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Tick tock, my Apple Watch experience, using the Friends button on Apple Watch 2.0

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Using the Friends button on the Apple Watch:

 

This blog post refers to Apple Watches running Apple Watch 2.0 software.

 

Easily one of the best features of the Apple Watch is the ability to access contacts quickly and make calls using the watch itself. There’s something wonderfully sci fi about talking at your wrist and having a two way conversation through it.

 

One of the easiest and quickest ways to get to some of your favourite contacts is to use the Friends button found below the Digital crown on the right side of the watch. This function is really useful as you can choose up to 12 people from your contacts list on your iPhone to create something called the ‘Friends Circle’ on your watch. To create your friends Circle do the following:

 

HOT TIP: First go to the Contacts setting in the Apple Watch app and make sure that ‘Mirror my iPhone’ is selected. This will mean that your entire contacts list from your iPhone will also be available on your Apple Watch. It will also mean that any contacts on your iPhone contacts list that are blocked will also be blocked on your Apple Watch.

 

1. Go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and go to Friends.

 

2. Once in the Friends setting area you will be presented with 12 spaces in which to add contacts of your choosing. The way Apple have done this is very clever and very easy for those of us who are blind or visually impaired to imagine. Basically the screen displays a list laid out as a watch face numbered 1 to 12 going around in a clockwise direction. It displays, “Add friend, 12 o’clock on friends circle”, “Add friend, 1 o’clock on friends circle” and so on until all 12 hour positions on a clock face are accounted for.

 

3. Single finger double tap on the clock face position you want to add a contact to.

 

4. Your contacts list will open on your iPhone to allow you to select who to add. Simply find the person you want and single finger double tap on their name. That person will then be added to the Friends Circle position you selected.

 

It is in theory possible to reorder the contacts around the clock face in your friends circle, however I have found it very awkward to do as it is no longer as simple as moving the contact up or down a list as it was in Apple Watch 1.1. In Apple Watch 2.0 VoiceOver will tell you to swipe up or down to reorder the person when you highlight their name with your finger tip. In practice this is very difficult to achieve as VoiceOver doesn’t seem to recognise what your doing. My best piece of advice regarding this would be to add the person in the clock face position you want them in the first place to avoid having to try and reorder them. This is a shame because I think the method of doing this in Apple Watch 1.1 was far more user friendly for those of us using VoiceOver.

 

Deleting contacts from your friends circle has also changed in Apple Watch 2.0. I’ve found that the easiest way to remove contacts is to do the following:

 

1. Single finger double tap the contact name and a Remove button is announced by VoiceOver.

 

2. Single finger double tap anywhere on the screen to activate the Remove button.

 

3. An alert will pop up and will be announced by VoiceOver displaying a Remove Friend button and a Cancel button. Single finger left or right swipe on the screen to navigate to the button you wish to use and then single finger double tap anywhere on the screen to activate it. If you activate the Remove Friend button then obviously the contact you selected will be removed. The contact will be removed from your Friends Circle but will remain in your iPhone contacts list. If you activate the Cancel button the contact will not be removed and you will be returned to your Friends Circle screen.

 

4. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 for each contact you wish to delete from your Friends Circle. Then, once you’ve finished single finger double tap the My Watch button found at the top left corner of the screen under your phone’s cellular signal display.

 

 

Now you’ve created your Friends Circle here is how you can use it .

 

1. Press and release the Friends button on your Apple Watch to display your Friends Circle.

 

2. Use Digital Crown Navigation or a finger tip on the Apple Watch screen to move around the names of contacts in the Friends Circle.

 

3. Single finger double tap on the name button of the person you want to call or message. A new screen will be displayed giving you options to call, message, digital touch or send a tap. Note that the digital touch/tap option button will be greyed out/dimmed if the person does not have an Apple Watch.

 

4. Use Digital Crown Navigation or a fingertip on the screen to move around the option buttons and do the following :

 

Single finger double tap on the person’s name button to send a digital touch.

 

Single finger triple tap on the person’s name button to send a tap.

 

Single finger double tap on the Phone button to call the person.

 

Single finger double tap on the Message button to send the person a message.

 

You can also single finger double tap on the Back button found at the top left of the screen to return you to your Friends Circle list.

