How to sync photos to your Apple Watch

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Apple Watch edited July 2015
Despite it's small screen, the Apple Watch OLED display is bright and images look great on the high resolution screen, making it a perfect canvas for your photos.




Users are limited to syncing one album from their iPhone to the Apple Watch at a time. To manage which album is synced, open the Apple Watch app on iPhone and tap the Photos section.




From this screen, users can choose whether to Mirror their iPhone iCloud Photos notifications or create a custom alert scheme. Tap the Photos Limit option at the bottom.




Similar to syncing music on the Apple Watch, users can choose how many photos (and how much memory that takes) to save on the device. Make a selection and tap the back arrow in the top left corner.




Tap on Synced Album to choose which iPhone photo album to save on Apple Watch. Users can also choose Favorites so any new photo that's favorited will automatically be sent to Apple Watch.




Once an album is selected, navigate to the Photos app on Apple Watch.




A fairly basic app, Photos on the Watch can zoom in and out on images using the Digital Crown. Pinch to zoom will not work in the Photos app, but users can scroll and pan by touching the images.


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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    Quote:


     Similar to syncing music on the Apple Watch, users can choose how many photos (and how much memory that takes) to save on the device.


     

    Up to 75MB with down sampled resolution. Curious if sending a photo via text sends the full resolution photo stored on the iPhone, or theresized smaller photo from the watch.

     

    It is interesting to hear that considering the size of the watch display that the Apple team felt this way about photos on the watch:

     

    Quote:


     Alan Dye later described to me the “pivotal moment” when he and Ive decided “to avoid the edge of the screen as much as possible.” This was part of an overarching ambition to blur boundaries between software and hardware. (It’s no coincidence, Dye noted, that the “rounded squareness” of the watch’s custom typeface mirrors the watch’s body.) The studio stopped short of banishing screen edges altogether, Dye said, “when we discovered we loved looking at photos on the watch, and you can’t not show the edge of a photo.” He laughed. “Don’t get me wrong, we tried! I could list a number of terrible ideas.” They attempted to blur edges, and squeeze images into circles. There was “a lot of vignetting”—the darkening of a photograph’s corners. “In the end, it was maybe putting ourselves first,” he said.


  • Reply 2 of 31
    attygfeldmanattygfeldman Posts: 7member

    It's great that you all are posting these "how-to's" and such, by maybe wait till the 99.8% of us who've ordered the watch actually get it?!I mean, how many have actually been sent out? 300k? 

  • Reply 3 of 31
    ronnietronniet Posts: 9member
    Looking at photos on a watch. Seriously?
  • Reply 4 of 31
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    Photos seem like a complete waste of time on the ?Watch.  Can't imagine ever using that.

  • Reply 5 of 31
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,904moderator
    crowley wrote: »
    Photos seem like a complete waste of time on the ?Watch.  Can't imagine ever using that.

    You mean, until you can use them as Watch backgrounds. Or reference them for inclusion in a Text message. Or...
  • Reply 6 of 31
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    crowley wrote: »
    Photos seem like a complete waste of time on the ?Watch.  Can't imagine ever using that.

    And this is where the FaceTime camera comes into play -- taking a photo when your phone is not around. Later it transfers to the phone. Now that we know the watch is more reasonably water resistant than previously thought, this would be great at the pool or the beach where you don't have to worry about getting your phone wet.
  • Reply 7 of 31
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,904moderator
    mac_128 wrote: »
    And this is where the FaceTime camera comes into play -- taking a photo when your phone is not around. Later it transfers to the phone. Now that we know the watch is more reasonably water resistant than previously thought, this would be great at the pool or the beach where you don't have to worry about getting your phone wet.

    Um, which FaceTime camera?
  • Reply 8 of 31
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,904moderator
    attygfeldman wrote: »
    It's great that you all are posting these "how-to's" and such, by maybe wait till the 99.8% of us who've ordered the watch actually get it?!I mean, how many have actually been sent out? 300k? 

    Bookmarks, sir. Bookmarks.
  • Reply 9 of 31
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,008member
    attygfeldman wrote: »
    It's great that you all are posting these "how-to's" and such, by maybe wait till the 99.8% of us who've ordered the watch actually get it?!I mean, how many have actually been sent out? 300k? 
    I can't complain because I waited till later in the day to order. I didn't think it would bump me back 2 months, but...
    I am curious, though. There were the people who got their phones at launch and then people whose orders were jumped up to delivery the first week or two after an initial longer estimate.
    But I haven't heard much about deliveries since then. Are they still rolling out? Or are they on a delivery pause while stock-piling Watches for the next countries to see a roll out?
    I'm sitting at 4-6 weeks (May 29-June 8) which is an upgrade from the earlier estimate of June.
    I check three times a day, but I'm still processing...
  • Reply 10 of 31
    right_said_fredright_said_fred Posts: 805member
    bageljoey wrote: »
    I can't complain because I waited till later in the day to order. I didn't think it would bump me back 2 months, but...
    I am curious, though. There were the people who got their phones at launch and then people whose orders were jumped up to delivery the first week or two after an initial longer estimate.
    But I haven't heard much about deliveries since then. Are they still rolling out? Or are they on a delivery pause while stock-piling Watches for the next countries to see a roll out?
    I'm sitting at 4-6 weeks (May 29-June 8) which is an upgrade from the earlier estimate of June.
    I check three times a day, but I'm still processing...

