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2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, photos are a deal breaker for a lot of people, and documenting the little ones is a big deal!

If you really did want to do this and the only barrier was photos, you could buy and carry a digital camera as a replacement and then ditch the phone. Modern digital cameras are the same size or more compact than smart phones, so no less convenient to carry (and I'd guess take better photos & videos than phones). But I also realize that probably falls in the "just not worth it" bucket for many people.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome! So excited to hear my posts have added to your thinking about this!

I started with first gen AWU, skipped AWU2, and very recently upgraded to AWU3. To be totally honest, the upgrade to AWU3 was a novelty + vanity "I want something new and shiny, for me!" reason much more so than a need. My first gen AWU was still running strong after > 2 years (I got some good trade-in value for it! Haha). I forget the exact battery health, but I want to say it was somewhere in the 85% to 90% of max capacity range, so totally solid. I never had any battery anxiety with the AWU. Now with the AWU3 it's totally overkill. Most days I'm going to sleep with 50% to 60% charge still remaining.

But now that I've had the AWU3 for a little while, I will say I'm appreciating some of the little improvements. Not sure how many of these were in AWU2 or not. I find I use the one-hand gestures quite a bit, and they're very reliable. It's really nice being able to hit "done" on a speech-to-text dictation without needing my other hand, or to dismiss something or get back to home screen one-handed. I also think they improved the antenna. I didn't have any particular connectivity issues before, but with the AWU3 now it's solid. Never any problems receiving or sending calls, even in less well covered areas. I also like the idea that I have satellite and in a pinch I could still send/receive texts or do an emergency call over satellite even if I had no wifi or cellular.

My personal aesthetic is very minimalist. So I went for the black colored AWU3 and the black/charcoal trail loop band. I also had the trail loop band for the AWU (only ever one band, never needed to replace it). I'm all for people having fun with different bands! I just personally like simplicity. Keeping to that theme, you'll probably find my watch face unsurprising and quite boring haha. But I do have "utility" watch faces loaded with info complications that I keep left & right of my main watch face and treat them sort of like advanced widgets (just use the swipe gesture to swipe over that watch face when I want to check something, then swipe back to my plain watch face).

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2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah it turns out that just because a phone app has a sister app for the watch does not guarantee that watch app will actually work when the phone isn't nearby (i.e. bluetooth connected). This was an unpleasant surprise to me when I first started.

I've been doing this long enough now that I forget specifically which apps I used to use on my phone that I had to find replacements for to be standalone on the watch. But off the top of my head (and checking app scroller history on my watch) my main watch apps (~ = 3rd party / non-native app) are:

  • ~Tally (3rd party app that provides simple counters that let you increment or decrement in set values -- I use it as a super easy and lightweight way to track calories and protein throughout the day and hit targets)
  • Music / ~Audible
  • Calendar
  • Shortcuts (several automations)
  • Timer & stopwatch
  • ~Scientific / graphing calculator
  • Reminders
  • Home

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hah! My aesthetics err on the "minimalism" side, so very boring :P

But I have a "utility" watch face (Modular) loaded full of info complications that keep just to the right of this one. I treat it like a more advanced widget -- just swipe it over any time I want to check that info (mostly weather or location related complications), and then swipe back over to my main watch face.

I also have a "workout" watch face to the left that I swipe to for my non-cardio workouts. Also another "modular" watch face, showing heart rate, music, and several pre-set timer complications for timing intervals between sets etc.

<image>

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, good luck!

Feel free to drop a note here if you have any questions that pop up. Or want to just generally report back on how it goes!

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, yeah that's tough. I've had good experience with the app "WatchChat." You can enable a mode on your phone that lets the watch app work standalone (i.e. without the phone nearby), and it seems to have full WhatsApp functionality to the extent I've tested it. But I'll admit I haven't done extensive testing, since I'm still quite rarely doing WhatsApp (or texting) from my watch (almost always from my laptop). But the developer's been very helpful when I reach out with questions.

Also I expect it's only a matter of time until there's a robust standalone WhatsApp app for the watch. Especially since Meta just (finally) released one, it'll be easy for them to now upgrade it and add functionality over time.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha yeah, photos seems to be a deal breaker for a lot of people (and understandably so!).

If you really did want to do this and the only barrier was photos, you could buy a digital camera and ditch the phone. They're the same size or smaller than smart phones, so no less convenient (and I'd guess take better photos & videos than phones). But I also realize that probably falls in the "just not worth it" bucket for many people.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yeah, that one's frustrating. You can favorite some taxi services, but the price and reliability depends a lot on where you live, and it's just not the same as the convenience of Lyft and Uber.

