By itself, the Apple Watch is a revolutionary smartwatch that works incredibly well straight out of the box. Add the best watchOS compatible apps to it, and you can undoubtedly take your user experience to the next level.
There has been an insane increase in the number of Apple Watch apps since the release of watchOS 6. And with watchOS 10 already in use, you can expect to access a richer app library for current and future watch models.
In this guide, I give you a quick rundown of some of the installs that truly stand out.
The Best Apple Watch Apps You Should Have Installed
From health and productivity to entertainment and sports, here’s a rundown of the 12 unique apps you should have installed on your Apple Watch:
1. Apple Music
Apple Music gives you access to over 100 million songs and at least 30,000 playlists, making it the second most popular music app after Spotify.
You do get a 1-month free trial on the platform, after which you pay a monthly premium subscription of $10.99 to continue using the service.
This app features a clean user interface and highly responsive music controls, which you can use to play, pause, skip, and rewind tracks. You have the Digital Crown for volume adjustment. And even Siri voice assistant can help you get the most out of the app.
If you have a cellular version of the Apple Watch with an active data plan from your carrier, you can listen to Apple Music even if you don’t have your phone nearby.
2. Spotify – Music and Podcasts
You can get Spotify on Apple Watch and use it to listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks from a library of more than 100 million files.
A free account allows you to control Spotify music playing on your iPhone, but you can’t use it to play the same files directly from the watch.
If you upgrade to premium membership, which costs $9.99 per month, you can connect to a Wi-Fi network, download a playlist, and listen to it offline on your Apple Watch, even if you don’t have your iPhone nearby.
You can try Spotify premium for $0 for a month. That period is enough to test the app and determine whether it’s worth paying for.
3. Google Maps
Get Google Maps if you’re looking for a feature-rich, comprehensive navigation app for your Apple Watch.
Alternatives apps such as Scout GPS and CoPilot GPS offer navigation services, but they don’t come close to what Google Maps brings to the table.
To this day, Google has mapped over 100 countries and territories on Maps. And with real-time GPS navigation, you can even visit places you’ve never been to and easily find your way back home.
You will love Google Maps because it’s accurate and easy to use. Once you’ve selected where you want to go, the app will give you audio and visual directions to ensure you never miss any point on your journey.
The app is free to download and use on your Apple Watch.
4. Audible: Audio Entertainment
You can download and use Audible to listen to podcasts on Apple Watch. The app even allows you to move the audiobooks you like from your iPhone to the watch to listen to offline.
When you leave an audiobook, the watch syncs with the same app on your iPhone so that you can continue listening from where you left.
You can’t download unlimited audiobooks with a free account. Consider upgrading to premium membership, which costs $7.95 per month, for full access.
5. Sleep Cycle – Sleep Tracker
Your Apple Watch alone can monitor your sleep using the built-in motion and heart rate sensors. It then syncs this information to the Health App, so you can analyze your stages, duration, heart rate, and respiratory rate and use the information to improve your sleep habits.
There’s also the option to use a third-party Apple Watch sleep app. And Sleep Cycle is one of the best options to consider.
Sleep Cycle does more than tracking sleep. It detects snores, coughs, and talks during bedtime. And it analyzes your patterns to give you information you can use to improve the quality of your sleep.
The app can wake you up only when you’re in light sleep. And it does so based on a pre-selected 30-minute window. Once it detects that it’s time to wake up, Sleep Cycle uses the Haptics alert to tell you that it’s time to get out of bed.
The app is available for free download and use, but you only get basic sleep information with a free account.
If you want to learn more about your sleep cycle, subscribe to the Sleep Cycle Premium membership plan, which costs $29.99 a year. Premium membership even allows you to compare your sleep score with others around the world.
6. iTranslate Converse
Are you planning to visit a country that speaks a language different from what you understand? Or maybe you just want to use your iPhone and Apple Watch to converse in a different language for fun?
Download iTranslate Converse.
The app lets you brush up your language skills, so you can easily communicate with different people in up to 38 unique languages.
With iTranslate Converse, you can manually select the language you want to translate or you can let the app to detect the language for you.
7. Calm
Calm is an iOS and watchOS app that focuses on better sleep, optimal meditation, and high-level relaxation.
Meditation sessions in Calm typically last between 3 and 25 minutes.
Some of the topics covered by these sessions include calming anxiety, getting you in the right mindset, building focus, and de-stressing.
You can use the app with a free account.
Or you can upgrade to premium for $14.99 a month to unlock more features, including sleep aids and analysis, daily calm meditations, master classes, and exclusive music tracks.
8. Snappy Word – Word Puzzle Game
You can even play games on Apple Watch in your free time. And the Snappy Word is one of the cool apps that let you pass that time in a creative way.
Snappy Word is about using letters to form words. And it has 400 levels, with every next level being a little challenging than the last.
Letters and words fit well on the Apple Watch screen despite the device’s small size. There is even the option to challenge your friends in Message as you train your brain and build your vocabulary.
You earn points when you complete a level. You even get the chance to appear on the game’s leadership board if your scores are high enough.
9. Strava: Run, Bike, Hike
Strava does more than track your runs, bike rides, and hiking adventure. It also lets you built a supportive network to cheer each other on to stay on the move.
You get useful stats such as mileage, heart rate, and pace. If you’re a data-driven athlete, you can use this information to understand your progress and to train smarter next time.
If you’re an avid cyclist or even a seasoned runner, you don’t have to bring your iPhone with you to use Strava because your Apple Watch has GPS built into it. You can map your routes, track distance, and even share your location with friends and family for safety.
You will love Strava because it’s one of the easy to use biking apps. It doesn’t matter if you train occasionally or on a daily basis because this one can help you stay on the move when you should be moving.
10. Todoist: To-Do List & Planner
Doist ticks all the boxes when it comes to helping you build and optimize your work. And they have the Todoist app to show for it.
With over 30 million users, Todoist ranks at the very top of most productivity apps for iPhone and Apple Watch. And it’s 100% free to use.
Todoist comes packed with features that can help you keep your work and life organized. You can use it to plan activities in order of priorities, plan events with pre-built project templates, attach files to tasks, and connect to dozens of apps such as Gmail and Slack.
The app has a built-in reminder that sends out an alert before deadline to keep you on toes on a task that’s almost due.
And given that it can synchronize your tasks across all Apple devices, you can equally access the same account and content on a Mac PC or iPad.
11. Just Press Record
Just Press Record is a simple note-taking app for all Apple devices, and it costs only $4.99.
The app lets you take verbal notes, edit audio and transcription, and start a new recording from the Dock icon, Siri, or Shortcuts.
Now you can put down idea, lists, and messages much faster right from your wrist by the sound of your own voice.
12. Water Reminder
Some of us are too busy to the extent that we forget to eat healthy and drink water. So simply having a reminder app on your smartwatchcan be a good way to train yourself to stay hydrated all the time.
Water Reminder is a good option to consider.
The app reminds you when it’s time to drink water, so you keep up with your hydration schedule based on the information you’ve logged into the app. And if you’ve gone for too long without drinking water, you get an alert.
Every time you consume water or a beverage, you will have log the amount of liquid consumed so that the app calculates your progress.
Water Reminder is one of the health apps that use your age, weight, height, activity level, climate, and personal goals data to give you an estimate of the amount of water that you should drink per day.
