Got an Apple Watch? Got an iPhone? These apps are fantastic on both
Skepticism surrounded the Apple Watch’s early days, but Apple’s wearable has since grown to dominate the industry. Some modern iterations even work as independent devices, enabling you to make calls without your iPhone. Truly, Apple Watch is evolving into its own thing – a tiny standalone computer you wear on your wrist.
The device is primarily designed for occasional, infrequent use. Even so, apps can boost its utility. But with many thousands to choose from, which should you install first? And which of those will give you more for your investment, by also being an excellent addition to your iPhone?
That’s what this roundup is all about. It’s not your typical ‘best Apple Watch app’ list, but instead covers apps that are superb on both devices. Which means even if you don’t own an Apple Watch, every one of these apps comes recommended anyway.
1Password
$4/£3.49 monthly • 133.6 MB • v7.4.6 • By AgileBits Inc.
1Password is a service for managing and storing personal information, such as website passwords, payment details, identities, and software licenses. Unlike Apple’s iCloud Keychain, 1Password also supports Android and Windows.
On the iPhone, 1Password is – unlike iCloud Keychain – a standalone app, making it a cinch to browse your information, and also to create new passwords. The app includes its own browser, but also integrates with Safari – the seamlessness of which improves under iOS 12 and iOS 13.
On Apple Watch, 1Password is designed to provide you with fast access to a small user-defined selection of your ‘vault’ content – and also keep that secure. Fire up the app and you tap in a passcode. Select an item and its details are provided right on your wrist.
CARROT Weather
$5/£5 + IAP • 153.7 MB • v4.14.3 • By Grailr LLC
This weather app values snark almost as much as detailed forecasts. You get all the usual info, housed in a gorgeous interface, but also a human-hating ‘AI’ offering colorful and sometimes surreal commentary.
On the iPhone, CARROT Weather has a bright, vibrant interface, packed with detail that’s very easy to scan through. But also, it’s fun (including a secret location game) and has plenty of personality (mostly sarcasm) – and so you’ll actually enjoy using it.
On Apple Watch, all this detail and taunting is crammed into a single scrolling pane. Again, beautiful design makes info easy to peruse, and taps let you delve into a forecast’s finer details. Note that complication customization and some other Apple Watch features require a Premium IAP subscription.
Cheatsheet Notes
Free or $4/£4 • 107.2 MB • v3.4.10 • By Christopher Adam Overholtzer
Roughly the digital equivalent of things you’d scrawl on your hand in pen, Cheatsheet Notes is designed to house all those little items you need to remember – but often don’t.
On the iPhone, you use the app to create your list. Each item comprises a short note (such as a hotel room or luggage lock combination), and can have an associated icon, making it easier to spot. The list can be accessed as a Today view widget or custom keyboard.
On Apple Watch, you get all of this information right on your wrist – ideal for things like new Wi-Fi passwords. You can also use dictation to add new items, and your most-used one can be assigned as a complication.
Citymapper
Free • 273.8 MB • v10.3 • By Citymapper Limited
Plenty of mapping apps deal with public transport, but Citymapper’s the best if you live in a supported city. Its sense of focus and how it provides information at opportune moments propels it beyond all rivals.
On the iPhone, Citymapper figures out where you are, asks where you want to go, and then outlines all the options for doing so. You’ll get everything from a walking time (including how many calories that will burn) through to bus routes with real-time locations of the vehicles.
On Apple Watch, Citymapper is primarily designed to provide details of your current journey – and relevant alerts as it happens. The complications can put your ETA and directions on your watch face, too, ensuring you’re up to date the instant your Apple Watch display wakes.
Deliveries
$5/£5 • 49.6 MB • v8.4.3 • By Junecloud LLC
The idea behind this app is to keep tabs on all your packages, thereby giving you a fighting chance of being in when one arrives, rather than it being ‘delivered’ to next door’s hedge.
On the iPhone, the app gives you the means to add deliveries from a range of providers. These can then be perused in-app or by using the Today view widget. The former amusingly shows a package’s progress on a map, too.
