15 Best Apple Watch Apps: Reinventing Your Wearable Experience

In 2023, 22% of shipments of the global smartwatch market were led by Apple. Apple has delivered some of the Best Apple Watch Apps for the wearable markets while reinventing the smart wearable experience.

Apple wearables are quite popular in the wearable technology industry for their myriad of features offering tracking, calling, health features, and lots more. The wearables provide unique ecosystem features that differentiate them from other wearables by far. Some of these notable features include:

• Apple Pay: A successful money transfer app can be used via the Apple watch while storing credit, debit, and prepaid cards. Users can make payments by holding the watch over a sensor.
• Keys: Apple watch also doubles up as a digital key for smart homes and other places which are shareable with friends and family.
• Child security: Apple phone users can gift Apple watches to their family members even if they do not have phones. Parents can track the watches from their application and give them allowance while keeping a check on their contacts.
• Fitness tracker: An Apple watch maps the user’s heart rate during workouts, as well as workout and activity duration and more. The wearable allows users to set activity goals, compete against their best saved times, and access personalized coaching through Fitness+, which includes audio-guided exercises.
• Health monitoring: The Apple watch recently saved lives with its health monitoring, ECG monitors, blood oxygen, and heart rate data. It notifies its users when there are any abnormalities, thus saving lives.
• Offline Navigation: For trekkers and athletes, offline maps are a great feature on the Apple watch. From tracking offbeat uncharted routes to sending emergency SOS signals, Apple watches are versatile tools for athletes as well.
• Siri: Siri’s Apple interactive voice assistant, comes up with great results for even casual queries. The watch can take voice commands, perform tasks, make calls, and set up calendars.

All these features set the Apple Watch apart from the rest of the wearables in the industry. These features and the apps that provide these features are what make the wearables from Apple so special. Let us have a look at this curated list of Best Apple Watch Apps, all set to rule 2024.

15 Best Apple Watch Apps You Can’t Miss

• Citymapper
• Headspace
• Todoist
• Water Reminder
• Drafts
• Nike Run Club
• iTranslate Converse
• Strava
• Watchchat2
• Grocery
• Spotify
• Flickside keyboard for Apple Watch
• Pillow
• Overcast
• Chirp

The above-listed applications are some of the best apps for Apple Watch that are present in the market. Let’s delve into their details to understand which application is best suited for users with various needs.

1. Citymapper

A public transit app and mapping service, Citymapper is one of the best Apple Watch apps and also one of the best free apps for Apple Watch for real-time updates for almost all urban modes of public transportation and even scooters and bikes. The Apple Watch app also integrates with Uber and Zipcar, which further ensures mobility for its users.

Citymapper also provides features such as offline maps, global city coverage, trip planning, real-time wait times, and so much more. It becomes easier for users to navigate bustling streets or rush hour subway traffic with ease. Here are some additional features that make the application worth having on your wrist:

• Precise global mobility information updated in real-time
• Routing algorithms which are designed for multimodal cities in real-time
• Innovative and pioneering native ride-booking system 

2. Headspace

Incepted in 2010 in London, England, the company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, with offices in San Francisco and London. As the name suggests, Headspace is a guide to meditation and mindfulness.

The app offers hundreds of different videos on breathing exercises, podcasts, tests, and more. Often considered as one of the best free apps for Apple Watch, the application has an inbuilt optimal routine and schedule for their users to access the app and watch. One can even pick the length of their meditation video.

Headspace app is compatible with iOS 6 and can be used for mindfulness practices, including day-to-day calming tasks and activities that are very engaging. The application offers a human-centric model of care while understanding user behavior. Its notable features are: 

• Provides personalized coaching and daily meditation guides.
• Tools include breathing, body scans, non-judgment, visualization, bedtime, and sitting meditation exercises.

3. Todoist

As the name suggests, the Todoist app is a to-do list and productivity app that is also a fully featured project management tool. The application has a flexible and convenient interface, great collaboration capabilities, tons of integrations, and a smart schedule feature.

With a simple internet connection, users get to stay organized with a variety of tools for managing tasks, lists, and projects.

Features of the application that set them apart are: 

• Role assignment features allow users to assign specific tasks to team members and collaborators.
• The app provides a visual representation of the project over time, which makes it easier to map the progress of the project.
• Gantt chart is another tool exclusive to the app that is available to users and is an excellent portrayal of the tasks and their progress.
• Budgeting is another great feature Todoist provides. One can easily track spending and set budgets with the help of templates within the app.
• The latest versions of Todoist can now couple with other tools such as Google Calendar, notion, and more, thus further increasing the efficiency and productivity of the organization. 

4. Water Reminder

In the rat race, we forget the very basics- to hydrate, and Apple Watch takes care of even that. Water Reminder is an intuitive iOS-compatible app that tracks daily water intake and provides reminders for the same. The app also helps monitor progress over days, weeks, or months while mapping a comprehensive overview of dietary preferences.

Here are a few other tasks which water reminder help accomplish: 

• Customized daily water intake goals and hydration plans
• Timely reminders and integration with smart water bottles

5. Drafts

A handy digital notepad on your wrist- Draft is yet another handy tool by the Apple watch store. Drafts is a blank space for all scribblings, doodles, and more along with many text manipulation features. One can also keep audio notes as a reminder and play it from the watch.

The app can easily sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac thus making it extremely accessible. Here are a few features of the app which can be used directly from the watch. 

• Is a versatile yet tiny wrist computer available for keeping notes anywhere, anytime
• Siri-assisted voice notes and voice typing
• Theme customization and syntax highlighting and tags

6. Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club is an extremely popular completely free option from Nike designed for anyone who enjoys running. The app is now Apple Watch friendly and can map daily runs with the help of Apple Watch. It also collects health data such as heart rate, fitness goals, dietary preferences, water intake, sleep patterns, etc, and provides holistic solutions to users’ healthcare. 

