Despite being an excellent fitness tracker, the Apple Watch is a powerful smartwatch that can help with your golf game, make sure you drink enough water, provide turn-by-turn navigation, and more. So, if you’ve just got yourself a new Apple Watch and want to make the most out of it, then you need the best Apple Watch apps, and we have curated a list of the top ones down below.
1. Heart Analyzer
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Visual dashboard and trend analysis | Occasional bugs |
| Advanced metrics like HRV | |
| Free version offers basic features |
Heart Analyzer is one of the best Apple Watch apps for people who want to keep a close watch on their cardio-health. The app brings a ton of heart data straight to your wrist, and it does a way better job of organizing and displaying data than the stock Health app.
It brings your heart rate, heart rate variability, and other cardio-related information all together in one app and makes it very easy to see trends and other vital information easily. Plus, it also shows your workouts over the last week, allowing you to see how your heart rate changes during workouts and during recovery times.
There’s also a watch face that you can install, which brings all the crucial heart related information straight to your watch face, for easier access.
The free version of the app is pretty feature packed, but you can get the premium version for even more features such as the ability to view older health data, among other things.
2. AutoSleep
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Offers the option to record naps | AutoSleep is expensive at $8.99 with no free option |
| Readiness feature is very useful | |
| Sleep Bank keeps your sleep cycle in check | |
| Smart Alarm is better than regular alarms |
Even though the Apple Watch does have built-in sleep tracking, its data is not as comprehensive as AutoSleep, which brings a lot to the table. For one, it records naps, which isn’t something the built-in option offers. Plus, it can monitor extra information about your sleep status.
Another cool feature is Readiness, which uses your heart rate variability and waking pulse to give you feedback on how ready you are to face the day. The app is also fully integrated with the Apple Watch’s sleep stages, and it brings a Sleep Bank feature, which shows whether you’re in sleep credit or debt, and gives you advice on how to manage your sleep times to keep getting enough sleep.
There’s also a Smart Alarm feature in the app, which allows you to set a time window to wake up, and the app gently nudges you every minute to slowly bring you out of your deep sleep state, and ensures that you don’t get shell-shocked by a suddenly playing alarm. AutoSleep is a little pricey at $8.99, but well worth it.
3. Nano
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Reddit browsing on your watch | Loading bugs |
| Works independently after setup | |
| Pay what you want |
If you’re a regular Reddit user, chances are you wouldn’t mind using Reddit on your Apple Watch as well, and Nano is the app to use for that. You can simply connect your Reddit account to Nano, and that’s it. You will be able to see your subscriptions and browse the Reddit home feed straight from your wrist, complete with support for upvoting/downvoting posts.
If you get the Pro version, you will also be able to comment on posts with the built-in keyboard, scribbling, or by using dictation. You can also browse sub-reddits by typing them out, and basically, do all your Reddit browsing via your watch itself.
The free version of the app is good enough for lurkers, and if you like to engage with posts on Reddit, you should definitely get the Pro version of the app, and you will never again have to use your iPhone to access Reddit. With the Pro version you also get the ability to add more than 5 of your subreddit subscriptions to the watch app, and you can favorite sub-reddits, create multireddits, and more.
4. HiCoffee
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Caffeine-tracking on your wrist | Requires a subscription for premium features |
| Charts for metabolism, interactive widgets | |
| Health app integration |
If you’re a coffee lover like me, you might find yourself having a lot of coffee throughout your day. And while that’s a good way to stay energized, having a lot of coffee can also be a problem — too much of a good thing and what not.
With HiCoffee, you can log your coffee intake easily from your Apple Watch. You can choose from a variety of drinks, including espressos, lattes, and more. Plus, the app also brings support for logging coffees from popular cafes, such as Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and even instant coffee brands like Nescafe.
Basically, whenever you get a cup of coffee, you can just log the type and volume of coffee you’re having, and the app will automatically log in the amount of caffeine in your drink. It then provides the current body caffeine level for you to keep a track of, and also shows you the caffeine budget that’s remaining for the rest of your day so you can ensure you don’t end up drinking too much.
There’s also a Coffee Boost feature, which tracks the energizing effects of caffeine. You can turn this on manually, or set it to turn on automatically whenever you log in a sufficient amount of caffeine intake during the day.
HiCoffee is a great way to ensure you get enough caffeine but not too much throughout your day, and also to ensure that your caffeine levels are not too high when you’re about to go sleep.