On Apple Watch, Deliveries is of course mostly about notifications. Even so, you can still check out your entire list of in-transit parcels, which includes estimated days until delivery. Tap one and you can see its current location.
Drafts
Free + $2/£1.79 monthly • 64.5 MB • v18.1 • By Agile Tortoise
Billed as the place where text starts on iOS, Drafts combines note-taking, text editing, and automation. It helps you quickly capture ideas – and then do something with them.
On the iPhone, Drafts makes sense from the chaos of notes. A robust search and archiving system keeps you on top of everything. When writing, you get a live word count and Markdown formatting. Take out a monthly subscription and you can create powerful custom actions, too.
On Apple Watch, you can of course browse your notes, and perform some archive management. But the app also enables you to capture new notes by way of dictation, which can be appended or prepended to existing ones.
Elk Travel Currency Converter
$4/£4 • 41.1 MB • v1.4.1 • By Clean Shaven Apps
This currency converter has an interface that’s been carefully optimized for whatever device you’re using it on, thereby boosting efficiency and usability. There’s a 14-day free trial, too, which may be enough for an entire holiday.
On the iPhone, Elk doesn’t have you type in figures, but instead loads up an at-a-glance currency conversion table. Zeroes can be added and removed with swipes. It’s location-aware, too, and will default to helping you convert to and from the local currency to your own.
On Apple Watch, Elk is a mite more traditional, but also very smartly designed. Once you’ve selected your currencies, you rotate the Digital Crown to adjust values, and swipe to add or remove digits. It’s really sleek stuff.
Get Elk Travel Currency Converter
Fantastical
$5/£5 per month • 100.9 MB • v3.0.7 • By Flexibits Inc.
This app acts as a replacement for Apple’s own Calendar, and also provides access to what you’ve stored in Reminders. It uses your existing iCloud data, but provides a very different spin on how to present it.
On the iPhone, events appear as a scrollable pane, making browsing them much quicker. It also has a superb event entry system, based around a powerful parser. The app understands plain-English input, and ‘builds’ events as you type, a visual preview helping you avoid errors.
On Apple Watch, you get access to all your calendar events, but it also saves you getting your iPhone out to add new ones. Fantastical’s natural-language input works great when dictating, too, making you feel like you’re in an episode of Star Trek.
Focus
Free or $5/£5 per month • 97.6 MB • v6.2.3 • By Masterbuilders
There are plenty of timers on iOS and Apple Watch, but Focus zeros in on Pomodoro work/break sprints. By refining productivity using this system, you can make the most of your time – but without overdoing it.
On the iPhone, Focus in its free incarnation enables you to define work/break sprint durations, and the number of sprint pairs between longer breaks. Pay monthly and you unlock additional features, such as a task manager.
On Apple Watch, Focus works as a means to keep you even more focussed, by not having half an eye on the clock. The app syncs with your iPhone’s countdowns, and nudges you when each one’s complete. You can also pause/resume, right from your wrist.
Just Press Record
$5/£5 • 7.2 MB • v37.1 • By Open Planet Software
A mobile dictaphone of sorts, Just Press Record has some additional smarts over merely recording: your memos are synced across iCloud, and their contents can be quickly transcribed.
On the iPhone, the app has a lot in common with Voice Memos, in that you can quickly record audio and have it sync between devices. But Just Press Record is superior for management, and allows you to transcribe a recording with a single tap.
On Apple Watch, Just Press Record is simplified to a recorder, but one that can record in the background, and also without requiring your iPhone. The next time your devices are together, your memos are sent across – and then synced to iCloud.
Messenger
Free • 63.6 MB • v255.1 • By Facebook, Inc.
Assuming you’re OK having a Facebook account, this app lets you message or call anyone on the service. And, yes, we know: Messages and FaceTime exist – but not everyone has Apple kit.
On the iPhone, Messenger lets you chat with people, and add creative elements to your conversations, such as stickers and ridiculous photo filters. You can video chat with multiple people, too.
On Apple Watch, the app is more limited – video calls on your wrist remain the preserve of science fiction. Still, you can scan your recent messages, and send replies, without fishing out your phone.
