If you opened an Apple Watch for the first time this Christmas, you might be wondering where to start. While you can do a variety of things on all of the best Apple Watch models, from tracking workouts and making payments to turn-by-turn navigation and voice calling, having even a few great apps can make your Apple Watch a do-it-yourselfer. A complete portable companion that you will wonder how you ever lived without.
Like the iPhone, the Apple Watch relies on an ecosystem of third-party apps to expand its user experience, and downloading a few from the start can really make a difference.
I’ve been using and writing about the Apple Watch for almost 10 years, actually since it debuted. With that in mind, I’ve selected five of my top picks for apps you should download right away on your Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch has a host of built-in health and fitness tracking features. But what if you could track and follow personalized workouts right from your wrist, even if you don’t have your iPhone nearby? SmartGym is a standalone watch app that uses AI to create personalized workouts for you, and even suggests changes as you progress. Supports gym workouts, home workouts, and even high-intensity interval training. There’s a reason it’s featured in Apple Watch ads. This app is free to download and has a small monthly subscription for more workouts.
I used Runna to kick off my return to running in 2024 and was really impressed. Runna is an easy-to-use running trainer with a great standalone watch app. Without your iPhone, you can get personalized running workouts on your wrist, including spoken instructions that give you pace, interval, and time updates through your headphones. A quick glance at your wrist will show live pace updates, times and more. If you want to get your Apple Watch going in 2025, definitely give Runna a chance.
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 over 400 cities by bus, train, walking, tram, subway, or any combination of transportation modes. It offers turn-by-turn directions and instructions, with functions to save destinations such as Home or Work. It will even give you the frequency of buses and trains, and notify you when your stop is approaching.
The award-winning CARROT Weather app brings personality to the weather forecast. He has five personalities, including one “laden with profanity.” exaggerate setting up, delivering a weather robot that will literally insult you while telling you the weather. It collects weather data from multiple sources, including Apple Weather, AccuWeather, and Tommorow.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 basic Apple Weather app.
The reference sheet is a cheat code when it comes to the Apple Watch and it might be one of my favorite hacks of all time. Cheatsheet is a small widget app that allows you to store important information on your Apple Watch for easy access. Maybe you need the Wi-Fi password on hand for visitors, or the combination for a locked door, or the coordinates of your safe house… Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. Cheatsheet is an easy way to store important information you’d otherwise forget, visible as a list or in a complication on your Apple Watch face, packed with over 200 custom icons for visual cues.
Get your Apple Watch going
There you have it, five top apps to give your Apple Watch a much-needed boost right out of the box. Even if just one of these apps ends up being a mainstay on your wrist, you’ll definitely appreciate the benefits they offer. Be sure to visit the Apple App Store to continue discovering useful apps for Apple Watch. You might even find that the apps you’re already using have dedicated Apple Watch versions that you didn’t even know existed!
