I just got a smart watch (samsung galaxy active if it matters) as a freebie with my new mobile contract. I’ve synced it with my phone, but so far I’ve only really got the odd notification (which I also heard on my phone), plus a watch face which isn’t always on (I guess there’s a knack to lifting your writst in just the right way to activate it). I’m trying to figure out if I’ll warm to it or if I should just flog it, so I thought some smart watch fans might be able to tell me the best thing they use on their watches for me to try, before I give up and go back to ludditeville

It doesn’t have a standalone sim, but does have (I think) GPS, heart rate monitoring, bluetooth, wifi etc..

My Notes In Gear – a notes/list app for your phone which syncs with the watch. Weather here and in the country I’m moving to so I can annoy people with how great the weather is there when it’s crap here. Turn by turn sat nav meaning not having to walk like a zombie staring at the phone in a strange town. Messages to watch, handy in pub when phone is in jackey sung over the back of a chair. Pointless but I do like answering the phone on my watch. Countdown timer, ideal for coffee brewing as it’s quicker to set than phone
Downside is battery life is shockingly poor. Charger in office but I had to get another to keep in my travel bag

Bear in mind you can install apps to it, you might not be ‘getting it’ because you’ve not done that yet. Go into the Play Store on your watch and scroll down to “apps on your phone” to see what companion apps you have available for what you already use.

Turn by turn sat nav meaning not having to walk like a zombie staring at the phone in a strange town.

This. If you put Google Maps on it it’ll sync with your phone so that when you’re using navigation on foot you can put your phone away.

Messages relay to it also. If someone sends me a Facebook message or text message it’ll pop up on my phone so I don’t have to fish about in my pocket / bag every five minutes.

If the phone rings it appears / buzzes on the watch so I can leave my phone permanently on silent rather than having a loud annoying ringtone, caller ID so I can see if I can bothered to answer it, and can take the call on the watch even (which makes me feel like like Michael Knight).

Not something I overly care about, but it has all the fitness tracker stuff, steps taken, HRM and so forth. There’s a remote control output for Runkeeper which I do use.

If it’s got NFC then you can use Google Pay as a contactless payment system. The only downside is that people look at you like you’re Harry Potter when you pay by watch. (Mine doesn’t have NFC, but I’ve got a little add-on doohicky fitted to the strap which adds that functionality.)

I use an app called StoCard where you can enter loyalty card details. A couple of taps on my watch and I’ve got my Tesco Clubcard barcode ready for scanning.

2FA systems like Google Authenticator / Microsoft / Facebook et al can send to the watch, so you log in somewhere, it sends you a one-time passcode and your watch goes *bzzt* “123456”

Find My Phone is great when you’re running out of the house and can’t lay your hands on where you abandoned your phone, “can you give me a ring?” is a thing of the past.

Remote media controls for podcasts / Spotify / etc etc. Smart lighting control if you have such things.

I bought a smart watch last year as a bit of a punt (not worn a watch of any kind regularly for almost 20 years, just wanted to see what all the fuss was about). Granted it’s not life-changing, but it’s one of the coolest/most useful things I’ve bought in a long time that just makes loads of things ever so slightly easier/better. Marginal tech gains, if you like! I’m not some tech nutter who goes out of his way to find uses for it, just tend to naturally use it – feels like I’ve always had one now!

If a message comes through, I can quickly see who it’s from to asses whether it’s important or not, which is both more convenient & less rude (I feel) than getting a phone out to look at it. As mentioned above, countdown timer (voice activated) is something I use often, again it’s just slightly quicker than getting a phone out. Can get it to ping my phone when I misplace it!

Turn by turn nav is great, as is the Viewranger app which gives you a little map. Can go for a run leaving phone behind and use it for HR, pace & playing music etc. Use it as a camera remote which is handy for group photos!

I also have a contextual watch face which pops up with useful stuff as and when which is really cool. Latest headlines, how long till sunset (actually pretty useful when out on the bike with no lights!!), upcoming appointments (complete with estimated driving time in current traffic) etc etc. Went on the Eurostar the other day and my ticket automatically popped up on the watch to be scanned which was very cool!