MultiTimer
Free or $8/£8 • 101.4 MB • v6.1.4 • By Sergey Astakhov
Apple, in its infinite wisdom, has determined you only need a single timer. MultiTimer disagrees – and provides you with a slew of options, from standard countdowns through to customizable sport interval timers.
On the iPhone, MultiTimer gives you a huge range of timers to choose from, each of which can be customized with its own label, icon, and alert. Multiple timers can be fired at once. Go ‘pro’ for iCloud sync, a timer journal, and additional layout options.
On Apple Watch, all your defined timers are listed, and any already triggered on your iPhone can be monitored and interacted with. The main thing, though, is being able to trigger multiple timers on your watch – handy for everything from cooking to work.
Night Sky
Free or $4/£4 per month • 942.1 MB • v7.5.1 • By iCandi Apps
This app is for exploring the heavens, whether you want to know which stars are overhead, what a particular spot on the ISS looks like, or when Venus is next going to rise above the horizon.
On the iPhone, you can explore the night sky by moving your device or swiping with a finger. Search quickly gets you to specific objects, which can then be plucked from the sky and explored in 3D or AR.
On Apple Watch, Night Sky is impressively ambitious, and presents as a cut-down version of the iPhone app. So you can raise your arm and identify objects, and find out more about the current selection with a tap.
Noted
Free or $2.49/£1.29 per month • 177.3 MB • v2.2.2 • By Digital Workroom Ltd
This app cleverly combines voice memos and note-taking. You record your audio, and can at any point embed a ‘#TimeTag’, which when later tapped will jump to the relevant point in the recording.
On the iPhone, this is a swish, neatly designed note-taker. You can integrate images, and text is smartly time-stamped. The audio component works well, and ‘#TimeTags’ make it easy to create shortcuts to audio that can later help you flesh out brief notes.
On Apple Watch, the app lacks the text component – after all, no-one types out lengthy notes on their wrist. But you can record audio, and add ‘#TimeTags’ that’ll help you later quickly get at the most interesting bits.
Overcast
Free or $10/£9 per year • 15.2 MB • v2020.3 • By Overcast Radio, LLC
This modern, full-featured podcast player is worth using instead of Apple’s own. It’s great for discovery, has a solid interface, and is superb when it comes to playback of talky shows.
On the iPhone, you get an interface for prioritizing favorite podcasts, and also rearranging your playlists on the fly. Smart Speed and Voice Boost features help you hear what’s being said, whatever your surroundings.
On Apple Watch, the app’s primarily a remote, letting you quickly skip back and forth in your current show, adjust volume levels, or play something new. But you can also send podcast episodes to Overcast on Apple Watch, for standalone playback.
PCalc
$10/£10 • 107.7 MB • v3.9.4 • By TLA Systems Ltd.
The finest and most feature-packed traditional calculator on iOS, PCalc is aimed at anyone who wants a great app for calculations. It’s an ideal choice whether you’re a student, engineer, or just tap out the odd sum.
On the iPhone, you get an RPN mode, multi-line display, a paper tape, and multiple undo/redo. There are unit conversions and constants, and the app can be themed and its key layout fully customized. Also, there’s a hidden AR game with 3D bananas. No, really.
On Apple Watch, there’s Apple’s Calculator, but PCalc’s still worth checking out. The feature-set is wisely slimmed down from the iPhone version; but the app’s efficient and usable – operators sit behind their own button – and there’s a built-in tip calculator, too.
Rules!
$3/£3 • 63.4 MB • v4.1.2 • By TheCodingMonkeys
This game is designed to give your memory a serious workout. You must remember rules across a series of rounds, and tap relevant tiles to proceed. It looks cute, but is every inch the brain-smasher.
On the iPhone, you get the full Rules! experience. For every round you complete, another rule is added – but they’re never displayed again. You must nonetheless clear tiles by obeying all rules you’ve been given, in reverse order. Easy in round five – not so much by round 50.
On Apple Watch, the game becomes a simpler daily mini-game. The basic rules are the same, but the grid is smaller (two-by-two rather than four-by-four). Ideal fodder when waiting in a queue. Just don’t wail when you erroneously tap a unicorn when you should have gone for a fox.