 

5. If you wish to switch your Apple Watch off, press and hold the Friends button for 2 seconds. A new screen will then be displayed giving you 4 options. You can single finger swipe left or right to find Cancel, Power off, Power reserve and Lock device buttons. Simply single finger double tap on the button for the action you want to perform.

 

6. To switch your Apple Watch on, press and hold the Friends button for 2 seconds. The watch will take approximately 90 seconds to boot up. It will then ask you to enter your watch passcode.

 

 

In my next blog I will be talking about adding and removing third party apps from the Apple Watch.

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Tick tock, my Apple Watch experience, using the Friends button on the Apple Watch

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Using the Friends button on the Apple Watch:

 

This blog post refers to Apple Watches running Apple Watch 1.1 software.

 

Easily one of the best features of the Apple Watch is the ability to access contacts quickly and make calls using the watch itself. There’s something wonderfully sci fi about talking at your wrist and having a two way conversation through it.

 

One of the easiest and quickest ways to get to some of your favourite contacts is to use the Friends button found below the Digital crown on the right side of the watch. This function is really useful as you can choose up to 12 people from your contacts list on your iPhone to create something called the ‘Friends Circle’ on your watch. To create your friends Circle do the following:

 

HOT TIP: First go to the Contacts setting in the Apple Watch app and make sure that ‘Mirror my iPhone’ is selected. This will mean that your entire contacts list from your iPhone will also be available on your Apple Watch. It will also mean that any contacts on your iPhone contacts list that are blocked will also be blocked on your Apple Watch.

 

1. Go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and go to Friends.

 

2. Once in the Friends setting area you will be presented with 12 spaces in which to add contacts of your choosing. The way Apple have done this is very clever and very easy for those of us who are blind or visually impaired to imagine. Basically the screen displays a list numbered 1 to 12 and starting from the top going down the list it displays, “Add friend, 12 o’clock on friends circle”, “Add friend, 1 o’clock on friends circle” and so on until all 12 hour positions on a metaphorical clock face are accounted for.

 

3. Single finger double tap on the clock face position you want to add a contact to. Note that you can reorder the position of contacts in your Friends Circle once you’ve filled some or all of the available spaces.

 

4. Your contacts list will open on your iPhone to allow you to select who to add. Simply find the person you want and single finger double tap on their name. That person will then be added to the Friends Circle position you selected.

 

To reorder contacts that you’ve added to your Friends Circle do the following:

 

1. When in the Friends screen in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, single finger double tap on the Edit button found at the top right corner of the screen under your phone’s battery percentage display.

 

2. There will now be a “reorder” button down the right side of the screen next to each contact you’ve added to your Friends Circle. Single finger double tap and hold on the reorder button next to the contact you wish to move and wait for the popping sound.

 

3. Now move your finger up or down the list. VoiceOver will announce where you are moving the contact to. For example “Moved above Bob” or “Moved below Sarah”.

 

4. Lift your finger off the screen and repeat step 3 for each contact you wish to reorder.

 

5. Once you’ve finished single finger double tap on the Done button found at the top right corner of the screen under your phone’s battery percentage display.

 

To delete contacts from your Friends Circle do the following:

 

1. When in the Friends screen in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, single finger double tap on the Edit button found at the top right corner of the screen under your phone’s battery percentage display.

 

2. There will now be a “Delete” button down the left side of the screen just after the name of each contact you’ve added to your Friends Circle. Single finger double tap on the delete button.

 

3. A “Remove”  button will now appear on the right side of the screen next to the contact you selected the delete button on. Single finger double tap the Remove button and the contact will be removed from your Friends Circle but will remain in your iPhone contacts list.

 

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each contact you wish to delete from your Friends Circle. Then, once you’ve finished single finger double tap the Done button found at the top right corner of the screen under your phone’s battery percentage display.

 

Now you’ve created your Friends Circle here is how you can use it .

 

1. Press and release the Friends button on your Apple Watch to display your Friends Circle.

 

2. Use Digital Crown Navigation or a finger tip on the Apple Watch screen to move around the names of contacts in the Friends Circle.

