13 of the best apps to take advantage of complications in the areas of the Apple Watch

It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that the value of an app in the Apple Watch is not defined by the app itself but by its complication in the clock faces. We generally use the Apple Watch to quickly view information in it and to collect information in the background (steps, heart rate…). It is therefore particularly useful that an app has a convenient complication so that just a glance when lifting the wrist is useful.

Every now and then I like to take a look at the App Store for watchOS and try out the new apps that come out, focusing especially on their complications. Which ones are the best? It depends on what each one needs. For some people it’s more than enough with the ones Apple offers by default, for others who want more, there are a lot of options in the App Store .

13 of the best apps to take advantage of complications in the areas of the Apple Watch

On Apple32 applications to get the most out of the Apple Watch

After trying a series of apps and their respective complications, I have compiled a total of 13 that are of the most interesting. The value of a complication is that it is not a simple button that serves as a shortcut to the app, but shows relevant information for the user. Here are thirteen examples:

All the Rings: An app that we have extensively analyzed at Apple. As we saw at the time, the grace of this app in the Apple Watch is that it highlights not only the progress in closing the three rings, but also lets you know if in the current hour you have completed the minute standing. It works very well in almost all complications and is very customizable, my favorite is in XL.

The complication of All the Rings in XL throughout the day.

Better Day: An app designed just for the Apple Watch and its complications, the most customizable when it comes to displaying dates on the Apple clock. There are so many options and possibilities that it’s more worth trying it for yourself than listing them.

Better Day for Apple Watch.

Cardiogram: This app is great not only to analyze the heart rate on the Apple Watch, but also to see in its complication what our current or last heart rate is. An option that Apple’s default app doesn’t offer. I personally like it in the circles of the modular sphere, as its progress bar also indicates how high or low our heart rate is.

Carrot: A lot of options to customize the app’s complications and a lot of information available to display. Carrot is not only the most aggressive app when it comes to providing weather information, but it is also the most complete. We have analyzed it in detail at Apple.

Citymaper: Detailed information on routes and public transport in large cities. The different complications of Citymapper are especially interesting because they show real time information about the route we are taking.
Fantastical: My favorite app to manage calendars in iOS, macOS and watchOS. Fantastical has very good complications for the Apple Watch as we can customize them and see for example by color what the current or upcoming event is on the calendar.

Focus: If you want to concentrate and be more productive, one of the most effective techniques is the pomodoro. Focus is a tool that focuses precisely on this and we have previously analyzed it at Apple. Its complication for the Apple Watch shows the remaining time of the current Focus session.

Just Press Record: This complication does not comply with the rule of “showing relevant information”, but is only a direct access to the app. But it is a much more useful access than the others, because as soon as you click on the button the app opens and starts recording. This is essential in a voice recording app when you want to record something quickly and not miss it.

Pillow: My favourite app for sleep monitoring thanks to its simple and effective interface. Its complication for the Apple Watch shows us the quality of sleep of the last sleep session.

Streaks: This app is the best for tracking habits thanks to its integration with Apple Health. The app for the Apple Watch is very complete and also allows to customize the complications to show for example the next habit to be completed, a list of all or small points indicating the status of each of the habits.

Things: What’s left to say about a task manager that doesn’t need to be beaten. His app for the Apple Watch is one of the most polished and its complication shows us a circle that fills in as we complete the pending tasks of the current day.

WaterMinder:WaterMinder is a very simple app: we define the goal of water to drink per day and then we complete it. In the complication of the Apple Watch we can see how we manage the daily target.

Zero: If you practice intermittent fasting this app is very useful in iOS, our colleagues in Vitonica recently analyzed it. Their complication shows a small circle that will be completely closed when the current fasting session is completed.

One last trick is to use a few different spheres . For me the most versatile of all is Modular Infogram, I have several of them depending on the time of day I am or the activities I am doing. A sphere for work with productivity complications like Things and Focus, another sphere for sport with complications like All The Rings and Cardiogram, an app for the night with Pillow and Streaks…

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