Runkeeper
Free • 168.1 MB • v10.4 • By FitnessKeeper, Inc.
This fitness app arrived at the dawn of the App Store, and has subsequently evolved into a feature-rich and complete exercise-tracking suite.
On the iPhone, the app tracks runs, walks and bike rides. The ongoing data readout is clear as day, and when you’re done you can delve into all kinds of facts, figures, and maps. Pay a subscription and you get premium training plans and workouts, too.
On Apple Watch, Runkeeper is a mini-me to its iPhone incarnation. You still get all the important stats on your wrist, and you don’t even need your phone to be with you. Assuming you’ve a Series 2 Apple Watch or newer, you’ll even get mapping and pace information.
Shazam
Free • 43.6 MB • v13.12 • By Shazam Entertainment Ltd.
A little slice of app magic that anyone can understand, Shazam listens to music that’s playing and can name almost any song in seconds, thereby defusing millions of arguments across the globe.
On the iPhone, Shazam starts life as a blue circle, pulsating to a song’s beat, and then becomes a combination of Wikipedia and advert. You can browse lyrics and artist info, grab the song on Apple Music, or open it in a range of streaming services.
On Apple Watch, things are stripped right back to the blue circle, and the cover art of the song that’s playing. Results are shared with your iPhone, if you want more info, and aren’t still busy marveling at your wrist-based device playing Name That Tune.
Simple Scales – Weight Tracker
$1/£1 • 22.6 MB • v1.3.4 • By Toast Studio Australia
Obsessing about weight isn’t healthy, and so we’re a bit hesitant to recommend a weight tracker. But if you do want to keep tabs on your weight and BMI, this app makes doing so easy.
On the iPhone, the app is suitably simple. You drag a quick-entry bar, and tap Save New Weight when happy with the figure. This is then displayed alongside your BMI. Stats link with HealthKit so you can view historical data.
On Apple Watch, Simple Scales has a similar elegance. Twiddle the digital crown until the correct weight is shown, tap Save Weight, watch the big green checkmark appear, and then get on with your life.
Streaks
$5/£5 • 137.4 MB • v5.2.3 • By Crunchy Bagel
Infusing good habits into your routine isn’t easy. This app aims to smooth the process by focusing on a small number of tasks, being flexible about the nature of said tasks, and tracking your progress.
On the iPhone, Streaks lets you define habits of varying kinds. You can set how often they should be completed – or the number of allowed ‘slips’ for negative habits. Notifications and Today view support ensure Streaks is always within reach.
On Apple Watch, the app becomes a progress tracker, so you can see how you’re doing – either in-app or by way of complications. Handily, you can also trigger timers, and mark items complete, right from your wrist.
Streaks Workout
$4/£4 • 284.8 MB • v4.1.7 • By Crunchy Bagel
This workout app wants to simplify the process of you getting fitter. It offers a streamlined interface, a range of exercises, and options that range from a six-minute ‘quick’ session to the aptly named 30-minute ‘extreme’.
On the iPhone, Streaks Workout is fast and refined. You choose exercises you’re happy to do, a workout length, and you then get started. If you fancy customizing things, that’s possible, too. Stats and timers are built in, and workouts are saved to Health.
On Apple Watch, you kick off a six-, 12-, 18-, or 30-minute exercise routine right from your wrist. When you’re done with each set, you tap the screen to continue – or curl up in a heap on regretting going for that half-hour option.
Things 3
$10/£10 • 91.1 MB • v3.12 • By Cultured Code GmbH & Co. KG
This full-fledged GTD (Get Things Done) tool wants you to be hugely organized. It balances simplicity and power, making it a cinch to juggle hundreds of to-dos.
On the iPhone, you get something not unlike an email client, which stashes to-dos in an inbox. These can then be refined and expanded. The Today view helps you zero in on the day’s tasks, while Upcoming lets you look ahead.
On Apple Watch, Things 3 focusses on what you’re trying to get done today, and you can check off tasks when they’re completed. Thought of something new you must deal with? Add it to your inbox by dictating it to your Apple Watch.