While you can make phone calls from your Apple Watch, you can also send text messages from Apple Watch. Here’s how to do it.
The Apple Watch is a pretty good device, and even though it’s a little over six months old now, it’s a very recent smartwatch that’s gotten its first major update since the device was launched in April.
You can do all sorts of cool things on the Apple Watch, and while most of its functions depend on your iPhone, having a tiny computer strapped to your wrist that makes phone calls and sends text messages is pretty impressive. Without even touching your iPhone.
You can even use third-party apps that can run on your Apple Watch without needing your iPhone, including RunKeeper. RunKeeper can track your workouts without needing your iPhone, which is pretty cool, but since the Apple Watch doesn’t have built-in GPS, it’s a great help to have your iPhone with you for more accurate results.
In any case, a nice feature of the Apple Watch is the ability to send a text message to another user directly from the Apple Watch without even touching your iPhone. Here’s how it works.
Sending Text Messages From Your Apple Watch
One thing to keep in mind when sending text messages from your Apple Watch is that there isn’t a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard for typing, as that would be pretty ridiculous. Instead, you can use preset smart responses or voice dictation.
First of all, let’s choose a contact to send a text message to. You can do this by clicking the side button to bring up your Favorite contacts or by opening the Messages app from the app layout screen and selecting an existing conversation or Force Tap on the screen to compose a new text message.
You will most likely start a text message from your Favorites list, so select a contact and then tap the speech bubble icon in the lower right corner. From there, you’ll see a list of some “smart replies” you can use that are tailored to the person you’re messaging based on past conversations. You can also add and customize more emoticons by going to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and going to .
If the person you want to text message is not in your favourites, then you need to open the Messages app from the app layout, open Force Touch on the screen and select . To select a contact from your contacts list, tap on it and tap the plus icon at the bottom. After that, tap on it. You will then get the same screen as above.
If there is no preset phrase you want to say in the list, you can tap the microphone icon to dictate your text message, and then Completed in the upper right corner. Your watch may ask you if you want to send it as a voice message or as a text dictation. In the future, you can have it automatically select one by default in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone by going to
Next to the microphone icon is an emoji button; This button allows you to send any type of animated emoji to someone via text message, only if the text is not for you. You can select an emoji by turning the Digital Crown to scroll through the options, and then tap the top right corner of the screen.
Reply to Text Messages from Your Apple Watch
If you receive a text message, you can reply from your Apple Watch.
Raise your wrist and the text message will be displayed and you can use the digital crown or the display to scroll through the message. Then at the bottom, or you can text message.
Replying to the text message will give you the same options as above. You can choose from a list of smart replies or use voice dictation to create your own response. You can also send an emoji.
