To ask about Smartwatches?

[girlfriend44]

Why do I need a phone and a smartwatch?
Do people have both and what is the purpose of the watch, that is different to the phone?

I know one goes on your wrist but tell me about smartwatchs please?

I don't have a smartwatch.

But from what I gather... they are just an extension of your smartphone. If your phone is in another room, the call and ID will still come up on your smartwatch.

I have an Apple Watch which uses my phone to get calls, texts and notifications, it works all around the house though so I don't have to be near my phone, it's useful for calls so I don't miss them if I am upstairs without my phone and stuff like that. I also use the step counter on it and how much exercise I have done. And best of all I can check I am still alive and that my heart is still beating 😀

The main benefit from them is health tracking, they monitor things like heart rate and blood oxygen, and you can track your sleep. Also good for recording exercise sessions. Outside of that its the extra convenience of getting notification on your wrist without having to get your phone out.

The real thing to take away from this, is that do you think you need one?

Do you feel the need to be tethered 24/7 to your phone, and accessible on it at all time?
Do you need to know all the health data that they can provide? TBH, I have no need to know what hours I slept, or what my heart is doing. For some, that can cause more anxiety.

I've got a Garmin and a Samsung phone.
Messages etc do come through but then they go. Unless that's my settings.
I use mine mainly for steps and health etc rather than messaging although it's handy to see if i really need to deal with the message now or if it can wait

I had one and I hated it. First I had the notifications on, and found them distracting, and then I turned them off, in which case it wasn't very smart, so I sold it on!

I'm thinking of buying one for myself. I'm not allowed my phone on me at work but going through all the switchboards to get to me in an emergency would take forever. Family could call me without having to keep my phone on me.

So, I recently got a Samsung galaxy watch, a reconditioned v4 model.

It lets me use Android Pay without my phone.

It will let me record runs, swims, cycles etc on Strava without my phone.

I can play music on it without my phone (there's space for some songs on the watch). Either via BT headphones or on its wee speaker (!).

Can make/take calls, texts, WA messages with phone in pocket. Actually I think that if the watch is connected to the internet (e.g.coffee shop WiFi with just username/pw login) and the phone is also connected to the internet somewhere, that still works.

You can get smartwatches with their own mobile internet connection but that's quite expensive and mine hasn't got that.

I can also show my parkrun barcode on it for scanning.

It does other odds and sods, timing, calculator, remote phone camera control, remote audio recording control, navigation, calendar reminders, Todo lists etc.

For me the big 3 were

• the GPS watch/Strava stuff
• Android Pay

Both without phone at all And

• seeing, and sometimes replying to, messages when I'm out without having to fish my slab of a phone out.

It's a nice-to-have rather than a life changer for most people.

Health benefits and I love paying for stuff with Apple Pay and my watch, without faffing about looking for my phone. And sometimes it’s nice to take calls with it and my Air Pods.

I bought a very cheap one a couple of years ago. I like that it tracks my steps and lets me know if someone's calling or has sent me a message. I may not always be near my phone and we have no landline, so if someone needs to get in touch with me urgently, the notifications are helpful.

Even my extremely low-cost smartwatch has several other features, but I rarely use it for anything other than steps, time/date, and checking notifications from my phone. I wouldn't rely on it for accurate heart rate, BP, oxygen readings, etc., but for my purposes, it's been great.

God knows. If I really need to be contacted I will have my phone on me. I like popping out for walks without my phone of an evening and I wear a watch to know the time. The last thing I want is alerts popping up on the thing.

It rings if my phone is somewhere else in the house/office. I can read and reply to texts using voice typing.
Proves to me that my sleep is indeed sometimes really crap and to prioritise it at weekends.
Forces me to keep active every hour and get my step target every day.
Vibrate alarm in the morning.

I'd beware, those straps are a nightmare for causing skin reactions. Mine itches so badly I had to give up wearing it

I have an Apple Watch
I use it for recording activity (walks, running, swimming), heart rate monitoring

Easier to answer a call when you don't have to get phone out. Can send 'busy, I'll text back later' responses if not able to take a call.

Google maps shows the directions on the watch so I don't have to walk through streets with a phone in my hand - useful somewhere there's more risk of phone being snatched. Also vibrates just before you need to make a turn, go up/down stairs so you don't need to look at your watch all the time.

Records sleep

Various alarms - for regular (medication reminder, bin day) or one off events.

Timer

Can use Apple Pay if I've not got my phone on me.

Can use it as a remote for my iPhone camera.
Prop the camera up and take a selfie from a distance

Can store tickets in the wallet for cinema, train tickets etc. without needing to get phone out

Taking Voice notes

It helps if you're a geek who's interested in the above. I love mine

Mainly the health tracking, my phone doesn't pick up my steps properly. Ie it says 7000 but my watch says 12000. Also helps me monitor my sleep patterns for medication issues.

I got one when my Fitbit died. I had the Fitbit for years before Apple Watches were much of a thing. I have an iPhone and iPad and AirPods so made sense to have my new fitness wearable integrate with the tech I already had. If you are not into tracking the health and fitness then it prob won’t be worth it.

I have a fitness tracker, which is sort of a smart watch lite.

It tracks my heart rate and through that can monitor my sleep, which I find interesting. It can also automatically pick up any workouts and log them in an app for me, which I don't currently use but have found that motivating in the past - I have ADHD which means I struggle with habit formation, but tangible feedback like "You ran 2 mins more this week" is helpful rather than something less clear like a vague sense of feeling more healthy.

It means that I can be a bit separate from my phone. I am quite prone to overusing my phone for the social media etc whereas the watch will alert me to things like text messages/whatsapp and missed calls. I can also set alarms on it, so I don't need my phone in the bedroom at night. I originally got it because I was starting a job where I had to leave my phone in a locker in the staff room and it was nice to be able to receive text messages, even though with my current watch I can't reply.

Also, it's a watch, that syncs the time to my phone so I don't have to change it for daylight savings etc. I can set reminders on it. I can set it to alert me if I've sat still for too long (since I have a toddler this never ever goes off XD but it's useful since my mind tends to wander and I can get sucked into things like MN for too long)

I can control music/podcasts playing on my phone with it which is useful if I'm out and about and don't want to get my phone out of my pocket especially if it's raining.

I can use it to locate my phone if I lose it.

It gives me a weather forecast much quicker than finding my phone and loading up the weather app and waiting for the ads to close etc - for example when I'm getting dressed I find this very useful.

Some people won't need both, I quite like having both. If I understand correctly, a smart watch does need a phone to connect to, it doesn't work on its own. But I remember thinking about 20 years ago that it would make sense if in the future people used their watch as a phone. You could perfectly easily use it to make calls, combined with a headset ideally, use voice to text or send voice notes in whatsapp, so just pair it with a very cheap basic phone that is kept in your bag or similar. I suppose the part I was missing back in 2002 was that in "the future" everyone's phone would not only be a phone, but would be a mini game centre, ebook reader, web browser, digital wallet, holder for bus pass, email reader, camera, video camera, photo storage etc etc etc. I like using my phone for all those things so I wouldn't want to do totally without it.

Sounds like extra faff and stress.

Another useful thing mine does is open my iMac and as PP says you can follow directions when walking with your watch rather than having your phone out which I don’t like to do in some places