    If it's any help I ordere my. Apple Watch 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Sport Band Several hours after launch on same day. Just today it finall went to preparing for shipment and just now shipped!!!!
    So hang in there,,,
  • Reply 11 of 31
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,008member
    right_said_fred wrote: »
    If it's any help I ordere my. Apple Watch 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Sport Band Several hours after launch on same day. Just today it finall went to preparing for shipment and just now shipped!!!!
    So hang in there,,,
    Great news! Congratulations!!
    I actually ordered that same config earlier on launch day, but I put in the 42 Space grey Sport later. I sat on both for a week or two before cheapskating myself...
    I might be expecting delivery right now too...
  • Reply 12 of 31
    cy_starkmancy_starkman Posts: 653member
    radarthekat wrote: »
    You mean, until you can use them as Watch backgrounds. Or reference them for inclusion in a Text message. Or...

    I think the first is subjective so best to leave it alone. as for a text message, so if I take a photo (on my phone), the next thing I want to do instead of texting said photo is to sync that photo to my watch then stuff about on the watch..

    what a waste of time.

    if I had a folder of um, okay let me think about a real usage case here... business forms, nah should be in PDF. house photos as an agent or something I am trying to sell.. wouldn't the interested party already have seen the photos on the website that referred them to me. my dog/child/partner/moment - taken on phone and then not sent to people I wanted to share with for some reason and then a month later bam! I'm like, old dad would love to see that photo of his granddaughter I took yesterday and is now synced to my watch...

    my latest selfie to the tinder/whatever friend.. taken on my phone now because I want to send it to them now..

    my special best looking shots, already uploaded to profile..

    okay, to send random pictures of my dick looking its best to "likes" on hook up services while sitting at dinner.

    usage case found!
  • Reply 13 of 31
    longtermlongterm Posts: 86member
    Please look into proper grammar:

    "Despite it's small screen"

    should be

    "Despite its small screen"

    What has happened to the English language? It's hard to take an article seriously when its first sentence contains a grammatical error (notice how I used both "it's" and "its" in the same sentence).
  • Reply 14 of 31
    longtermlongterm Posts: 86member

    Seriously? I suppose we need to wait until we know for certain that everyone who wants an Apple Watch actually *has* an Apple Watch.

     

    And how would we do that?

     

    So let me get this straight: no articles about the new iPhone until *you* get yours... 

     

    Sorry, if it bugs you so much, place your order at the stroke of midnight PDT like many of us did.

  • Reply 15 of 31
    luinilluinil Posts: 59member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Right_said_fred View Post





    If it's any help I ordere my. Apple Watch 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Sport Band Several hours after launch on same day. Just today it finall went to preparing for shipment and just now shipped!!!!

    So hang in there,,,

     

    I ordered my 42mm SS with link bracelet 35 minutes after (preorder) launch and still no movement. The dates Apple gave me for the shipment date where 4-6 weeks so we're in it. I hope I'll see some movement soon...

  • Reply 16 of 31
    starbotstarbot Posts: 7member
    Don't worry, man, AppleInsider won't doom the English language.

    Also, congratulations on using "it's" and "its" in the same sentence! Wow!
    longterm wrote: »
    Please look into proper grammar:

    "Despite it's small screen"

    should be

    "Despite its small screen"

    What has happened to the English language? It's hard to take an article seriously when its first sentence contains a grammatical error (notice how I used both "it's" and "its" in the same sentence).
  • Reply 17 of 31
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by attygfeldman View Post

     

    It's great that you all are posting these "how-to's" and such, by maybe wait till the 99.8% of us who've ordered the watch actually get it?!I mean, how many have actually been sent out? 300k? 




    Did you make an account to say that? I expect MUCH more than 300k have been sent out. If nothing else, I have mine ;)

  • Reply 18 of 31
    longtermlongterm Posts: 86member



    :)

  • Reply 19 of 31
    longtermlongterm Posts: 86member



    Nah, I've had an account for a long time, but don't post too often. 

     

    For what it's worth, I didn't see any action on my watch delivery until about 1pm on the 23rd, and it arrived on the 24th. It's likely that you won't see any change in your order status until just the day before, and quite possibly in the afternoon of the day before.

  • Reply 20 of 31
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member

    I like the simplicity of every Photo I favorite ends up on the Watch. I'm not going to sit there and look at Photos on my watch (and Apple knows this)...but eventually there will be ways to create Watch screen savers or backgrounds, and reference them in Mail and Messages.

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