Unleash the power of your Android smartwatch with these clever hidden features.
To get the most out of your Wear OS smartwatch, you’ll need to know exactly how to use it.
While the tutorial will allow you to master the basics, discovering the many hidden features and tricks will take plenty of experimentation.
That’s where this guide can save you some time. Below, we’ve covered 20 Wear OS features and hacks to help you get to grips with what your smartwatch is capable of.
What can a Wear OS smartwatch do?
We’ll dive into some of the more unknown features below, but it’s worth covering some of the more basic ones of a typical Wear OS smartwatch first.
Some watches are naturally a bit more capable than others, but all should be able to perform the following:
- Show you incoming notifications and calls
- Track daily activity like calories, stand hours, and steps
- Track workouts with GPS and heart rate
- Notify you of abnormally high or low heart rates
- Monitor sleep
- Deliver health insights using ECG readings and SpO2 sensors
- Provide turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps
- Allow access to Google Assistant
- Let you pay or show tickets through Google Wallet
1. Dim the screen with your hand
One of the simplest Wear OS features is also the best; covering the watch display with your opposing hand will quickly turn the screen from bright to dim.
This is great for quickly ‘locking’ the display if you’ve raised your wrist to view an incoming notification or want to dim the screen in a dark environment.
2. Avoid doubling up on notifications
There are notifications everywhere you go. And while having these come into your wrist all day long is one of the great benefits of the smartwatch, it doesn’t mean you want them replicated on the wrist when you’re using your phone – or vice versa.
At least on Wear OS 3 (and above) devices like the Pixel Watch series, you can avoid doubling up.
1. Open the Watch app on your phone.
2. Hit the ‘Notifications’ section.
3. Scroll down to ‘Mute watch notifications’ or ‘Mute notifications’.
4. Toggle either option (or both) to avoid double notifications.
3. Customize side buttons
The hardware buttons on Wear OS watches may differ from brand to brand, but, as long as your device has at least one (as well as the crown), you can customize how that button can be used.
You can’t on the Pixel Watch 3 (or older models), though you can on some of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch devices, for example.
To do so, find something like ‘Advanced Features’ within the Settings app and then tap through and find ‘Customize Keys’.
Depending on your model, you should be able to customize how the side buttons work from here. This includes actions for either a double press or a press and hold.
These will often launch an app by default, but this setting allows you to change what these actions can lead to.
4. Add new Tiles to the carousel
Tiles are a great way to get a snapshot view of a certain app or bit of information from your Wear OS watch, and can easily be accessed by swiping left or right from the watch face.
Your watch will have a few Tiles loaded right out of the box, but, depending on which apps you have downloaded, you can also add many more.
To do so, swipe from the home screen and land on a Tile. Long press the display until the Tile zooms out and offers up a + icon below it – it’s from here where you can edit the carousel’s order and contents.
Tap the symbol to bring up a library of potential new Tiles, then select the one you wish to add to the carousel.
5. Mix up your watch face
Changing around Tiles is one thing, but you’ll still spend most of your time looking at the watch face most of the time. As such, you’ll probably want to change it pretty frequently.
We’ve got an entire guide to the best Wear OS watch faces and watch face apps, but you can play around with the pre-set list by simply long-pressing the display when the watch face is showing.
From here, you can swap to a different one or edit the colors and widgets available on the face.
6. Change wrist orientation
To accurately track steps, location, and more, your smartwatch needs to recognize the wrist it’s situated. So, letting it know if you’ve swapped wrists is an essential setting.
You can find it by launching the Settings app, finding ‘Display’, and scrolling down to ‘Wrist orientation’.
Here, you can notify your watch which wrist it’s used on – and even the crown placement, if you’ve decided to turn the watch upside down for easier access to the button.
7. Add a widget to your watch face
If you have a favorite app or bit of information you like to check in on, Tiles aren’t the only way to gain easy access.
Adding a dedicated widget to your home screen can easily present things like the weather temperature, battery life, or even create a hotkey straight to an app like Spotify.
To do so, long press on the display and tap the edit icon. From here, you’ll have to swipe left a couple of times to bring up the ‘Complications’ suite, and from here you can scroll through a list using the crown and then lock it in.
8. Find your phone
Another simple and handy feature available at your fingertips is the ability to force a sound out of your phone.
By swiping down from the top of the screen, you should see an icon with a phone depicted. Tap it, wait a couple of seconds, and your Wear OS 3 device will note that it’s ringing your phone.
Providing the pair are connected via Bluetooth, you should hear your phone’s ringtone begin to sound – even if it’s on silent.
Read more in our guide to finding your phone using a Wear OS smartwatch.
