Manage Calendars and Reminders

From the Newton and PalmPilot to the iPhone, iPad, and now the Apple Watch, personal technology products have taken on the challenge of wrangling our schedules. For this task, the Apple Watch has an advantage. After all, what better place to be reminded of an event than on the object you use to check the time?

Open the Calendar App

Most watch faces I use include a Calendar complication to quickly see what’s next on my schedule. When I need more information, there are several ways to open the Calendar app:

  • Tap the Calendar icon on the Home screen.

  • Ask Siri to open the Calendar app: “Hey Siri, open Calendar app.”

  • Tap a calendar complication, or just the date on some faces (Figure 145).

Figure 145: The Calendar complication in the center shows the next item on your schedule; tap it to jump to the Calendar app. On this face, you can also tap the date above the time.
Figure 145: The Calendar complication in the center shows the next item on your schedule; tap it to jump to the Calendar app. On this face, you can also tap the date above the time.

Views in the Calendar App

The Calendar app displays three possible views of your daily schedule, plus a weekly and monthly graph. Tap the More button and choose one of the first three views:

  • List view: Calendar’s default view is List view (Figure 146). Scroll using the Digital Crown or via touch to reveal events in the future.

    Figure 146: Events are listed in the Calendar app. The highlighted time indicates you’re viewing a date other than today; tap it to return to today’s schedule.
    Figure 146: Events are listed in the Calendar app. The highlighted time indicates you’re viewing a date other than today; tap it to return to today’s schedule.

  • Day view: Day view is an alternative to the scrolling List view that shows today’s schedule in a single scrolling screen, color-coded according to the calendars you use on the iPhone. Switch between days by swiping left or right.

  • Up Next: View only the next item on your schedule. Turn the Digital Crown to flip between the cards for each item.

  • Weekly view: Tap the Back button to see your week rendered in blocks for appointments (Figure 147). Tap a day column to jump back to the daily view.

  • Monthly grid: Tap the Back button again in the weekly view. This grid is just a view of the dates, not events, but you can tap a week to switch to the weekly view.

    Figure 147: See how dense your schedule is using the weekly view (left) or view the entire calendar in the monthly grid (right).
    Figure 147: See how dense your schedule is using the weekly view (left) or view the entire calendar in the monthly grid (right).

Tap an event in either Day or List view to see more details about it. You can’t edit it, but you can read any notes and other information.

Use Siri with Calendar

Raise the watch and say, “Hey Siri,” or press and hold the Digital Crown, and ask something like, “What’s my schedule this weekend?” Siri returns a list of items (Figure 148); tapping one opens the event in the Calendar app.

Figure 148: Siri is looking ahead to the weekend, too.
Figure 148: Siri is looking ahead to the weekend, too.

Feel free to try specific requests; the worst-case scenario is that Siri can’t answer or offers to hand off the query to the iPhone.

Create Calendar Events

The Calendar app in watchOS 9 now includes the capability to create new events. It’s more practical to do it on your iPhone, since it can involve a lot of typing or swiping on the watch, but sometimes you just want to set up a meeting while out on a run. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Calendar app and tap the More button.

  2. Tap the + New Event button (Figure 149).

    Figure 149: Create new events in the Calendar app.
    Figure 149: Create new events in the Calendar app.

  3. Enter the details of the event using the fields provided: Title, Location, All-day (switch), Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, Repeat, Calendar, Invitees, Alert, Show As, and Notes.

  4. Tap Add to create the event.

Don’t forget about your helpful assistant. Siri is the easy way to create calendar items quickly. To speak your request, do the following:

  1. Raise the watch and say, “Hey Siri,” or press and hold the Digital Crown, and then say something like, “Schedule a meeting with Norville Barnes for tomorrow at 1:30 P.M.”

    If a contact is mentioned (as in this example), Siri asks you to pick the person’s email address to send an invitation. If you have a schedule conflict, you’ll see a warning.

  2. Confirm the event to add it to your default calendar.

You can’t edit events on the watch once they’re created, but you can delete them: tap the event to view its details and then tap the Delete button.

Respond to a Reminder

If a reminder was set up to alert you at a specific date and time, the notification appears on your watch just as on your iPhone. (To change notification settings, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap Notifications > Reminders, and make any desired adjustments.)

When the notification appears, mark it as completed (Figure 150), or snooze it by choosing a followup reminder in an hour, tonight, or tomorrow. You can also tap Dismiss to take no action.

Figure 150: Mark a reminder as completed or snooze it.
Figure 150: Mark a reminder as completed or snooze it.

Use the Reminders App

To review the tasks and other reminders on your lists, open the Reminders app in any of the following ways:

  • Press the Digital Crown to go to the Home screen and then tap the Reminders icon.

  • Ask Siri to open the Reminders app.

  • Most watch faces let you include a tiny Reminders complication that’s simply an icon for the Reminders app. A few faces, however, support a larger Reminders complication that displays your next scheduled reminder (Figure 151). In either case, tapping the complication opens the Reminders app.

Figure 151: This watch face shows the next scheduled reminder.
Figure 151: This watch face shows the next scheduled reminder.

When you first open Reminders, you see a series of lists, starting with Today and Scheduled (reminders with due dates or times), followed by the names of all your reminder lists, which on the watch display only undated reminders for those lists. Tap a label to see the reminders in that category.

To mark a reminder as done, tap the circle to its left (Figure 152).

Figure 152: Tap a circle to mark a reminder as complete.
Figure 152: Tap a circle to mark a reminder as complete.

To return to the List view, tap the list name in the top-left corner (such as < Scheduled)

Create New Reminders

Siri is the easy way to create calendar items and reminders on the watch, although you can also do it manually (with limitations). To speak your request, raise the watch and say, “Hey Siri,” or press and hold the Digital Crown, and then say something like, “Add ice cream to the Groceries list.”

You can make new reminders easily even without Siri:

  1. Open the Reminders app.

  2. Tap the Add Reminder button at the bottom of the list.

    Or, tap a category to view its reminders and tap the Add Reminder button there.

  3. Use the keyboard, Dictation, Scribble, or an emoji to write the name of the reminder, and then tap Done.

Unfortunately, tapping Done creates a basic reminder. To set attributes such as a date and time, notes, tags, or a priority, do the following:

  1. Tap the reminder and then tap Edit.

  2. Enter details in the fields and tap Done.

  3. Tap the Back button to return to the items in the list.

Alternatively, create the reminder using Siri, which correctly parses the request.

Set Timers

One of the watch’s most boring features is something I use all the time. You can set a timer on your watch that counts down from the time you specify—a great option for cooking in the kitchen or reminding yourself to collect the laundry. In the past, you’d have to choose between one of those, but now watchOS can track multiple timers.

To set a timer, open the Timers app and tap one of the presets (Figure 153). Or, tap Custom and enter your own time. When you’ve used timers, a few recent ones appear at the top of the list.

Figure 153: The Timers app will get you started with its presets or list of recent timers.
Figure 153: The Timers app will get you started with its presets or list of recent timers.

While the timer is running, if you need to stop or pause it, open the Timers app and tap the Stop or Pause button (Figure 154). To start another timer, tap the Back button and repeat the steps above. The active timers show up at the top of the screen; tap the time to open it full-screen, or tap the Pause button to suspend the timer.

Figure 154: A timer in progress (left) can be stopped or paused. When multiple timers are running, they appear at the top of the app’s screen (right).
Figure 154: A timer in progress (left) can be stopped or paused. When multiple timers are running, they appear at the top of the app’s screen (right).
..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset