30 Amazing Things Smart Watches Can Do

Updated on March 3rd, 2024 by Quertime Writer in Hardware

There’s been a lot of hype around the Apple Watch, which can drown out the cool stuff other smart watches can do. Most of them sync up to a particular cell phone, just like the Apple Watch syncs only to iOS phones. But that’s to be expected. What isn’t necessarily known are all the seemingly little things that make the current lineup of smart watches worth looking into. Here’s a list of 30 amazing things smart watches can do.

(Image Source: Gizmag.com)

1. Help You Get Fit

Lots of people are looking to get physically fit these days, and smart watches make it super-easy. Many models have heart rate monitors, and there are some watches that are truly geared for fitness such as the FitBit, or the Adidas miCoach Smart Running Watch. Samsung’s Gear Fit chimes in here, too with its own truly amazing set of features, such as notifications to help you achieve goals.

2. Sync Up To Music
Many of the smart watches, with perhaps two or three exceptions, allow you to sync up to the music files on your smartphone, so whether you’re up for a little morning Mozart, middle-of-the-day electronica or late night jazz, most smart watches have you covered.

3. Be Futuristic

This is where the Samsung Gear S really shines. It’s the first smart watch to connect to the Verizon network without having to be near the phone it syncs with. It shows you the UV index, use talk-to-text, will track your sleep, and much more. It’s also got a water-resistant screen, so if you’re working out and you get water on your watch, you don’t have to worry about it getting completely ruined.

4. Help You Watch Over Your Little Ones
If you have a Samsung Galaxy S6, you’re likely aware of the ability to receive alerts if your baby cries. Well, with the Samsung Gear S, you can leave your phone in the baby’s room and then you’ll receive alerts on your Gear watch if your baby’s fussy, or just simply awake from their nap.

5. Keep You Fashionable

The Moto 360 is a great match for fashion fanatics, because it offers classic watch styles, and a choice between a leather or metal band. There’s also the traditional round bezel, in case you’d rather have a classic round watch instead of a square shape. It also has an LCD touchscreen made from Corning “Gorilla Glass.” So the watch is as tough as it is beautiful.

6. Be Super-Cutting Edge
Many brands like Samsung, Motorola and Apple are getting a lot of press. But how about a smart watch that’s launched solely on Kickstarter and has gained a considerable following already? That smart watch is call the Pebble, and the company already has its own app store, which includes partners like Yelp, FourSquare, GoPro and ESPN. What’s great about the Pebble is that while it currently connects with iPhones via the Pebble mobile app for iOS systems, Android is slated to later get the Pebble mobile app. Essentially, the Pebble App Store aims to gather up all the most recent watch apps and put them all in one place. Not likely you’ve heard of other Smart Watches doing this.

7. Act as a Remote Camera Shutter
This is another part of Pebble’s uniqueness. Aspiring action heroes with GoPros can use a Pebble app to turn their smart watches into camera shutters. Naturally, smart phone users can now have the same feature, thanks to apps such as PebbleCamera and PebbCam, for example.

8. Check Sports Scores
Smart watches have made sports scores checking a little more discreet. Fake-smiling your way through another see-and-be-seen event you don’t recall wanting to attend? Checking your sports scores has become a good deal more discreet than, say looking on your phone.

9. Send Texts From Your Watch

Lots of cell providers include an email-to-text messaging system that converts your emails to quick SMS messages. Users can use the prefab texts such as “Driving now, will text you later” or “On my way.”

10. Smart Watches Let You Be a Know-It-All
Just by saying, “Ok, Google” into a Moto 360 allows you to know lots of things really quickly, including the weather, what foods are good for the brain, and so on.

11. Control Your House
Pebble has partnered up with iControl, creator of smart home technology for ADT, Bright House and many other companies. That means it won’t be long before you’re locking or unlocking doors, or turning lights on and off using the Pebble watch.

12. Get Directions
Many smart watches have this feature, and Pebble definitely has this covered with apps such as Pebble GPS and Maptastic.

13. Track BitCoin
This seems to be a fairly exclusive thing to Pebble. In fact, it’s an emerging app trend with this smart watch, with apps that track the new currency.

14. Respond to Messages Right Away
If you sync your smart watch to receiving texts and emails, you can reply to them right away from your wrist.

15. Update Social Media Accounts
This is for those people who really cannot get away from Facebook or Twitter. On the Samsung Gear S, open up the Opera browser and just type in your preferred social media site. You don’t have to install separate apps this way, and is good if you want to instantly update your status while on the town.

16. Customization
Many watches allow you to change out the bands, but the Samsung Gear S also allows you to change the background wallpaper and the clock faces. You can’t do that with a traditional watch.

17. Allows You To Treat Your Phone Like a Router
Because many smart watches have Bluetooth, and Bluetooth has lots of range to it, you can simply leave your router charging on its AC connection most of the time, while you go around the house using your smart watch, as it will connect to the Bluetooth and use the Bluetooth for internet purposes.

18. Conduct Hands-Free Calls

This is something truly amazing. Imagine not having to have your phone with you while taking a call, but simply talking into your wrist.

19. Find the Location of Other Smart Devices
Many smart watches can do this, especially the Apple Watch and the Samsung Gear S. Truly a handy thing when phones get mislaid, or they fall and slide under furniture, or otherwise get lost.

20. Use Your Smart Watch As a Pedometer

There are quite a number of the smart watches that will do something like this, but the Samsung Gear S is truly on top of this. It monitors users accoring to various data—calories burned, heart rate, etc.

21. Check Your Calendar
Never miss an appointment again! The Sony Smart Watch, which is Android compatible, vibrates with every calendar notification.

22. Use Android Apps
This is specific to Android-based and Android-compatible smart watches, but it’s really great to have Google Play as close as your wrist.

23. Teaches You To Relax
This one is specific to the ASUS Zen watch, but this is part of its fitness features, as it is simply called a Relaxation Level tracker—perfect for those who stress out too easily.

24. Alert You When You are Out of Wireless Range
Not every watch does this, but if you like to be notified, especially if you plan on using the smart watch to send payments, there are some watches that let you know if you’re out of range of a signal.

25. Let You Shower Or Swim
Pebble is one of the few smart watches that let you do this.

26. Look At the Cycles of the Planets

This is specific to Apple Watch: there are several faces that let you see the cycles of the planets, sunrise and sunset, the phases of the moon and so on. Great for astronomy buffs!

27. Buzz You Awake
Another thing particular to the Pebble watch—just set your chosen alarm and it wakes you up by buzzing on your wrist.

28. You Can Pay With Your Wrist
This is a strong feature on the Apple Watch, thanks to Apple Pay.

29. Show You Routes to Buses or Ferries
Again, this is Apple Watch’s province, thanks to Citymapper, an app that helps you find ways to get home via public transit.

30. Keep Track Of To-Do Lists
Right now, this seems to be the LG Urbane‘s specialty, since its an Android watch with access to Google Play’s numerous app lists.

These are just some of the wild, wonderful things that smart watches have to offer. From Apple to Android, there’s likely to be a smart watch for any budget, any taste and any lifestyle. You can purchase smart watches from different online stores like Nordstrom, Amazon, Backcountry, Best Buy, Tiger Direct etc.