

3. The Whole Screen Is a “Done” Button

So you’re dictating a message to someone, right? And you’re finished with what you want to say. When you’re ready to move on to sending your message, you tap “Done” to do that, don’t you?

The secret here is that you don’t actually HAVE to touch “Done” at all—as long as you don’t tap “Cancel,” touching the screen anywhere will advance to the next step in the process. I find that this is especially useful when paired with the setting that automatically sends your messages as either dictation or audio, as that means it’s just a couple of steps to send something, with very little fussing around. If you’d like to configure that setting yourself, it’s available within the Apple Watch app on the iPhone under My Watch> Messages> Audio Messages.

Of course, if you turn on “Always Dictation” (as I’ve done above), be sure that Siri’s understood what you wanted to say properly before you touch the screen. 

I mean, that’s totally what I wanted to say, but just pay attention in case Siri doesn’t get you the way she gets me.