Missing iPhone texts and notifications are frustrating: These fixes could help

Missing iPhone texts and notifications are frustrating: These fixes could help

Apple's iOS 15 made a number of changes to how notifications work, allowing iPhone users to prioritize important alerts and make less important notifications less intrusive. They're certainly less intrusive: Over the past few months I've been wrestling with my iPhone's settings to even see when my friends message me on WhatsApp, Signal, Instagram and other apps. In one extreme case, a friend texted me on Signal on a Friday, and I didn't even notice their text until Monday when I opened up the app -- thankfully it was nothing pressing, but I was embarrassed.

I'm not alone in this frustration. Multiple threads on Reddit are focused on trying to bring notifications back, whether due to changes in how notifications behave when Do Not Disturb is on, how notifications won't appear unless you proactively enter an app and people having such a difficult time with iOS 15's Focus feature that they're finding it easier to use apps with similar notification controls. 

Third-party app developers might not be able to control these systems either. WhatsApp has an FAQ page that specifically references the way Apple controls push notifications on the iPhone. While the issue appears to originate from WhatsApp, there's little the company can recommend apart from restoring the phone to factory settings and starting over. 

These issues have the potential to come to a head during the busy holiday season, since family and friends will use whatever device and messaging service is most convenient to get in touch. Notifications are the way we keep up with chats, whether your friends and family prefer iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or any other number of texting and video chat apps.

So let's go over some of the biggest obstacles that currently affect notifications and applicable solutions where possible.

iOS 15's Focus may need some tweaks

iOS 15's Focus mode is meant to be an evolution of Do Not Disturb. In addition to allowing users to select Do Not Disturb, which lets you silence notifications until it is turned off, it allows you to create situational profiles that are more custom tailored to your needs. For instance, I recently created a "Movies" focus that when enabled turns off notifications from all apps, phone calls and texts except for the RunPee app, which is a timer that sends a notification at the best times to leave a movie theater to take a restroom break. 

Focus, while well-intentioned, does however lead to an easy way to accidentally leave your phone in a state of not receiving notifications. Focus can also be enabled to be run across your various Apple devices, making it either convenient for silencing notifications for your needs or a liability if you only wanted to silence your phone but leave your iPad and Mac computers alone.

Accessing Focus for turning it on and off is fairly easy: You open Control Center by either scrolling down from the top-right corner of an iPhone with Face ID's display or scrolling up from the bottom of an iPhone with a home button's display. This should serve as a decent first start for figuring out whether Focus is the issue at fault. 

If it appears like the issues are the Focus settings themselves, you'll need to drill down by going to the iPhone's Settings app, scrolling down to Focus and entering the menu for the specific Focus you need to adjust. For instance, I noticed my Sleep focus that begins to activate around 10:50 p.m. was causing me to miss texts and video calls from friends that I do enjoy talking to before bed -- but I didn't want to leave my phone open for anyone to ring that late at night. I adjusted the Sleep focus to allow calls from specific people that I am OK with reaching me after that time. It's not elegant as now that smaller list could potentially decide to wake me up to calls at 3 a.m., but for now it's the best system for me. 

The way your notifications are delivered might also have been changed depending on your Focus settings. Instead of receiving notifications individually, your Focus may be collecting them together into a Summary. Tweaks to how that summary works can be found separately by going to Settings, Notifications and tapping Scheduled Summary to make tweaks or to turn the feature off. 

Notifications that are hidden might be collected for a summary, depending on your settings.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Do Not Disturb's changes may disturb how you use your phone

Do Not Disturb is now part of Focus, but it has a key tweak that appears to be messing with the way some people have previously used their phone. Before iOS 15, when turning on Do Not Disturb an iPhone wouldn't buzz or immediately display notifications while the phone was locked and the display was off. However, notifications would display if you were actively using the phone while it's in Do Not Disturb mode.

The fix isn't quite clean as of yet. Like with the previous example I gave of adjusting the settings of an individual Focus, you can adjust how the Do Not Disturb Focus behaves. In addition to selecting people you can ring your phone, you can pick specific apps that are allowed to notify you when you have Do Not Disturb on. However, then the apps you choose will notify your phone at all times when Do Not Disturb is enabled, whether your phone display is on or off.