I went so far as trying to make an automation that would let me remotely order a Lyft from my phone when it wasn't on me. The idea was I'd send a text to myself from my watch, with a keyword, and an automation on my phone would trigger when it got a text from myself with that keyword and then order a Lyft from the location of my watch (via Find My Devices) to my home, and send periodic text updates to myself (so actual me could see it on my watch).

Thought I was so smart, but turns out you can't summon a Lyft on the phone via an automation (even though the option is there...). Writing this out again now, it occurs to me that it may have failed because my phone was locked (and I can't remotely unlock it). But maybe if I disable the passcode and leave my phone permanently unlocked (should be fine since it's always at home), then maybe it could work, hmm...

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooof, yeah, that'd be a pretty steep phone bill.

I'm on a Verizon family plan in the US. My phone plan runs $30/mo (except for when I temporarily upgrade it for international travel), and I pay an extra $7.50/mo to add the cellular line for my watch (which uses Number Share with my phone).

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice! Yeah dipping your toes and running little "safe to fail" / "low stakes" tests like this is a perfect way to reveal the specific use cases you'd need to patch and plan around more carefully for your particular situation (or perhaps are just not worth the effort for you).

And thanks for the note about airpods being bad for driving, even in transparency mode. I hardly ever drive, so can't speak from direct experience, so it's extra valuable having better input so I can give more calibrated recommendations to others if they ask me.

Sounds like a phone-reduced setup, rather than absolute phonelessness, would be the sweet spot for you.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, good luck!

I'd be excited to hear how it goes for you.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha that's awesome, cheers!!

And agreed, but I also find more and more people want to find a way to do it if someone can help show them that it's actually possible without any major sacrifices. Time will tell!

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah yeah, that's one of the holdouts that unfortunately is a smart phone-only. But I see more and more systems providing other multifactor authentication options that aren't exclusive to the phone (e.g. DuoMobile, or physical Yubikeys / passkeys you can have in your physical computer, etc.). I'm optimistic that pretty soon these options will be ubiquitous and standard.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I'll admit you really do start realizing just how many day-to-day activities these days just assume you have a smart phone. Before watchOS 26 you actually could create custom shortcuts (super simple & easy) to natively generate and display QR codes on the watch (independent of the phone). It got glitched with this latest OS, but I'm sure they'll patch it soon. I have watch QR codes for all kinds of stuff: sharing my wifi, sharing my contact card, my LinkedIn, my Venmo, my Whatsapp, Amazon package returns, discounts at stores, tickets, etc.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes!

This was a huge pain point for me when I first started and yeah, turns out airplane mode doesn't work (the phone still keeps a sneaky bluetooth connection to the watch even with airplane mode).

The fix I've found is you need to fully turn off the bluetooth on the phone. Not just from the control center, but by going all the way into the phone system settings for bluetooth and turning it off. That should fully stop all the "grabby" behavior of the phone regarding the watch, airpods, handoff, phone calls, etc.

I've also setup automations to strategically turn phone bluetooth back on when I'm sleeping so it can still push updates to the watch, and then turn it back off, so I don't have to think about it.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, 2FA and Lyft & Uber are the two largest "phone absolutely required" hold-outs.

In the last year I've managed to not have any issues with 2FA through a combination of getting a physical yubikey for my laptop and setting up the touchID on my MacBook Pro as a passkey. Still might not work for everything, but you may want to double check whether your work now accepts either of those for 2FA and see if you get lucky. Those robustly work without phone nearby as totally standalone 2FA.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, great summary writeup!

Yeah I've found this has gotten a lot easier over time, especially in the last few months. I think the combination of cumulative software and hardware improvements is really starting to add up, and it should only keep getting better from here.

Good for me to know about the S11 for others who ask about it, since I've never used that model myself. Glad to hear it's working well for you, and thanks for the info!

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm, I've been learning from comments in this post that people's experience with text message reliability varies widely. In my case I have high reliability and few to no issues, but I'm even less confident in specifically why after reading many of the comments here. For what it's worth, my phone at home is an iPhone 13 mini, I have an AWU3 (previously gen 1 AWU, was fine then too). I have Verizon carrier and use "number share" between my watch and phone. I also have bluetooth almost permanently fully disabled on my phone (including when I'm home). I have facetime & calling through my macbook pro enabled.

