Apple watch notifications while swimming

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Apple watch notifications while swimming

I am thinking about buying an Apple Watch because I am often “on call” through my work which means I need to be contactable 24/7 including while swimming. I am therefore currently not swimming while on call, which I really miss. Is it possible to be alerted to incoming phone calls while swimming with an apple watch? Once alerted, it would be no problem for me to return to the edge of the pool and answer the call either on the watch or on my iphone. Can you advise about the best version of apple watch to buy for this purpose?

Posted on Dec 18, 2020 8:04 PM

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Answer 1

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Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2020 12:13 PM in response to Questionalis

Hello Questionalis,

We see you have a question pertaining to receiving notifications while swimming with the Apple Watch. We can understand the need to continue to get those, and we'd be happy to assist.

You should indeed continue to receive notifications to the Apple Watch while swimming with it. Starting a swim workout with the Apple Watch will lock the display to prevent accidental taps from water droplets. However, the notifications should still come up. Turning the Digital Crown at this time will unlock the display and you may interact with the notification, if needed.

Details on swimming with the Apple Watch can be found here: Swim with your Apple Watch

Take care!

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Answer 2

karina184

Community Specialist

Dec 29, 2020 2:43 PM in response to Questionalis

Questionalis,

Thanks for all of that helpful info, and congratulations on the new Apple Watch! It does sound as though your suspicion may be correct. If the Apple Watch is both outside of the Bluetooth range, and not connected to a cellular connection at the time of the notification/call coming in, it may not show up as a result.

You've tried some good steps with restarting the Apple Watch, and updating iOS/watchOS. Did you also happen to have a chance to restart the paired iPhone as well? Just to test things out, try keeping the iPhone nearby, or ensure the Apple Watch is connected to cellular. Then, start the pool workout on the Apple Watch, but you won't need to actually do the workout at that time, as part of the test.

Have someone call/email/text you, and see if you receive the notification. That should help get things isolated down further.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Questionalis Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 28, 2020 6:00 PM in response to Questionalis

Dear Joseph,

I did buy an apple watch GPS+cellular. I am able to receive calls when I go on a walk and leave my iphone at home, but not when I lap swim in a 50 meter pool.

I have left my iPhone in my swim bag at the end of the pool

I have ensured that I could call my husband on my watch

I have put the watch in swim mode for a pool swim workout

I have asked my husband to call me every 5 minutes.

I have not felt my watch buzz or heard it make noise. No notification is flashed on the watch face. But if I check for phone calls at the edge of the pool, the missed call is in the register.

I think the problem may be that I am going in and out of my iphone bluetooth range, and may become disconnected from both the iphone bluetooth and the watch cellular so have had no reception when the calls come in. I have noted on land that there is a 10-or-so second delay before my watch switches over to cellular. Once it didn't switch at all but I got it to work by turning the watch on and off. I am wondering if my watch is experiencing delays while going into and out of bluetooth range.

I have tried soft reboots of the watch, and have updated the OS on both m6 phone and watch.

I have tried turning off my iphone bluetooth, and then could make calls from my watch but not be aware of them when they came in (the missed calls have gone to the recents register). I have tried powering down my iphone but then I have not received any calls on either device and my husband said there was no response at all when he called.

Any ideas? I am confident there is a solution. I am reluctant to leave the phone at home or in the car because I need the iphone to return calls, which can be of a complex nature and require access to apps on the iphone. It is hard to find a safe place to leave the phone at the pool that is outside of bluetooth range throughout my swim.

I would be happy if I could at least receive notifications of calls - I can check for these at the end of each lap.

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Apple watch notifications while swimming

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