9. Turn on Cinema Mode
This is unavailable or called something slightly different on different Wear OS 3 devices, but, at least on the Pixel Watch, ‘Cinema Mode’ will turn off the screen, silence any alerts, and disable any raise-to-wake actions.
It’s ideal for the cinema, as the name suggests, but just be aware that it will also disable any alarms or timers you have set.
10. Configure the vibration settings
Unless you plan on annoying everyone in your vicinity with notification sounds, the watch’s haptic feedback and vibration are how you’ll largely want to interact with your Wear OS watch.
And, on many devices, you can tweak settings related to the watch’s vibrations. Head to the Settings app and scroll down to ‘Vibration’ to get things started.
From here, you can alter the strength of the vibration for calls, alarms, and notifications separately, as well as deal with settings that, for example, will silence the watch completely when it’s not being worn.
11. Squeeze out more battery life
This is another feature that will vary greatly between different Wear OS 3 watches, but all offer a battery-saving mode for you to employ when supplies are low.
The way you do so is also consistent – and simple. Bring up the quick settings list by swiping down from the top of the display and then tapping the icon with a battery symbol.
Often, this will turn off the always-on display and tilt-to-wake function, but, sometimes, this can also be extended to turn off heart or health monitoring sensors.
12. Use your watch to see in the dark
Whether you need to find something that’s fallen down the side of your car seat, or you’re fumbling around with your keys trying to open your front door at night, the torch option on your Wear OS smartwatch will come in more than you might think.
It temporarily maximizes your screen’s brightness and shows a plain white background, allowing you to create a small beam of light if you aim your wrist in the right direction. Swipe down from the top of your display and select the torch icon to enable it.
Just be careful with this one, as it rapidly drains battery life. Press the crown to return to the home screen and disable it.
13. Connect headphones and listen offline
Whether you want to listen to Spotify, Amazon Music, or even Deezer from your Wear OS smartwatch, you’ll first need to know how to pair your Bluetooth headphones.
Begin by following the required steps from your headphones manufacturer to place them in pairing mode, then head to Settings > Connectivity > Bluetooth > Pair new device and tap your device name when it appears.
Read more in our guide to downloading music on Wear OS for offline listening.
14. Clear all notifications at once
Things can get overwhelming quickly if you swipe up from the bottom of the display and bring up all your outstanding notifications.
You can deal with them all at once and avoid wasting time dealing with them individually.
Swipe to the bottom of the list and find the ‘Clear all’ option before selecting it to start with a fresh stack.
15. Browse for the perfect watch app
The Play Store took a huge stride forward with the launch of Wear OS, with plenty of developers reimagining their apps for the smartwatch platform. It’s never been easier to search and download apps for your smartwatch.
Head to the ‘Play Store’ app which is pre-downloaded onto your device, and then use the keyboard or dictation function to find what you’re looking for.
16. Get directions without your phone
Navigating a big city or a new place can be difficult enough without having to pull out your smartphone every few minutes to double-check directions.
With the power of your Wear OS watch and Google Maps, though, following routes and instructions is much simpler.
On Wear OS 3/4, you’ll have to start route guidance from the Google Maps phone app if your watch doesn’t have a cellular connection. Offline maps are available in Wear OS 5, though, allowing directions to be buzzed directly to your wrist for you to follow.
Read our extended guide to Google Maps on Wear OS for more details.
17. Control your smart home gadgets
Until recent years, Google Home was never a big part of the Wear OS app experience.
Not every smart home device can be controlled via the Home app on Wear OS, but most of it can – and it’s the easiest way to subtly tweak light colors, check room temperatures, and arm security systems.
Don’t expect the same kind of treatment for Alexa-controlled smart homes any time soon, mind.
18. Take a screenshot
In truth, taking a screenshot on Wear OS was much simpler before the latest versions of the software rolled around.
However, it is still possible – and some, like the Pixel Watch, still allow you to take one by pressing the crown and a side button.
As we’ve covered in our guide to taking screenshots on Wear OS, this does vary a little depending on the brand of your smartwatch, but the action should always be available from within the companion app.
In the Pixel Watch app, for example, it’s available from the menu in the top-right.
19. Chat with Google Assistant
Not every Wear OS smartwatch has access to Google Assistant, meaning getting answers to queries or commands from the wrist is still a relatively novel feature.
You can even turn on ‘Hey Google’ detection, which means you don’t have to bring up the app to start conversing with the virtual assistant.
20. Use Do Not Disturb correctly
Unlike the Cinema Mode discussed above or Sleep Mode, Do Not Disturb acts slightly differently.
With this setting turned on, notifications and alerts are all turned off except for calls, while the always-on display and tilt-to-wake function are also disabled.
In this mode, you can still do things like track exercise or have alarms enabled. It’s good for when you’re in an office environment, but less so for quiet trips to the theatre or bedtime.