• Tracking indoor and outdoor runs using GPS
• Auto-pause once the user stops running.
• Play Music
• Provide audio feedback
• Stopwatch and countdowns amongst others

7. iTranslate Converse

Winner of the Apple Design Award in 2018, iTranslate is another excellent application to have on your Apple watch. It is a stellar speech translation tool that enables conversations across 38 languages. The app provides users with simultaneous translations and engaging design at the tips of their fingers.

It can easily detect the language and translate it to the required language, ensuring easy communication between users speaking different languages. Beyond this, users can also access the transcriptions of the conversations they have had. 

More features include: 

• Deliver translation in real-time
• Simultaneous translation in more than 38 languages
• Automatic detection of languages interacted in

8. Strava

While Nike Run App focuses majorly on running, Strava covers more than 30 activities. Strava focuses on building a community and making fitness a group project. The versatile fitness application also comes up with route recommendations and helps its users navigate with convenience. The community shares its achievements and thus inculcates healthy practices of fitness within itself. 

Here are other characteristics of Strava that sets it apart from other watch OS fitness apps:

• Planning Cycling routes and providing fitness challenges to users
• Route customizations and segment leadership boards
• Daily Training and Privacy zone and their record keeping and more.

9. WatchChat 2

Ask any athlete and they will tell you how inconvenient it is to check and respond to messages while running. Not anymore. WatchChat2 application elevates the Apple Watch interface by updating messages in real-time and allowing users to access their WhatsApp chats, voice messages, group conversations and even status updates. Other notable features of the app include HD picture viewing, changing font size, zoom capabilities, intuitive keyword layouts, and much more.

10. Grocery

Grocery shopping has never been easier, especially with the Grocery application built into smartwatches. The application has been integrated with reminders, iCloud, and calendars which are essential in syncing grocery lists. The grocery app also has Siri to interact with thus elevating the grocery shopping experience. Other features include:

• Inventory tracking 
• Auto-sorting
• Households lists, recipe stairs
• Pantry statuses amongst others.

11. Spotify

One of the most popular music applications, Spotify can now be run on Apple Watch. Spotify, the leading music and podcast apps provides a huge option of songs, playlists, albums, and podcasts.

The application makes listening to music a brand-new experience. Spotify delivers curated lists letting users enjoy favorites anywhere and anytime. Notable features of the app on the watch include: 

• Stream music and playlists, podcasts, and more, and can be downloaded for offline use as well.
• Use Siri to voice-control music sessions

12. FlickType keyboard for Apple Watch

A watchface is a small screen of diameter ranging between 38 to 45mm which makes it almost impossible to type on. However, the Flickside keyboard has been a game-changer in this regard. The keyboard is a simplified Qwerty keyboard that enables users to type and respond when audio responses are not feasible.

The application is watch OS friendly and can be adjusted according to user preferences. A few other features of the application include:

• It claims to type three times faster compared to the standard keyboard, Scribble or even dictation.
• Provides shortcuts and is customizable.
• Improves text input by users and can be seamlessly integrated into the watch.

13. Pillow

Sleep tracker, monitor, and alarm clock, Pillow is an excellent application of watch OS. Pillow’s sleep metrics are ergonomic, user friendly simple to understand, and rich in information. Its quick glanceable gists of copious amounts of data are a boon for many. Given are a few other features that make Pillow an excellent application for watch OS:

• Provides a detailed last night’s report right, along with the heart rate analysis  and sleeping patterns 
• Easily moving between manual and automatic mode.
• Advanced sleep cycle analysis algorithm based on the latest scientific findings in sleep research.

14. Overcast

An excellent podcast player, Overcast is an award-winning application featured by the app store as an Editor’s choice and critically acclaimed by many digital websites and journals. The application is known for its intuitive and user-friendly interface and quality podcast audio.

Overcast has smart tools including Smart Speed and Voice Boost which deliver high-quality podcast audio to its listeners. Here few other things that the application allows users to perform:

• Search and browse podcasts and get personalized recommendations and even allow them 
• Create custom playlists with filters and receive new podcast notifications 
• Broadcast level sound quality to all audio
• Standalone playback and cellular streaming on all Apple devices

15. Chirp

Stay updated on the latest tweets with Chirp. Chirp is the watch OS equivalent of Twitter and allows users to view up to 150 new messages, accept and take up new requests, view sent messages and images without having to turn on the phone. Chirp lets you access the Twitter app from the convenience of your wrist. Other tasks one can accomplish with chirp are: 

• Navigate the Twitter application with convenience
• Advanced Tweet composer with multilingual inputs
• Voice-controlled tweeting features

How to Choose from the Best Apple Watch Apps?

This list of best Apple Watch apps was curated after sifting through some of the best apps for Apple Watch available on the wearable app store. Whether you are interested in increasing your productivity, setting fitness goals or simplifying daily tasks, the Apple Watch store has a lot to offer. All of these applications can be downloaded to the watch in a few simple steps:

• Go to Apple Watch’s home setting
• Open the App Store and search for the application you want to download
• Download the app by providing Apple ID credentials 

And voila! You are all set to make the best of your smartwatch. 

Final Thoughts: Best Apps for Apple Watch

As the Apple watch turned the wearable market around, the demand for iOS development services has only risen manifold. Many iOS development companies in the market claim to provide stellar development services but few can deliver on the promise.

OpenXcell is a reliable company to start with. Its excellent software solutions are both iOS and Android-friendly and have proven their mettle in the competitive software markets.