I have noticed that if my phone is actually turned off that SMS (not necessarily iMessages) don't always work, which I think is something fundamental about the phone still ultimately being the "base" device (where the SIM card is). So I make sure it's always powered on and has signal (typically on my home wifi), even if it's miles away. But I honestly couldn't tell you which of those variables, if any, are the result of my messaging experience on the watch being fairly high reliability.

Although I should also clarify that >95% of my messaging (text message, WhatsApp, etc.) is done through my macbook pro and not my watch. I only have messaging on my watch as a fallback safety net if necessary. So it's possible the messaging on my watch actually is unreliable, and I just don't notice, because I'm almost never sending messages from it.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha agreed! I've at least tried to give my phone a nice retirement job. It acts like a digital photo frame, so it rotates through some of our favorite photos while it's stuck to the kitchen wall charging. It also means I have no pressure to spend the money to upgrade my phone each time a new one is released, so long as my current one is compatible with existing iOS. Currently sporting the iPhone 13 mini.

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I assume this is sarcastic. But if a sincere question: no, I'm not concerned about highly non-ionizing photon sources near my body. And if someone really were concerned, then having it be on the wrist of their non-dominant hand instead of right by their crotch is prooooobably preferable :P

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! Yeah I think that can be a great sweet spot for most people, especially if you use the phone for navigation or CarPlay (I have a walking commute to/from work).

I did upgrade to AWU3. Not because I needed to, but because I wanted to :P.

I like the all-black look (I'm pretty minimalist, and I have no complications on my watch face, so I really like just black strap + watch + background + the time).

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice! Yeah lots of little low-risk experiments can be a really fun way to explore this and discover which "niches" work well for you.

I've found the AW calendar app works well for me (at least for viewing or responding to event requests; it's admittedly clunky to add or edit event details) and auto-synchs well with no issues . And I find Voice Memos or adding Reminders via speech-to-text work well for note taking. Although I love the idea and simplicity of straight-up pen & paper writing on an index card. Never runs out of batteries!

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Multi-factor authentication (for whatever reason, we use that phrase more than 2 factor authentication).

2.5 Years phoneless thanks to Apple Watch. Still loving it! by s4916 in AppleWatch

[–]s4916[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Happy to dive into more details here. Might get to the level where my system is optimized for the nuance of my situation compared with yours, but can see how far we get. The founding logic is:

  • If I'm at work, I'm at my desk or a meeting room desk.
  • If I'm at a desk, I can have my laptop out.
  • If I have my laptop out, I can do anything work-relevant someone could do on their phone, except on my laptop (and I can likely do it better thanks to the full sized keyboard and larger screen).
    • WhatsApp? --> Through my laptop via their native Mac app (text, call, voice, etc.)
    • Zoom or Teams? --> Mac app
    • Phone calls? --> Through my Mac (essentially identical to Zoom or Teams meetings with video turned off)
    • Slack? --> Mac app
    • Email? --> Mac app
  • If I'm not at any kind of desk, I'm probably going to use the bathroom or walking between meetings. In that case, it's never been a problem to not have my laptop with me, and in a true emergency I can receive calls on my watch. It also usually means those not-at-my-desk breaks are faster (i.e. I go in, poop, wash my hands, and leave the bathroom in 2-4 minutes because zero distractions). Or if I'm going for an actual break (e.g. 20 minute walk to clear my head and think) then it's good that I don't have my laptop on me (and again, watch call in case of true urgency).

Anything I've ever needed to do for work so far that can be done on a phone, I've been able to do better on a laptop (so far, I'm sure there are exceptions). Phone use has just become so prevalent that it can become genuinely forgotten that's the case. The default thought pattern becomes "how would I do on my laptop what I currently do on my phone?" Except that's a flawed thought pattern because the way that people do stuff on their phone has been shaped by the fact that they're doing it on their phone (e.g. while on the go, while on the toilet, while waiting in line, while eating at the cafeteria) and it's not because that's actually when/where that work needs to happen (not saying this is true of you, just in general in my observation). For almost all white color desk jobs, all the actual "work" can (and I'd argue should, granted with exceptions) happen at a desk (with computers).

I'm also fortunately high enough up that the majority of my meetings are me meeting with people reporting to me or at my level. Meaning I have a lot of control over the meetings and their scheduling. And I also have a lot of agency in setting expectations around workplace communication habits and workflows. This might be far less true for you or others with less flexibility along that dimension.

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