How To Find Out What Kind Of Smartwatch I Have
From staying in touch to sleep tracking, how to get the most out of your smartwatch
A guide to help you lot figure out if a smartwatch can fit into your life
Just in that location'due south plenty of depth available if you demand more than just the nuts. Over the years, smartwatches have go sophisticated tools for exercise and health tracking and they can run versions of many of your favorite apps to glance at on the go.
I wear a smartwatch every day because I similar being able to glance at my (many) incoming Slack messages, though I could pretty easily live without it.
Whether a smartwatch actually makes sense for you actually depends on what you care about as a person. And if you already take a smartwatch, how do you brand the virtually of information technology? To that end, we've put together a guide to help you figure out if i of these wrist-worn gadgets could fit into your life, sorted by personal priority.
Earlier annihilation else
If you don't already have a smartwatch, there are a few things y'all'll take to go along in mind. Kickoff upwardly: compatibility.
IPhone owners tin apply the Apple Lookout, along with smartwatches similar the Fitbit Sense and Garmin's Forerunner models, but are not compatible with watches that utilise Google'due south latest version of the Wear Bone software. The reverse is also true, and then Samsung and other Android phones aren't compatible with the Apple Watch. (Fitbits and Garmins are a-okay, though.)
The other thing to call up near is privacy — later on all, these wearables alive on your body and, amidst other things, track your personal health data. Ane of the best resources we've seen for figuring out how potentially problematic wearables tin be is Mozilla's Privacy Non Included guide, simply if you're actually concerned nearly your privacy, the all-time bet might exist to not clothing a smartwatch at all.
Keeping up to engagement
If all you really want is to stay on superlative of your incoming messages and notifications, then you're in luck — that'southward one thing every smartwatch out there can do. In fact, you might not fifty-fifty have to become with a full-blown smartwatch at all, since many fitness trackers (similar Fitbits and Garmin's Vivosmart series) can also alert you when someone texts or calls you.
Only beware: looking at your scout to check your new messages while talking to someone can look ruder than glancing at your phone.
That said, Apple Sentinel and wearables that utilize Google's Wear OS software are more sophisticated with how they manage notifications compared to, say, a basic Fitbit. Let's say you're a news junkie: if y'all take The Washington Postal service app installed on your smartwatch, you can configure your watch to display news alerts you'd usually see on your phone. That same can be said for only most whatsoever app you employ that creates notifications on your phone, merely be aware: that tin can pb to an avalanche of notifications on your wrist. Here'southward how you tin make sure you just get the ones you want:
For Apple Watches
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
- Tap the "Notifications" push
- Toggle notifications on or off for the apps listed under "Mirror iPhone alerts from"
For Google Wear Os watches
- Open the Vesture Os app on your Android phone
- Curl to the "Settings" section and tap "Notifications" and so "change spotter notifications"
- Tap an app to allow or disable notifications
Tracking your workouts
This is another thing that nearly all smartwatches can do to some extent, but exactly how they track your exercise depends on what kind of software your scout has.
Apple tree Watches are well-known for their three rings, a quick visual indicator that lets you know how close you are to meeting your daily step, do and stand goals. But there's a lot more to the do feel than only that: using the born Fettle app, y'all can tell the sentry to track dissimilar kinds of workouts, from long walks, to weight training to Tai Chi. No thing what type of do you're doing, the Apple tree Sentry will prove yous your electric current workout duration, heart charge per unit and calories burned.
Samsung's Galaxy Watches, which only work with Android phones, offer many of the same conditioning tracking features. But in that location's a twist. Let's say you're in the gym lifting weights: unlike the Apple Sentinel, which but gives you the basic stats I mentioned earlier, Samsung'southward watches also offering guidance on the correct form for exercises like bicep curls, every bit well every bit count your reps for you.
But there's another question at play here: if tracking exercise is your main concern, practice you really even need a smartwatch? That'southward debatable. You can find a slew of wearables for $100 or less designed solely to count your steps, monitor your heart rate and even compete with your friends — Fitbit's new Charge 5 apace springs to mind.
At the end of it, it all boils down to the level of sophistication you're afterward. If your big priority is just existence more often than not more agile, you could easily get away with a cheap Fitbit. But for deeper insight into your workouts, a smartwatch is a better bet. And if yous're a really serious athlete — say, an gorging runner or triathlete — yous might desire to consider a more than specialized smartwatch like ane of Garmin's Forerunners.
Monitoring your health
Many companies take crammed a bevy of sophisticated sensors and features into smartwatches so they tin can assistance you lot keep tabs on your well-being. Here are a few you might find in your next (or commencement) smartwatch:
- Optical centre sensor: These basically use light to measure your blood catamenia and are used to assistance show you how fast your heart is beating. (Available in all versions of the Apple Watch, all versions of Samsung'southward Galaxy Watch, all of Garmin'south Forerunner smartwatches, and Fitbit's Versa 2, Versa 3 and Sense watches.)
