I’ve used an Apple Watch for the best part of a decade, yet I’m somehow still discovering new things. Here are some of the not-so-obvious tricks I’ve learned recently.

1 Ping and Flash Your iPhone LED

You’re probably aware that you can “ping” your iPhone from your Apple Watch by pressing the Side button (not the Digital Crown) to bring up the Control Center and then tapping the iPhone symbol that appears. It’s one of the most useful Apple Watch features, and I use it every single day.

But did you know that if you hold the button down, the LED on the back of your iPhone will also flash? This is especially useful for quickly finding your iPhone in the dark, but also has uses in very loud environments (like at a concert) or for anyone who has trouble hearing the usual high-pitched chime.

2 Quickly Go Dark with Cinema Mode

Press the Side button to reveal the Control Center and you’ll notice a whole array of controls. Now hit the one that looks like a pair of comedy and tragedy theater masks. This will enable Cinema Mode, which prevents your Watch from being a distraction in the dark.

This setting temporarily deactivates “raise to wake” so you’ll need to physically tap the screen or the Digital Crown in order to wake your watch. Sounds will also be muted. In this mode, you can slowly rotate the Digital Crown to subtly increase screen brightness, perfect for peeking at the time.

Haptics will still work as normal, and you’ll still get notifications (though the screen will remain off). You’ll need to enable Do Not Disturb or another Focus mode to get rid of distractions entirely.

3 Quickly Scroll to the Top of a Page

Just like the iPhone, the Apple Watch allows you to tap the very top edge of the screen to scroll all the way to the top of a page or menu. Though this can be annoying when you tap it by mistake, it’s great for getting to the top of a list (like when browsing available timers).

4 Pin Your Favorite Timers

You can add timers to your list using the “+” plus button that appears in the Timer app, but why not go one better and pin your most frequently used timers so that they appear above everything else?

To do this, launch the Timer app and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and tap “Edit.” You can now pin timers using the yellow pin icon that appears alongside them, or delete them altogether with the red “X” icon.

5 Mute Your Watch Temporarily

Some people live with their Apple Watch on mute (myself included), relying entirely on haptics. If that sounds bad to you but you still want to mute your watch on occasion, you can do so temporarily instead.

Press the Side button on the Watch to reveal the Control Center, then find the “Silent Mode” button (it looks like a bell). Tap and hold the button and choose “On for one hour” or whatever appears below it (like “this evening” or “this afternoon” or similar).

6 Enable Low Power Mode for Heroic Battery Life

Your Apple Watch will ask you to turn on Low Power Mode whenever your Watch battery hits 10%, but you can force the feature to turn on to greatly increase your battery life. To do this, hit the Side button to reveal the Control Center and then tap the battery percentage icon that appears.

From here tap “Low Power Mode” and then choose whether to turn the feature on for a day, two days, or three days. After three days, you’ll need to enable the feature again. Apple states that Low Power Mode should extend an Apple Watch Series 10 or similar from 18 to 36 hours, or an Apple Watch Ultra 2 from 36 to 72 hours.

The feature was only added with watchOS 9, in 2023. Enabling Low Power Mode will make some big sacrifices including disabling the Always-On Display, turning off background heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring (assuming your Watch has it) and automatic workout tracking. It will also limit many of these readings during a workout, making your Watch less accurate in a bid to save as much battery as possible.

7 Type Better By Swiping

If you have an Apple Watch Series 7 or later (including the Apple Watch Ultra and its successor), you can type on your Apple Watch using an on-screen keyboard that appears when prompted. The experience can be hit-and-miss, but one thing that can make it less frustrating is swiping instead of typing.

The feature works just as it does on the iPhone or iPad: swipe your finger over the keyboard as if you were typing normally. Your path will be translated into whatever word you’re trying to spell, with surprising accuracy. It might actually be easier than regular typing since there’s some room for error here due to the predictive nature of the input method.

8 Customize the “Two Button” Shortcut

Your Apple Watch has a shortcut where you can press both buttons at once to take a screenshot, pause a workout, or do nothing at all. Screenshots can be handy, but you might have no use for them.

Being able to quickly pause a workout is useful, except when you accidentally pause a workout without realizing it and lose half of your progress. This happens all the time if you use lifting straps or wrist straps when strength training in the gym.

You can toggle screenshots under Watch > General > Enable Screenshots (on an iPhone). Toggle workout pausing under Settings > Workout > Press to Pause, also on an iPhone. You can have them both on, or both off.

9 Assistive Touch Gestures for One-Handed Operation

Apple is known for its inclusive approach to accessibility, from hands-free iPhone scrolling that uses eye-tracking to being able to force a particular orientation regardless of which way you hold your iPhone. These features are great for those who rely on them, but they can have utility for everyone else too.

Assistive Touch gestures are an Apple Watch accessibility feature that lets you get more things done one-handed. Turn the feature on using Watch > Accessibility > Assistive Touch by toggling “Assistive Touch” on. Now navigate to the “Hand Gestures” sub-menu and turn that on too.

You’ll now be able to set up gestures like tapping and double-tapping with your thumb and index finger or clenching and double-clenching to do different things. You can customize which actions are triggered using the menu.

Disable the “Activation Gesture” to use these at any time, as long as you’ve raised your wrist to wake your Watch.

10 Use Your Watch as a Tip Calculator

Did you know there’s a Calculator app on your Watch? Not only that, it also has a tip button that can help you calculate a tip. To do this launch the Calculator app then enter the bill amount followed by the “TIP” button. Turn the Digital Crown to choose a percentage, then tap “People” and turn the Digital Crown to decide how to split the bill.

This feature is available in the U.S. but is limited in some countries.

11 Multiple Flashlight Modes

Press the Side button on your Apple Watch to reveal the Control Center, then tap the flashlight button if you want your Apple Watch to act like a torch. You’ll need to lower your wrist and point the Watch away from you so that your Watch doesn’t blind you.

Now swipe left on the flashlight to reveal the other modes: a red light that won’t ruin your night vision (great for reading a map at night), and a flashing LED mode that’s ideal for runners and cyclists (or anyone else) who wants to maximize visibility at night.

12 Skip the Workout Countdown

Are you tired of starting a workout and waiting for the 3-2-1 countdown to complete? Start your workout and tap the screen when you see the countdown appear. Your workout will start immediately. Unfortunately, there’s no way to turn the countdown off altogether.

If you’ve enjoyed these tips, make sure you check out our favorite Apple Watch features you should be using and useful Apple Watch tricks you need to know.

Don’t forget that a lot of iPhone tips also apply to the Apple Watch, so you can use the same tips to get Siri to understand you better and use Focus modes to avoid distractions.