If you opened an Apple Watch for the first time this Christmas, you might be wondering where to start. While the best Apple Watch models let you do a whole host of things, from tracking workouts and making payments to turn-by-turn navigation and voice calling, having even a few great apps can turn your Apple Watch into a DIY make your own device. all portable companions that you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them.
Like the iPhone, the Apple Watch relies on an ecosystem of third-party apps to extend the user experience, and downloading a few apps can really make a difference.
I’ve been using and writing about the Apple Watch for almost a decade, basically since it first debuted. With that in mind, I’ve created five of my top picks of apps you should download straight away to your Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch has a wealth of built-in fitness tracking and health features. But what if you could track and track personalized workouts right from your wrist, even when you don’t have your iPhone handy? SmartGym is a standalone watch app that uses AI to create personalized workouts for you, even suggesting changes as you go. It supports gym workouts, home workouts and even high-intensity interval training. There’s a reason it appears in Apple’s own Watch ads. This app is free to download and has a small monthly subscription for more workouts.
I used Runna to kick-start my return to running in 2024 and was very impressed. Runna is an easy-to-use running coach with a great standalone watch app. Without your iPhone, you can get customized running workouts right on your wrist, including voice prompts that give you pace, intervals, and time updates through your headphones. A quick glance at the wrist shows live pace updates, timings and more. If you want to use your Apple Watch to get started in 2025, definitely give Runna a bash.
While you can use Apple Maps and even turn-by-turn navigation on your Apple Watch, Citymapper takes navigation on your wrist to the next level. This app can help you find the best way to get around more than 400 cities by bus, train, walking, tram, metro, or a combination of modes. It provides turn-by-turn directions and instructions, with features to save destinations such as home or work. It even gives you the frequency of buses and trains and alerts you when your stop is approaching.
The award-winning CARROT Weather app brings personality to weather forecasts. It has five personalities, including a ‘profanity-laden’ one exaggerated setting, which comes with a weather robot that literally scolds you while telling you the weather. It collects weather data from a variety of sources, including Apple Weather, AccuWeather, and Tomorrow.io, and includes alerts for rain, lighting, and more. You can customize the interface and there’s even an Apple Watch complication. It’s a big step up from the standard Apple Weather app.
Cheat sheet is a cheatcode when it comes to the Apple Watch and perhaps one of my favorite life hacks of all time. Cheatsheet is a small widget app that lets you save important information to your Apple Watch so you can access it easily. Maybe you need the WiFi password that’s useful for visitors, or the combination of a locked door, or the coordinates of your safe house… OK, maybe not, but you get the idea. Cheatsheet is an easy way to save important information you might otherwise forget, visible as a list or in a complication on your Apple Watch face, packed with over 200 custom icons for visual cues.
Give your Apple Watch a kickstart
So there you have it: five top apps to give your Apple Watch an instant, much-needed boost. Even if just one of these apps becomes a mainstay on your wrist, you’ll appreciate the benefits they offer. Be sure to visit Apple’s App Store to discover further useful apps for Apple Watch. You might even discover that apps you already use have special Apple Watch versions that you didn’t even know existed!