This is why I am baffled by Apple watch users. My phone is distracting enough that I make a point of having it turned off and in my backpack when trying to work. I can't imagine having something on my wrist that vibrates whenever an app is trying to get my attention.

I'll join the chorus and say that I've basically disabled all notifications for my Apple Watch.

My Apple Watch:

  * is a heart rate monitor
  * a blood oxygen monitor
  * an exercise tracker
  * a music control device when exercising
  * a volume control device for my airpods
  * an enabler of checking phone calls easily without taking   phone out of pocket
  * a *very* rudimentary sleep tracker.

I use my Apple Watch almost exclusively for its health tracking benefits, and also because it's convenient as a remote sometimes.

It was also really nice in the recent Puget Sound power outages as a flashlight.

edit: formatting

I'm interested in the Apple Watch but I'm very wary of the distracting properties.

Are there good features to help lower the distraction level? Do you find it useful (and worth the price) for the passive health tracking stuff?

> Are there good features to help lower the distraction level?

Disable all notifications on it and it quickly evolves into a regular watch on your wrist.

> Do you find it useful (and worth the price) for the passive health tracking stuff?

It's a nice companion to an Apple device in the Apple ecosystem; and, if you're someone that's not into Fitbit for whatever reason, I've found it fine.

I also own the least expensive Apple Watch 6, as I was using it as a test device to see if I'd be interested in staying in the ecosystem. I don't see a reason to leave it.

I've also bought one for my mother - who immediately disabled all notifications, too, for herself; and, she quite likes it so far. I asked her to turn on fall notification and we're friends on Apple Fitness Sharing or whatever it's called.

I think it's fine and it serves my needs. I would need to look at the market again for another device that has over a day of battery life (always-on screen off, no notifications), an O2 sensor, heartrate sensor, doesn't fight with my PiHole or VPN (Fitbit did not like me being on a VPN) and other features if I'm in the mood for them.

I use Apple Pay all the time, so it's nice there, as well.

I mean, I'm happy?

The AW has a control center which can be accessed via a swipe up. From there you can tap the bed icon and you will not receive notifications anymore. You can also dig deeper in to the phone app and stop each app from showing notifications on the watch.

Personally I leave on all notifications that would show on my phone because I find looking at my watch less distracting than taking out my phone.

If you purely want health features, there are many cheaper options but I'd be cautious about the accuracy of the sub $100 watches. You might find like me that the watch is useful for a load of things you didn't think of. Using apple pay on my watch is slightly nicer than on the phone, setting timers is slightly quicker, checking the weather is slightly quicker, etc.

I find myself using the watch a lot for these tasks because its simply faster and lets me get back to what I was doing quicker.

I can't speak for Apple users but my watch actually has the opposite effect. The only notifications I let it show are one's that are determined to be important to look at. Everything else remains on the phone and on mute until it is time to deal with them

I disabled almost all notifications, and now I like it because it means that if I just got a text message (basically the only notification I allow), it shows me who sent it and not the message itself (where otherwise I’d have to pull out my phone to see who texted and in the process I’d see the message).

That makes it easier for me to notice the occasional semi-urgent family ping while otherwise ignoring notifications.

Admittedly, it took some tuning to get notifications on the watch to NOT be a distraction. I suspect that, for most people, having all notifications off by default would be better. But I also have a feeling that many people don’t ever figure out how to adjust the notifications, so if the watch shipped with “mute” as the default many people would never even realize it was capable of receiving notifications in the first place.

Most watch users including myself disable those notifications fairly soon after the initial use.

Right now I use my watch for alarms (for sleep), pager duty alerts and fitness/sleep/health related stuff.

Do Pager Duty alerts actually work now? Last I tried they ... didn't seem the greatest, but I wasn't on call at the time, so maybe that's the real difference.

I find it to be the reverse. A tap on my wrist is actually less distracting because I don't have to grab and unlock my phone to see what it is. Its just a quick flick of my eyes down to see if its important. The watch also uses different taps for different kinds of messages so sometimes I know without even looking if I should bother.

Previously I would have pulled my phone out of my pocket to look every time it vibrated. Its also a super quick swipe and tap to turn on do not disturb mode on the watch so you get no notifications or calls (there is an exemption list too I think)

Man, Apple Watch was the worst. It would intrude into life to remind me to breathe. But, the real issue with a watch is that it’s still a two handed device, except one hand is literally cuffed away from being useful. Combine that with the infrequency that it would actually work as a watch, by turning the screen on. I want back to a Cassio calculator watch and never look back.

Right under the breathe notification is a button to turn off the notification. Also the second issue is fixed by the always on display.

They have always-on screens now.

This is the main reason I left my Apple Watch at home, it was such a distraction. I even had multiple people comment on why I was constantly looking at my watch. The thing was vibrating constantly, and it's impossible not to look at it straight away.

Why don't you just untick notifications on the app?

I had the non-LTE 3rd generation, and actually found it rather pointless in general. It was far easier to just use my phone. The only thing that was useful was the heart-rate monitor, but I could easily live without it.

Perhaps the latest gen with LTE and all the other health functions would make it useful, but I'm very hesitant to give it another try.

People you know have sound turned on on their phone at work? This seems like the first problem. No polite person enables notification sounds from their phone.

This is a slightly more complex social dynamic, and a very interesting one. In my experience, it's only the alpha dog that can have their notification sounds enabled in a group setting - i.e. the person who can get away with both not giving a crap about it being annoying to others, and with pressuring others to silence their notifications.

We’ve added features the phones that help us out. We put the phone in “do not disturb” (or airplane mode). What “these whippersnappers” need to hear is that it’s totally ok to use these settings. That nobody needs to contact them right now, getting back to someone within 24 hours is acceptable. Even if you’re used to hearing from your close friends seconds after you text them: work needs to slow down and get more focused.

This also happens with work-related messengers and calls.

After transitioning to remote work during lockdown, chat&calls suddenly become mandatory to look at ASAP. Now I sometimes get multiple urgend messages while beeing on a surprising call. In the office, these people would see that I'm busy and wait. Now I have to line them up and prioritize them myself..

It took me a while to figure out that a few hours of this process could ruin a full day of productivity + requires much more mental work to regenerate after.

I do have ADHD though - so this is one of my biggest issues even under normal circumstances.

> That damn pop ding Messenger notification sound is like a dog whistle for many people; instantly dropping what they're doing and picking up their phones to follow this sound.

This probably results in some kind of ripple effect much like traffic in-efficiencies. If pre-corona traffic in some of the major metropolitan cities is any indicator, we're nearing a point where progress for most will be significantly slowed whilst those who fly above the top, avoiding messenger based distractions entirely, will suddenly have infinite time and blue seas abound.

In my opinion, it's time to disable notifications when in a context that isn't messaging, and use an emergency-style app to bypass disabled notifications so one won't miss anything time-sensitive in 2021.

I slowly teaching my colleagues (and learning myself) to use no-sound messages in telegram. If something does not require headsup/asap level of attention, I better send it with no sound, as if it was email in old days.

Still it is not convenient to hold onto a send button to do that. I wish messengers operated noiseless by default and had a special “ding” button to request attention. It could even be used alone, just to remind your peer that they are blocking the important process and it would be nice to see an update on ETA.