5. HiWater
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Quick logging of daily water intake | Occasional sync issues |
| Smart reminders | |
| Health app integration |
Do you often find yourself forgetting to drink enough water? Well, HiWater is just the app for you (Not to be confused with another HiWater app). It brings a simple-to-use interface where you can log your water intake, and the app will show your hydration level throughout the day, and even tracks your intake against the recommended amount of water you should be having.
This way, you can easily ensure that you’re always hydrated. The app supports logging plain water, mineral water, pure water, tea, coffee, and more. The companion app lets you track your water intake goal, body hydration level, and Water Pyramid, which is a quick and easy way to see whether the kinds of drinks you’re having throughout your day are in healthy proportions or not.
6. WatchTube
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Watch YouTube videos on your wrist | Drains battery |
| Completely free | |
| Voice search support |
Watching YouTube on your Apple Watch might not be high on your list of things to do, but it’s certainly something you can do, thanks to the really good quality display on the Apple Watch, and the speaker which can get quite loud for its size. WatchTube brings the entire YouTube library to your wrist, and brings a search option as well.
Plus, you can subscribe to your favourite creators, and get their videos on your home feed in the watch app. Since this isn’t an official app, you do have to choose a server when you start it up, but once you’ve selected a server, it’s basically all there for you to watch. I tried watching a couple of Mark Rober videos, and they work really well without any issues.
There are a couple of features missing here, such as the ability to comment or to read comments, and the ability to scrub through a video’s timeline. But for a casual YouTube watching experience, WatchTube is pretty good and gets the job done.
7. Gentler Streak
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Improve fitness with compassion | Not accurate always |
| Beautiful design | |
| Daily recommendations for workouts |
Gentler Streak is a workout app that’s meant to keep you active and fit without your fitness journey becoming a pain. The app uses your Apple Watch to track your activities throughout the day, week, and month, and tells you how active you should be on any particular day to keep your momentum going.
For me, since I have not worked out over the past week, the app recommends that I workout extra hard today, which is in-line with what I was planning. It also shows recommended workouts for you based on your usual workout habits and recommends the time interval for specific workouts to remain within your usual range of exercising.
The companion iPhone app also has a wellbeing tab that tracks your sleep and other body metrics. This includes resting heart rate, wrist temperature, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen levels.
Gentler Streak is a gentler (no pun intended) alternative to the Apple Watch’s default Activity Rings, which can lead you to overexert yourself if you haven’t set them up properly.
8. WatchChat 2
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Full WhatsApp access on Apple Watch | Occasional syncing issues |
| Setup via QR linking | |
| Doesn’t collect user data |
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, 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.
The app allows you to send messages using the built-in input options on the Apple Watch, and (if you have it) typing via FlickType Keyboard as well which is great. Plus, since you can now link your WhatsApp account to other devices and use WhatsApp even if your phone isn’t connected to the internet, you can make full use of WatchChat 2 to stay connected even without your iPhone.
9. Authy
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Generate 2FA codes on your watch | Sync issues |
| Encrypted cloud backups | |
| Multi-device sync |
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.
With Authy on the Apple Watch, you can simply set up two-factor authentication for accounts like Facebook, Google, Instagram, and others. And when you need the 2FA code to log in, you can use the Authy watchOS app to get the code without needing to unlock your iPhone every time.
It’s a very useful app that I use all the time, especially because I have to log into my accounts on a lot of different computers that I am testing.
10. Flighty
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Flight updates and early alerts | Costly premium version |
| Apple ecosystem integration | |
| Travel history and insights |
If you travel often, Flighty is an app you must have on your Apple Watch. It is one of the best flight tracking apps I have ever used, and brings a plethora of useful features straight to your wrist.
Just add your flights to the iPhone app, and your watch will show you how long it is to your flight, along with the terminal and gate numbers for your flight so you don’t need to stand around waiting for the airport screens to show you where to go. It also shows the belt number where your luggage will arrive at the destination. So, you can quickly grab your luggage and exit the airport without any hassles.
Flighty also brings delay alerts (Pro subscription) so you can stay on top of any delays in your flights. Plus, it brings a lot of other features as well, such as Live Sharing, live activities support, fast alerts, Apple Watch complications, delay forecasts, live weather radar, storm, wind, traffic, and taxi delays, and a lot more.
Well, those were the 10 best Apple Watch apps that you should use to get the most out of your smartwatch. Hopefully, you were able to find some apps that piqued your interest. In case you have any questions or Apple Watch app suggestions for me, do share them in the comments below.
