Mute/Unmute Apple Watch Activity Reminders in watchOS 3

The other day, I accidentally muted my Activity reminders on my Apple Watch. I count on those, and had to go looking to find out how to unmute them. Now that I figured it out, let me show you how.

All of the screenshots below were taken with watchOS 3.x and iOS 10.1.x.

Apple Watch Activity Reminders

As noted, I use my Activity Reminders to help get me off my butt. That’s a thing for someone who makes his living writing, but many folks use their Apple Watch for these reminders.

At the 50 minute mark of any hour where you haven’t moved around for a full minute, you get an alert to do so. You don’t have to dismiss the alert, as it goes away on its own. If you scroll down on the alert, you can dismiss it, as shown below.

Apple Watch Activity Reminder
Apple Watch Activity Reminder

What set me on my search for controls is accidentally tapping “Mute for Today.” Note, by the by, that is says clearly where to change it. But when you’ve tapped “Mute for Today,” that info goes away. In any event, I didn’t want them muted, so I went looking for a way to turn them back on. To do so, you need to use your Watch app on your iPhone.

On the main screen of your Watch app, scroll down until you find the tab for Activity, as shown below.

Main screen of Watch App in iOS 10
Watch App Main Screen

Tap on Activity, and at the top of the screen is Mute Reminders for Today. In my case, it was toggled on, as shown below.

The activity tab in iOS 10 for watchOS 3
Activity Tab for Watch App

To turn them back on, I just had to toggle that switch, as shown below.

Activity tab in Watch App in iOS 10
When Toggled Off, You’ll Get Activity Reminders

You Can Start Here, Too

The only option you get to mute Activity Reminders on your Apple Watch when a reminder comes up on the 50 minute mark. If you want to proactively turn them off any other time, you’ll need to use the Watch app.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.