Use it as a camera remote which is handy for group photos!

What apps are you using for that? I’ve not got it working yet, I think it’s either dependent on the camera app or some sort of support my Hauwei doesn’t have maybe.

I also have a contextual watch face

I’d be interested to know which face that is also. It’s time I had a change.

Use the Strava app on my Apple watch (series 3, 38 mm small one) for commuting now. Love it for simple rides out, and HR is not so bad. Would be nice if it taked to a power meter via bluetooth. Use the ping to find the phone – mine is on silent most of the time and it still works. Siri is so slow as to be useless. Probably the nicest two features are the Apple pay for work, and the haptic notifications when using maps and driving. I also speak to it sometimes when answering a call.

I don’t use it for notifications or messaging or any of that that nonsense. It’s been on my wrist a full year and has earned it’s place there.

What apps are you using for that? I’ve not got it working yet, I think it’s either dependent on the camera app or some sort of support my Hauwei doesn’t have maybe.

it’s an Apple Watch, I’m guessing yours is Android if you’ve got a Huawei phone? It’s just the default remote app. I hate to say “it just works” but… 😀 (also the default Siri face in answer to your other question!).

It’s been on my wrist a full year

That’s some damned impressive battery life.

it’s an Apple Watch,

Ah, balls. Yeah, I knew the Apple camera “just worked,” a guy at work had one years ago and was showing off with it. I told him it was a pervert’s dream app. He didn’t seem impressed.

I’ve had mine since early 2017. A Huawei W1, which has been very reliable and for me is one of the best looking smartwatches.

As for the smartwatch experience, I’ve come to realise that they are to a large degree a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. I use mine to

1) tell the time and date
2) read incoming messages
3) refuse calls
4) control music being played by my phone
5) stand in as my clubcard at Tesco
6) record my steps etc

I had some grand ideas as to what it could do, but ultimately all it really does is reduce the number of times I take my phone out of my pocket. Plus I have to explain it to baffled Tesco employees twice per week.

thanks for all the tips everyone. I’ve had a play and this is what I’ve found so far..

1. Spotify remote control works well, and is pretty swish to look at, so that’s good
2. Strava is there, but I guess (as I don’t care about hrm and I always have my phone on me for rides) it doesn’t add much over having a phone on me
3. the odd notification has popped up so far, but seemingly its app-specific – so slack isn’t integrated, and emails aren’t coming through either, which seems to be because
4. its a samsung watch, and they appear to have somewhat hobbled it. It doesn’t have the play store, only the bloody samsung store, which means I can’t have google maps (it has here maps, but I’d prefer something I can switch between phone nav and watch nav, and I’m not using here on my phone), I can’t have google pay (I can have samsung pay, but once again, its a switch of apps), there’s no control for my home automation stuff (Hue, Hive, Kasa are all unsupported despite being common). The app I use for email is also unsupported, so I’d have to switch over. There are some 3rd party apps for a few things like google maps and camera trigger, but they’re all so poorly rated (and not free) I don’t think I’ll bother
5. I do have strava, phone call integration, find my phone, and they all seem pretty good. It has some health stuff (step counter, stress tracker, reminds you if you’ve been sat still too long) which I’ve never really had any interest in, but I’ll try for a while to see if I get into it.
6. there don’t appear to be any apps at all that could track my surfing, which is a shame as I could see that being a bit of a game-changer..

Oh wait, is it running Tizen rather than Wear OS? What model is it?

If it’s Tizen I’d probably be inclined to sell it and put the money towards a proper one.

yeah its a tizen thing – one of these.. https://www.pocket-lint.com/smartwatches/reviews/samsung/147178-samsung-galaxy-watch-active-review

it seems well reviewed, I guess if you’re happy with the inbuilt featureset then its probably decent, if you’re after an extended featureset then probably not (just like any small-reach operating system)

If you want to get the most out of a smartwatch you really need to get an Android Wear device…. or iWatch if you use an iPhone. A large number of apps is key in my opinion.

