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5 Underrated Apple Watch Apps You Need to Try

Get more out of the world’s most popular smartwatch.

Apple Watch apps to tryPhoto by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

By Tucker Bowe

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Be honest, you likely use the same few apps on your Apple Watch over and over again. For workouts, it’s likely Strava or Apple’s own Workout app. For music, it’s Apple Music or Spotify. They’re great, of course, but there’s so much more out there.

Your Apple Watch comes with 44 pre-downloaded apps, but tens of thousands of third-party apps are available for download from the App Store. And they can unlock new features, abilities and games out of your Apple Watch.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite lesser-known Apple Watch apps for you to try.

A Fun App for Quick Reminders

2Doodle is a simple yet surprisingly useful doodling app that allows you to make quick sketches or take notes on your Apple Watch. Those “drawings” then appear on your watch face and function as little reminders.

Admittedly, the app doesn’t work on all watch faces — you need one that support complications — and using your finger to draw on the watch’s little display is, well, sloppy. But the ability to take a quick note to remind yourself of something later definitely comes in handy.

A Helpful Transportation App

Whether you live in a big city or are visiting a new one, Citymapper is a godsend for navigating all forms of the city’s public transportation — everything from trains to buses, ferries to city bikes.

The app shows you real-time information about ETAs, wait times, and schedules. It helps you plan trips and commutes, showing you costs and durations. And can provide turn-by-turn directions to get to whatever bus stop or train station you need to get to.

While the app works excellently on your iPhone, it works equally well on your Apple Watch.

An Addicting Word Puzzle Game

There are a lot of game apps you can download for the Apple Watch, but most of them don’t lend themselves to the watch’s small display as well as Snappy Word. It’s a quick-fire word puzzle game that has you unscramble as many four-letter words as possible in 30 seconds.

It’s super fun and surprisingly difficult. And definitely a great time killer on commutes.

Your New Favorite Golf App

There are plenty of golfing apps for the Apple Watch, and Golfshot is quite similar to the rest of them in many ways. It shows you course information and real-time distances, for example, and keeps track of your score.

The difference, however, is that Golfshot is way more sophisticated and feature-packed. It uses Apple Watch’s sensors and advanced AI to learn your swing and overall game so that it can give you advice and suggestions, such as what club to hit or a swing analysis of why your previous shot maybe wasn’t so great.

Its auto-shot detection is also pretty neat, as it can track your score without you having to manually input anything.

A More Lenient Workout App

As its name implies, Gentler Streak is a fitness app that takes a more sympathetic and lenient approach to activity tracking. Rather than pestering you about completing your rings, the app gives you “gentle” nudges and words of encouragement so that you can be within the ballpark of completing your activity goals.

The app can tell if you’re tired or well rested — it can use your sleep data, too, if you wear your Apple Watch to bed — which influences the intensity of the workout it recommends. It can even recommend for you to take the day off, if you’re too tired or exhausted. There’s also a “Go Gentler” option for the days you need a less intensive exercise day.

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