You Can Finally Control Your Apple Watch From Your IPhone
The Apple Watch was designed to be worn on the wrist, but due to my pride, I still want to control it from my iPhone. Most often this is when the watch is on a charger in another room and I would like to test a function or continue the update process without having to constantly walk back and forth from the charger to do so. The good news is that I no longer have to take another step because it is now possible to mirror the Apple Watch display on your iPhone.
This feature isn’t just for using your Apple Watch remotely. Its main purpose is to help those who have trouble interacting with the small Apple Watch screen. The Apple Watch isn’t as small as it used to be these days, but it’s still tiny . Whether it’s the 40mm Apple Watch SE or the 49mm Apple Watch Ultra, any display that needs to be measured in millimeters is likely to be small.
Regardless of your use case, streaming your Apple Watch screen to iPhone is convenient and rewarding. You can check your watch from another room, show the feature to a friend more easily, and access everything with the ease of a much larger display. On my 12 Pro Max, the Apple Watch display is huge , and while I’d never want one that big, it’s great to interact with it in this new context.
To use this new feature, you’ll need an Apple Watch Series 6 or later running watchOS 9 . This watch must be paired with an iPhone running iOS 16 , which means you’ll need at least an iPhone 8, X, or later. The watch doesn’t even have to be on your wrist. As long as it’s on and within Bluetooth range of your iPhone, this feature will work.
Go to Settings > Accessibility , then look for the Physical & Motion for Apple Watch Mirroring section. Here you will see one switch. Touch it and a window will appear with a simulated version of your watch and its name. Once the connection is established, you will see your watch display on your iPhone light up. If you’re not currently wearing them, you’ll need to enter your password, but once they’re unlocked, you’ll be able to control any part of the watch from this window.
If you know how to use your Apple Watch, you know how to manage it here. You can swipe and touch the screen to open and interact with apps just like you would on your watch. While you can’t rotate the Digital Crown on the screen, you can tap it to exit the app and then press and release it to activate Siri. Press and hold the side button on the screen to bring up the app switcher, then release to open the power menu. You can even take a screenshot by pressing both on-screen buttons at the same time.
The best part, in my opinion, is that your watch won’t go to sleep until you stop mirroring (by pressing (X) in the streaming window) or place your palm on the display. Since your default clock turns off the display pretty quickly after you stop using it, it would be annoying to constantly wake it back up from your iPhone. However, it can be easy to forget that you are using this feature, in which case your watch will be constantly on and therefore drain your battery.
This article was updated on Monday, September 19th to correct which Apple Watch models are compatible.