I used to be of the view they’re just gimmicks but the wife got me an Apple Watch a few years ago (series 2) and I’m now a convert. Just a few examples of how I use it….

Its good if you’re navigating around a city so you don’t have to walk around with your phone in front looking like a proper numpty tourist. it vibrates to tell you when there is a turn coming up, which road to take and the distance to the next turn so you can actually walk and take in the views rather than staring at your phone.

Great for any physical activities. I use it for everything apart from proper bike rides that I use my Garmin for. So for running its great really good…don’t have to carry a phone for music or tracking the activity, also good for gym classes like spin and circuits.

The heath app side of things are constantly being developed. So can monitor your heart rate and the latest models even can do an ECG test…though I’m sure not as well as a proper one, but good enough to maybe indicate if you have a problem that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

The SOS feature is quite good. Can guess/tell if you’ve had an accident and call the emergency services and tell them your location, so if out on the MTB on your own and you fall off and injure yourself it could be a life saver. I once accidentally activated it on a skiing holiday and got a chap asking if I was OK and my wife at home was being sent SMS messages saying I might have been in an accident and provided my location and updating her every 5 mins. She was crapping it until she spoke to me, but good to know it works just in case.

Apple Pay is the best thing. I never even take my wallet out with me these days, just my watch, phone and keys. Don’t bother with a wallet, cards or cash these days and quicker and more convenient to pay via the watch than getting the phone out of my pocket and paying with that. In any big town or city everywhere takes contactless so pay for everything via the watch.

Good for controlling music from the phone when connected to the car or a BT speaker.

Good for answering the phone if you can’t find your phone. I wouldn’t use it to conduct a phone call, but sometimes if I know I can’t get to the phone in time to pick it up I can take it on the watch.

Good in airports for eboarding passes – brings up the bar code for you to scan so again no fumbling about with the phone. Can also navigate you through airports too if you’ve got a connecting flight and rushing to the next gate. Also sends you reminders about your flight time so you don’t lose track of time in the airport shop or cafe and suddenly realise you’ve got 5 mins to get to the gate. Also alerts you to gate changes and delay’s.

If you’re an avid weather watcher like me you can configure it to give you weather forecast updates. Also similar for tracking share prices, sports scores, news headlines etc.

And a few other handy things too. So not an essential piece of kit by any stretch, but alot of very convenient and handy features that very quickly overtake the phone as the primary way to interact with your tech world.

I’m sure I’m only scratching the surface of its true capabilities. Can do anything your phone can do but just more convenient.

Well, the only moment I use my smartwatch is when I jog. Listening to music, keep my step/heartbeat/etc record. Never use it at home, though.

Looked at a 5 series Apple Watch today. For £199, I’ll be keeping my 3 series for quite a while yet. And now I’ve paired my phone to the car, the BT control of tracks on the watch is pretty good too. I’ve used it for Deezer with the phone tucked away.

Battery life is woeful btw. One day. Needs charging every night. The GPS trains can be a bit enthusiastic too. And the rubber strap was awful. I use the sport flexible elastic one which is much better.

Still a fan, but not a fanboy. Son2 has a Samsung one that works fine too

I had a series 2 and bought the series 5. It’s what the Apple Watch should have been from the outset – capable of telling the time without dappy gesturing.

That was the primary reason for upgrading for me. Having said that, all the other stuff it does is very good and I like the larger, better display.

Unconventional for this thread but do you need a smart watch that is smart?
Garmin and Suunto do smart watches but don’t have all the smarts (although newer models have more).

If you are more interested in fitness and tracking activities with notifications of stuff (rather than doing it all on the phone) then they may be a better option.

Saying that, I wasn’t bothered about a smart SmartWatch but reading this thread there does appear to be some cracking uses for them.

Battery life is always an issue…my Garmin Forerunner 935 gets a week between charges with 3 2-3 hour activities recorded. A fortnight at least if I don’t track anything. It clearly isn’t as smart as others on this thread but it does what it does very well.