Based on what acquaintances and customers have told me, I can say that the most criticized aspect of the Apple Watch is still its battery life. I can understand: I am very happy with my Apple Watch Series 9 but I still have to charge it daily. At least now I can do it in a few minutes while I shower.
There are people who even buy the Apple Watch Ultra just to have more autonomy, without having to cover the need to practice extreme sports with it. But it is not necessary to get to this point: There are ways to extend Apple Watch battery life if you get creative with Siri Shortcuts.
A first measure: do not use the always-on screen
As with other devices, what typically consumes the most battery on a device is its screen. And that’s why we can adapt the Apple Watch to habits that save our autonomy in times when we need it most.
The first thing we can do is turn off the always-on screen, so that the Apple Watch does not have to constantly display information. This, in itself, already allows us to save battery power. You can turn off the always-on display by doing the following:
- On your iPhone, open the Watch app.
- Click “Display & Brightness”.
- Click “Always Shown”.
- Disable the “Always on display” option:
A shortcut to turn off the screen when you turn your wrist
There is another gesture that we also make, with which we almost involuntarily wait for the Apple Watch to react: turn our wrist to see it. This turn is detected by the watch’s sensors, activating the screen accordingly. It is considered a more essential measure, although if we are looking to save battery we can always limit it by simplifying its access through a shortcut.
To create this shortcut, we will follow these steps:
- On your iPhone, open the Shortcuts app.
- Click the “+” button in the upper right corner to add a new shortcut.
- Click “Add Action”.
- Go to the “Applications” tab and click “Watch”.
- Click ‘Set “Activate by raising wrist”‘.
- In the shortcut description, display the menu of the first variable and select ‘On/Off’.
What you get with this shortcut is a quick way to enable or disable detection of these wrist movements. If you deactivate it, the watch sensors will have to work less, without having to analyze the movement of our arm to see if we rotate it.
In this way you need to tap the screen to activate it, because it remains off regardless of the movements you make. But in exchange, you get more battery life, and you can also play with this shortcut to activate it from an iPhone icon or Apple Watch complication. You can even automate it with other shortcuts and conditions.
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