So you just got a brand new Apple Watch, or maybe you’re just looking for some of the must-have apps for Apple Watch to make your experience even better. Well, then this is the article for you. We have curated over favorite apps for Apple Watch in this article. So, read along to find the 15 best Apple Watch apps you should use in 2022 (free and paid).
There are a lot of apps for watchOS on the App Store. However, finding the ones that are actually good, or that offer some value is quite difficult. In this list, I’m going to tell you about the best watchOS apps that I use all the time, along with some that I don’t use very often but you might love to know about.
- FlickType Keyboard for Apple Watch
- WatchChat 2
- Pillow
- Overcast
- Lens for Watch
- Fantastical
- Noted
- Chirp for Twitter
- iTranslate Translator
- Parrity Web Browser
- Authy
- Watchsmith
- Weathergraph
- Brushout
- Significant Otter
1. FlickType Keyboard for Apple Watch
One of the things the Apple Watch does very well, is displaying notifications, especially for messaging apps like WhatsApp and (obviously) iMessage. However, it’s also surprisingly limited in the options you get for actually replying to a text message. I mean sure, you can scribble letter-by-letter, or use dictation — which isn’t the best way to respond to messages when there are people around you — but there’s no way to actually properly type a message out on your watch. Well, if you’re looking for a great keyboard app for your Apple Watch, look no further than FlickType.
FlickType brings a full QWERTY keyboard to your wrist allowing you to quickly compose and send messages without having to use your phone. The app works perfectly, and it makes pretty awesome use of watchOS’s user-interactions. For example, you can rotate the digital crown to change words, so even if the keyboard accidentally misunderstood what you were trying to type (which happens), you can quickly fix it without having to delete letters and re-type them.
Even though there’s an official Facebook Messenger app on the Apple Watch, it’s surprising that WhatsApp doesn’t have one. However, if you absolutely need to have full access to all your WhatsApp conversations on your watch, you should check out WatchChat 2.
WatchChat 2 is basically a wrapper for WhatsApp Web, and setting it up requires you to scan the QR code with your WhatsApp app on iPhone, but once you do that, you get all your chats right there on the watch. You can open any conversation and send new messages, or you can 3D touch on the screen to search for a contact and start a new chat. The app even supports media playback so you can view images shared on WhatsApp by simply tapping on them.
It’s also important to know that this app only works as long as your phone is connected to your watch, which means if you have an LTE-enabled Apple Watch, you can’t use this app to send messages if you don’t carry your phone along with you. That’s a bummer, but it’s a common theme I noticed among all the WhatsApp for Apple Watch apps that I checked out.
Even though I didn’t really think that the Apple Watch should get sleep tracking until the battery life gets better, Apple did introduce native sleep tracking with watchOS 7. While that feature solves my purpose of ensuring I get enough sleep, it’s definitely not very feature rich.
4. Overcast
If you’re like me and you love listening to podcasts, you probably already have a podcasting app of choice, but if you’re looking for a great podcast app for iPhone and Apple Watch, I would recommend you check out Overcast.
You know what’s fun? Scrolling through your Instagram feed whenever you’re bored, and with Lens for Watch, you’ll get the entire Instagram experience right there on your Apple Watch.
The Lens for Watch app brings all of Instagram’s features to the Apple Watch, so you can check your timeline on your watch, or see Stories, check and send DMs, and more all from your Apple Watch. You can even play videos with sound in the app, which is great.
The Apple Watch comes with the default Calendar app pre-installed, but if that’s not cutting it for you, Fantastical is the most fantastic calendar app you can get, and it recently became free which is even more awesome.
With Fantastical on the Apple Watch, you get quick access to all your events for the day. Plus, you can use the digital crown to scroll between days and see your events for the next couple of days as well. The app also shows your tasks in a separate screen, however, to add tasks to Fantastical, you’ll need to subscribe to the Pro version of the app.
7. Noted
Have you ever found yourself constantly scrubbing through a long voice note trying to find the important parts of an interview or a lecture? Noted solves that with hashtags. Basically all you do is start recording on your Apple Watch, and whenever you want to mark the beginning of an important section, you can simply add a hashtag at that point.
8. Chirp for Twitter
Among the many major social media apps that don’t have an official app for the Apple Watch is Twitter. Personally, I use Twitter a lot, and if you’re in the same boat as I am, you would appreciate having access to Twitter straight from your wrist. It’s just easier than having to pull out your phone if you’re just trying to catch up with what’s been going on.
9. iTranslate Translator
Having a translator handy is quite important if you travel often or find yourself interacting with people from other nationalities frequently. While I would normally recommend Google Translate, it sadly doesn’t have an Apple Watch app. Enter iTranslate Translator. This app brings translations to your wrist. You can 3D touch to change the target language in the app, and then you can type or speak whatever you want to, and the app will translate it into your language of choice.
With watchOS 5, Apple brought support for WebKit rendering to the Apple Watch so the watch could display HTML content straight on its tiny screen. Whether or not that was the reason this app exists, I’m not sure, but a web browser on your wrist is a neat idea.
If you’re not using two factor authentication for your online accounts, you’re playing with fire. However, using a phone number based OTP isn’t the best idea, which is where apps like Authy come into play.
Watchsmith is one of my favourite apps for customising the Apple Watch faces. With Watchsmith, you can create custom complications that you can use in watchOS. This way, you can ensure that your Apple Watch can show more information with the limited complication space on the screen, and you can get relevant information based on the time of the day.
Watchsmith is technically an app that will be installed on the iPhone, but once you’ve created the complications you want, all you need to do is edit the watch faces you want to use the new complications in and add them. It’s a pretty useful app that definitely makes your Apple Watch face a lot more informative.
Weathergraph is an Apple Watch weather app that brings some really good complications as well. You get a detailed hour by hour view of the weather for the day so you always know what to expect from the elements.
Download Weathergraph from the App Store (Free)
If you often find yourself forgetting to brush your teeth, or brushing for two whole minutes, you should check out Brushout. This app is a brushing timer and reminder app that gamifies the concept to make things interesting.
15. Significant Otter
Significant Otter is one of those apps that are really different from anything else. The app is basically aimed at couples, and it claims to “take your relationship to the next level with biosignal sensors, a cutting-edge technology that’s built into your Apple Watch”.
Use These Must Have Apple Watch Apps
The Apple Watch is capable of quite a lot more than most smartwatches out there, and these third party apps can certainly help you get the most out of your smartwatch. I’ve tried to include all types of apps in this list including apps for productivity, social media, web browsing, and even keyboard apps for Apple Watch. So which of these apps did you like the most, and which ones are you already using? Also, if there are any useful third party apps that you think deserve to be on this list, let me know and I’ll definitely check them out.