- Electric eye sensor: Instead of just tracking your centre rate, these are used to take electrocardiograms and can help flag irregularities in your heart shell. (Bachelor in Apple tree Lookout Series 4-7, Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active 2, Galaxy Lookout three and Galaxy Sentry 4, and the Fitbit Sense.)
- SpO2 tracking: This feature often relies on a smartwatch's optical centre sensor to figure out how much oxygen is in your blood. In general, good for you people take oxygen saturation levels between ninety and 100 percent. If your readings are consistently lower than that, consider seeing a doc. (Bachelor in Apple tree Picket Series 6 and vii, Samsung Galaxy Sentry three and iv, and the Fitbit Sense.)
- Fall detection: Near all smartwatches apply sensors called accelerometers within to measure movement, simply only a few use those sensors to tell when you've taken a hard fall. If a watch with this characteristic senses 1, it will give you options to contact emergency service or loved ones. That said, this feature can be very hard to trigger — even when yous're specifically trying to set it off. (Available in Apple Watch Serial 4 and newer, and Samsung's Galaxy Lookout Active two, Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch 4.)
When information technology comes to your health though, merely be certain to go on one thing in heed. Smartwatches, even actually sophisticated ones, don't always have approval from the Nutrient and Drug Assistants for some of the health features they offer. That'south oft thanks to a well-known loophole: If a smartwatch maker markets something as a "health" characteristic instead of a tool for medical diagnosis, it doesn't demand the FDA to sign off on information technology. Blood oxygen tracking is a skillful case of a characteristic that generally doesn't have to exist cleared, only all watches with electrocardiogram features in the United States have been evaluated by the FDA.
Get a better night's sleep
According to the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention, around 70 million Americans endure from chronic sleep issues. If you're one of them, a smartwatch might be able to assist y'all understand why. Many pop options offering sleep tracking features that keep an eye on troublesome slumber behaviors yous might not be enlightened of.
The Apple Lookout Serial 3 and newer can, for instance, notice how long y'all were comatose and rail your breathing throughout the dark. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Most of Garmin'due south Precursor smartwatches monitor your claret oxygen levels while sleeping, and your respiration, also. Information technology'll fifty-fifty attempt to mensurate how much time you spent in different sleep phases — light, deep or REM (rapid eye movement) — in gild to give you a sleep "score" in the morning time, plus some communication on how easy y'all should accept it that day.
Fitbits were amid the outset fitness trackers out at that place to support sleep tracking and the company'south smartwatches — like the Fitbit Sense — continue to comport that torch. The Sense features all of the same tracking tricks that Garmin watches practise, but with 1 helpful add-on: a "smart wake" mode that volition wake y'all up to thirty minutes before your alarm if it thinks you aren't sleeping deeply anymore.
Meanwhile, Samsung's new Galaxy Lookout 4 can monitor blood oxygen and track your progression through dissimilar slumber stages similar the other, just it also has a sleep tracking flim-flam we haven't seen in a wearable before: snore detection. That might sound a petty silly, merely information technology'southward more helpful than you might think. If your stats say you've been snoring and your claret oxygen levels are unusually low, y'all may want to see a specialist — those might be signs of a disorder similar sleep apnea.
Tips for getting the best sleep data:
- Brand sure your watch ring is equally snug as it is comfortable. That helps ensure the sensors that work while yous're asleep are in a good position to take readings.
- Charge your smartwatch before bed. Yous're non going become any proficient slumber info if your spotter dies before you wake up.
- Turn off notifications for the night. Most Samsung smartwatches have a "Good night fashion" that mutes all notifications except alarms. Apple tree Spotter owners can set up and enable "Sleep mode" on their iPhones, which too turns on Practice Not Disturb. On a Fitbit smartwatch, swipe your dwelling screen to the left and tap the moon icon to enable "Night mode." Meanwhile, Garmin Forerunner owners have to turn on Do No Disturb.
- Be aware of your watch'due south specific foibles. For example, some of the slumber features mentioned above aren't enabled by default on Samsung'south Galaxy Lookout man 4, so yous need to plough them on manually. And Garmin says you lot need to be wearing its watches for 2 hours before sleeping to get the best information.
Staying in touch
Many common wearables — Apple Watches, Samsung'due south Galaxy Watches, Fitbits like the Sense and Versa and more — tin pull double duty every bit tiny speakerphones when you don't want to pull out your smartphone. Telephone call quality tin vary depending on what kind of watch y'all're wearing, but it's by and large good enough for quick conversations. (Talking into your wrist can look a little airheaded, but if Dick Tracy tin can pull it off, so can you lot.)
Just again, proper smartwatches have an edge if you want to exercise more than only take phone calls. The Apple tree Spotter has a neat, built-in Walkie Talkie characteristic that lets y'all trade quick phonation messages with other Apple tree Scout owners. (Even meliorate, you lot have to specifically request someone'southward consent — and vice versa — before you tin bandy vox memos).
Samsung's latest Galaxy Sentinel iv offers a similar feature, but with a catch: information technology only allows you to share vocalism messages with other people whose watches run the latest version of Google's Habiliment Os software, and there aren't very many of those available right now.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/25/helpdesk-smartwatch-how-to-guide/
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