HOW TO Chat to friends using Walkie-Talkie

1 Phone home

Open the Phone app and choose from your Favourite contacts, your recent calls list or your full contacts list; you can also select a numeric keypad or access your voicemail here. If you prefer, you can use a Siri command to call a specific person.

2 Make the call

When you’re on a call, you can mute your mic with the left-hand icon, hang up with the middle one or access more options with the ‘…’ button. This enables you to hand the call over to your iPhone. The Digital Crown adjusts the volume.

3 Get Walkie-Talkie

The Walkie-Talkie app has been automatically installed on every Apple Watch since watchOS 5.3. If you’ve deleted yours to free up space, get it back by tapping on the App Store and downloading it again. It’s a free app.

4 Find a friend

You can’t just start walkie-talkie-ing to everyone in your contacts list. You need to invite them to use the app. Scroll to the name of the person you want to add and tap Invite; you’ll now see this display until they accept the invitation.

5 Get ready

When your friend accepts, you’ll get this notification, which includes an option to open the Walkie-Talkie app if you aren’t already in it or to dismiss the notification. Now when you go to the app you’ll see your friend(s) at the top of the display.

6 Add more

You can add as many other friends as you like. Walkie-Talkie uses FaceTime to communicate so both of you will need to have set up the FaceTime app on your devices. You can remove friends from the list by swiping left on their name.

7 Start the chat

Tap the name of your friend and you should now see this button. All you need to do now is hold the button when you want to talk and let go when you’re ready to listen. Saying “over” at the end of each sentence is entirely optional.

8 Set your status

If you don’t want to be disturbed at any time of day or night, toggle your Walkie-Talkie availability in Control Centre. The toggle is just the app logo: if it’s black on a yellow background you’re available; tap it to become unavailable.

9 See your status

When you’ve used the Walkie-Talkie app, you might notice the icon in tiny form at the top of the Control Centre. That’s where your Watch shows its different connection statuses, so if Walkie-Talkie is active it appears there.