One of the Apple Watch’s most underrated features is the ability to swipe down from the top of the wearable and ping the iPhone you have the smartwatch connected to (with watchOS 10, the Control Panel is accessed with the Side Button).
However, until iOS 17, it hasn’t been possible to ping your Apple Watch from your iPhone, which seems like an uncharacteristic oversight on Apple’s part.
To use this new feature, all you need to do is ensure you have iOS 17’s latest developer or public beta installed. Next, navigate to ‘Settings’ > ‘Control Center’ on your iPhone and scroll to the bottom. You’ll then see a ‘+’ button next to ‘Find My Watch.’ Tap this to add it to your iPhone’s Control Center.
Next, swipe down from the top of your iPhone to access the Control Panel, and you’ll see the Find My Apple Watch button at the bottom of the page. Tap it, and your Apple Watch will ping its location with a noise, just like your iPhone would when locating it with your Apple Watch.
The feature even works when your Apple Watch is in silent mode or locked. It’s worth noting ‘Find My Watch’ works even if you aren’t running the watchOS 10 beta and are still on watchOS 9. That said, iOS 17 is required.
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