 

3. Single finger double tap on the name button of the person you want to call or message. A new screen will be displayed giving you options to call, message, digital touch or send a tap. Note that the digital touch/tap option button will be greyed out/dimmed if the person does not have an Apple Watch.

 

4. Use Digital Crown Navigation or a fingertip on the screen to move around the option buttons and do the following :

 

Single finger double tap on the person’s name button to send a digital touch.

 

Single finger triple tap on the person’s name button to send a tap.

 

Single finger double tap on the Phone button to call the person.

 

Single finger double tap on the Message button to send the person a message.

 

You can also single finger double tap on the Back button found at the top left of the screen to return you to your Friends Circle list.

 

5. If you wish to switch your Apple Watch off, press and hold the Friends button for 2 seconds. A new screen will then be displayed giving you 4 options. You can single finger swipe left or right to find Cancel, Power off, Power reserve and Lock device buttons. Simply single finger double tap on the button for the action you want to perform.

 

6. To switch your Apple Watch on, press and hold the Friends button for 2 seconds. The watch will take approximately 90 seconds to boot up. It will then ask you to enter your watch passcode.

 

 

In my next blog I will be talking about adding and removing third party apps from the Apple Watch.

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Tick tock, my Apple Watch experience, using Siri on the Apple Watch

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Using Siri on the Apple Watch.

 

Love it or hate it Siri is one of the many reasons that so many visually impaired and blind people buy iOS devices. Although sometimes Siri can be a pain in the backside if it doesn’t understand what you’ve asked it or occasionally gets words wrong when dictating emails or texts, the fact remains that the majority of the time it makes things quick and easy.

 

The Apple Watch incorporates Siri and as a result many of the things we are familiar with using it for on our iPhones, iPads and iPods are also possible on the watch. There are some differences of course, mainly in the way that the watch communicates to us through Siri, but in most cases it’s possible to make Siri work effectively for us.

 

The most noticeable difference is that Siri doesn’t speak as he/she does on iOS devices. Instead the response appears on the screen of the watch and the wearer either drags their finger around to have the VoiceOver voice read the content or uses Digital Crown Navigation to do so. This may at first seem a bit odd, but in actual fact you don’t even notice once you’ve got used to it. As the wearer is going to have raised their wrist to use Siri in the first place it’s not a great stretch to using your finger or the Digital Crown to read the screen once Siri responds. As with most new things it’s worth spending some time getting used to the slightly different functionality of the Apple Watch, you will certainly find that it is well worth it.

 

There are a couple of ways to use Siri on the Apple Watch. The first is to tap the screen once to wake the watch up, raise your wrist and say “Hey Siri.” The second is to press and hold the Digital Crown before giving Siri an instruction or asking it a question. In both cases and assuming that you have haptic feedback enabled on your Apple Watch, you will feel two taps in quick succession on your wrist when Siri is awake and ready to receive instructions/questions. These haptic taps are the Apple Watch equivalent of the audible pips that iOS devices produce when Siri is ready to receive instructions/questions.

 

Another big difference is when creating new emails. For example, once you’ve told Siri to “send email to Dad” the watch will tell you that he/she can help you create a new email using HAND OFF on your iPhone.

 

Note: For this to work you will of course need to ensure that you have HAND OFF enabled on your iPhone. This is done by going to SETTINGS, then GENERAL, then HAND OFF AND SUGGESTED APPS. You will find a button near the top centre of the screen that says HAND OFF. Simply single finger double tap to toggle the button on or off.

 

Once you pick up your iPhone you will find a Siri button displayed at the bottom left corner of the locked screen. Single finger double tap the button and Siri will tell you that you need to unlock the phone first. Once you’ve unlocked the phone Siri takes you through the steps of creating and sending the email as he/she normally would. Interestingly Siri re-locks the phone once the email is sent, which I think is quite useful.

 

Similarly Siri asks you to use HAND OFF if you ask him/her to check for new emails via the Apple Watch. The process is the same as detailed above for the purposes of opening Siri for HAND OFF and unlocking the phone, Siri will then take you through the normal process of checking for new mail.

