HOW TO Control Apple Watch notifications

1 Enter Settings

Go into Settings > Notifications on your Apple Watch to change how notifications work on your wrist. The first option is whether your Watch should display a red dot at the top of the current face to let you know of new notifications.

2 Ask for more

If you scroll down the Notifications page, you’ll see these options. These enable you to show a tappable summary of a new notification or to display notifications even if your Apple Watch doesn’t think you’re currently looking.

3 Make Siri speak

When you’re wearing headphones, you can get Siri to tell you about new notifications. With AirPods, AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, Siri will then wait for you to respond, so you don’t have to say “Hey, Siri” first.

4 Feel the news

Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. By default, your Apple Watch will give you a little vibration whenever there’s a new notification. You can turn that off here, or turn it up; selecting Prominent makes the vibration alerts stronger.

5 Adjust every app

You don’t have to have the same settings for every app. If you go into the Watch app on your iPhone and select Notifications, you’ll see a list of all the apps on your Watch – first the Apple ones, and then third-party ones.

6 Change the settings

Mirror My iPhone is the default for most apps, but you can override that. For example, here you can adjust how many repeat alerts Messages gives you, and whether you should get an audible alert, a haptic one, neither or both.

7 Bring the noise

With health-related apps, you’ll find more detailed settings when you tap on them. In the Noise app, you can adjust the noise threshold so that you’re notified if the sound around you is louder than the level you specify – here, 95 decibels.

8 Have a heart

The Heart Health settings are even more personal, enabling you to set cardio fitness options such as the level beyond which your Watch will warn of high or low heart rates, whether it should notify you of irregular heart rhythms, and more.

9 Eliminate annoyances

If you’ve ever installed a shop or takeaway app only to be interrupted constantly with unwanted notifications, you can control that here. Simply tap on the toggle next to the app you want to silence notifications from.