 

In conclusion I think some good advice is to get used to Siri on the Apple Watch by using it and becoming familiar with using HAND OFF for things like emails etc. As you can ask it all of the usual things like what the weather forecast for tomorrow is, what time it is in another country, ask it to tell you a joke etc etc, there’s plenty of things you can do to help familiarise yourself.

 

In my next blog post I will be talking about using the FRIENDS button on the Apple Watch.

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Tick tock, my Apple Watch experience, watch faces and complications

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Watch faces and complications.

 

After having a week away on holiday on the beautiful West coast of Wales I thought I’d return with a blog about the different things you can do with the watch faces on your Apple Watch.

 

It sounds very technical when you hear people talking about adding and removing complications to your watch face, but don’t worry, it’s really not all that bad.

 

First I want to explain what complications actually are, as it’s a pretty frightening word when you first come across it on the Apple Watch. To put it simply, complications is a term that has been used by watch makers for quite a while. It encompasses any function on a watch that is not simply telling the time. This includes things like date, moon cycle etc. So a watch that simply tells the time has no complications, whereas a watch that tells the time, shows the moon’s cycle and has a day and date function does have complications.

 

One of the great things about the Apple Watch is that not only can you choose from a variety of watch faces, you can also customise what, if any, complications you also have displayed on your chosen watch face.

 

To choose the watch face you would like you first need to bring up the watch face selection screen. To do this you will need to make sure your watch is awake by tapping once with a single finger on the screen. Then single finger double tap and deep press on the screen, the watch will make three ascending tones followed by a popping sound. The deep press gesture does take a bit of getting used to so don’t worry if it takes you a few attempts to master it. I’ve found that I get the best results if I press as if I’m trying to push my watch through my wrist, it really does need to be quite a definite hard press rather than the gentle press and hold that we are all so used to.

 

Once you’ve done this you will be presented with the watch face selection screen. Here the available watch faces are displayed with he name of the watch face as well as information about what it contains. For example: Utility, analog with optional numbers or colour, analog with coloured tick marks. The watch will also tell you to double tap on the selected watch face to choose it. If you have Digital Crown Navigation switched on simply turn the crown to navigate around the available watch faces. If you have Digital Crown Navigation switched off single finger flick left or right to navigate around the available watch faces. To activate a watch face single finger double tap on it. The watch will now exit the watch face select screen and return you to the standard watch face screen.

 

Once you’ve chosen your watch face you can navigate around it by dragging your finger around the screen or by using Digital Crown Navigation. You will hear that several of the watch faces already have complications such as date, weather, calendar etc on them. Don’t let this bother you if there are complications on there that you simply don’t want or will never use as you can customise the complications you have on each watch face.

 

To customise the complications on your chosen watch face do the following:

 

1. Make sure your watch is awake then single finger double tap, deep press and flick up or down. This brings up a list of three options, customise, delete and activate item.

 

2. Single finger flick up or down to find the customise option then single finger double tap on it. You will now be presented with a variety of complication options, but which watch face you have chosen dictates how many complications there are to customise.

 

Apple have really thought this through for VoiceOver users as each complication has a position on the watch face and this position is announced by VoiceOver during the customising process. For example the watch will say: “Editing top left complication”, “Editing top centre complication”, “Editing bottom left complication” etc. It will also tell you if you are editing colours rather than complications. This makes customising watch faces much easier as we can identify what we’re putting where.

 

3. I recommend toggling between having Digital Crown Navigation on or off during this stage as having it switched on in some instances makes the process easier.

 

With Digital Crown Navigation on, turn the crown away from you to move to the previous complication or turn it towards you to move to the next complication. Once you’re on the complication you wish to customise, switch Digital Crown Navigation off.

 

The watch will actually tell you to scroll up or down using the crown to select the complication you want for that particular position of the watch face. Once you’ve selected the complication you want in that position switch Digital Crown Navigation on and move to the next complication you wish to customise and repeat the process.

 

4. Once you’ve customised all of the complications that you want, simply press and release the Digital Crown once and you will be returned to the watch face selection screen. Press and release the Digital Crown once again and you will be taken to your newly customised watch face.

 

 

I’ve had my Apple Watch for nearly a month now and I’m still fiddling around with customising the complications on my watch faces. I’ve even customised the complications on several watch faces so I can experiment with which combinations work best for me. It’s well worth spending some time playing with your complications as you can get some really useful stuff on your watch face that you’ll probably find you will use almost without thinking about it.

 

Have fun!

 

In my next blog post I’ll be talking about using Siri on your Apple Watch.

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Tick Tock, my Apple Watch experience, VoiceOver gestures and glances/notification navigation

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13th July: VoiceOver gestures, Glances and Notifications navigation.

 

Once your Apple Watch basic set up is done you will of course need to know how to navigate around the watch to find things and generally use it. What I will say here is that the Apple Watch is very very accessible with VoiceOver but it does take a little getting used to as the screen is so much smaller. Luckily Apple have managed to make the watch give you relevant information on screen without bombarding you with so much stuff that you simply can’t interact with the thing! I really think this is to their credit. With some very simple and in most cases familiar gestures VoiceOver users can use the full range of available features on the watch. Add to that the awesome Digital Crown navigation function and we are at no real disadvantage in using the watch compared to sighted users.

 

First I thought I’d share with you the gestures you’ll need to navigate around the touch screen. In the list below I’ve stated the gesture followed by what it does.

 

Single finger single tap on the screen: Wakes the watch up.

 

Drag one finger onto an item: Selects the item and VoiceOver reads the item out.

 

Single finger double tap on a selected item: Activates or opens that item.

 

Single finger swipe from left to right: Jumps to next item.

 

Single finger swipe from right to left: Jumps to previous item.

Two finger swipe up: Opens glances.

 

Two finger swipe down: opens notifications.

 

 

Two finger swipe from left to right: Moves you backwards through glances.

 

Two finger swipe from right to left: Moves you forwards through glances.

 

Single finger double tap and deep press on watch face screen: Opens watch faces selection screen.

 

Single finger double tap and deep press within apps, glances or notifications: Opens additional options such as delete, clear all, mark as read etc.

 

Two finger double tap, hold and swipe up: Increases volume of VoiceOver.

 

Two finger double tap, hold and swipe down: Decreases volume of VoiceOver.

 

Two finger triple tap: Toggles Digital Crown navigation on and off.

 

Lay palm of hand over entire watch screen for three seconds: Mutes notifications and ringer so you only get haptic feedback on the wrist; this is assuming that you have haptic feedback switched on in your settings.

 

Single finger single tap then say “Hey Siri”: Allows you to ask Siri a question or give Siri a command. For example, single finger single tap on the screen and say “Hey Siri open mail.” This is assuming that you have Siri enabled in your settings.

 

 

For completeness I thought I’d also list the functions of the Digital Crown and Friends button for you below.

 

Single press and release on the Digital Crown: Wakes the watch up. In addition it toggles you between the watch face screen and home screen. It also returns you to your home screen if you are in an app.

 

Press and hold the Digital Crown: Allows you to ask Siri a question or give Siri a command. This is assuming that you have Siri enabled in your settings.

 

Press and release the Digital Crown twice in quick succession: Opens the last visited app.

 

Press and release the Digital Crown three times in quick succession: Toggles VoiceOver on and off. This is assuming you’ve set the accessibility shortcut in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone to VoiceOver.

 

Turning the Digital Crown towards you with Digital Crown navigation function switched on: Moves you to the next item on screen.

 

Turning the Digital Crown away from you with the Digital Crown navigation function switched on: Moves you to the previous item on screen.

 

Turning the Digital Crown towards you with the Digital Crown navigation function switched off: Decreases volume of media when on media player screen.

 

Turning the Digital Crown away from you with the Digital Crown navigation function switched off: Increases volume of media when on media player screen.

 

Press and release Friends button: Opens list of favourites from contacts.

 

Press and hold Friends button for two seconds: Switches Apple Watch on or off. Note that when switching the Apple Watch on the watch takes approximately 90 seconds to boot up.

 

 

So, that gives you an idea of how you will interact with your Apple Watch and get around it. I found that before I started playing with watch faces etc it was useful to get used to these gestures and controls. I highly recommend that you try out the Digital Crown navigation function and switching it on and off as this will really enhance your experience of using your watch.

 

 

In my next blog post I’ll talk about watch faces, complications and what they are, as well as how to add complications to your chosen watch face.