If this bothers you, you aren't alone. A fairly active Reddit thread on r/iOS has been communicating on exactly that issue and sharing tips for workarounds until something official is hopefully baked in at a later date.

A strange solution for getting notifications back

During my own wrangling through various Reddits and Apple support pages to get my notifications working for WhatsApp, Signal and Instagram, I found a strange solution that has at least worked for myself.

In Apple's Support forums, one person discovered that turning on and off the "Announce Notifications" feature could possibly fix your phone's notifications. To access it, you go to Settings, then Notifications, then Siri, then turn Announce Notifications on. The feature is normally for allowing Siri to read your notifications out loud, such as when you are driving. But instead of leaving it on, exit out of the Settings app, then re-enter it and turn it back off.

Somehow when I do those steps, apps that aren't notifying me resume again. It doesn't make sense, but I've now run through these steps twice when I noticed the problem has resumed, and it's fixed it each time.

I'll keep updating this article as I find more solutions for getting notifications back in iOS 15. If you have found any roadblocks that have stopped you from receiving notifications or solutions to getting them back, feel free to write them in the comments.

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• Missing Iphone Text Messages

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Most Annoying iOS 16 Features and How You Can Fix Them

Most Annoying iOS 16 Features and How You Can Fix Them

As with every new release of iOS, there are features and settings that you'll absolutely love, and others that you'll downright hate. 

And the same can be said for iOS 16, which won't be available to the general public until sometime in the fall, but which you can try out right now as a public beta on your iPhone.

Read more: The iPhone 14's Future May Be Hidden in iOS 16

Fortunately, there's a way to get rid of or disable some of the more annoying features and settings in iOS 16, like the brand-new search button on the home page that's easy to accidentally tap and the redesigned notifications that now appear at the bottom of your lock screen. 

We'll explain how to turn off these irritating settings below. Also, if you want to learn more about what iOS 16 has to offer, check out these hidden features, like password-protected photo albums, and two new features available in Apple Maps.

Stop featured photos and memories from popping up on your iPhone

Apple's artificial intelligence helps surface photos and videos in various places across your iPhone it thinks you might want to see, as a friendly reminder of family vacations, couple photos and holidays -- but you may not always want your personal photos to pop up unexpectedly, especially if they're private, embarrassing or inappropriate.

Fortunately with iOS 16, you can now prevent Featured Photos, as well as curated collections known as Memories, from appearing in photo widgets on your home screen and the Search and For You sections in Photos. 

To block these tailored photos, launch the Settings app, go into Photos and toggle off Show Featured Content. All featured content will no longer appear across your device -- instead, it'll only be available in your photo library and albums.

Once Show Featured Content is turned off, featured photos and memories across your device should disappear.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Prevent the side button from accidentally ending your phone calls

The side/power button on the side of your iPhone allows you to quickly sleep and wake up your device, but if you accidentally hit it during a phone call, you'll prematurely end your call. If that's something you've encountered in the past, iOS 16 finally allows you to prevent that from happening.

In Settings, go to Accessibility > Touch and toggle off Lock to End Call to prevent the side button from ending your calls. If you do hit the side button accidentally, your screen will go to sleep, but you'll stay on your phone call, uninterrupted.

This feature is hidden in the Accessibility section of your settings.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Remove the search button from your home screen

The Search feature on your iPhone allows you to quickly find what you're looking for, whether it's a text message, third-party app, file, note and location -- pretty much anything on your device or on the web. And the best thing about the feature is that it's easily accessible from the home screen; all you need to do is swipe down anywhere on the screen, and it appears. 

And iOS 16 has added another way to access Search from the home screen, via a small button right above your dock. Unfortunately, it's easy to accidentally trigger, because it's near where your thumb might go when you swipe between your various home pages.

Fortunately, like many new features on iOS 16, this one can be disabled as well. Simply launch the Settings app, go to Home Screen and toggle off Show on Home Screen to remove the search button from your home screen. The Search bubble should disappear, replaced by a few small dots representing your various home screens.

Even if you remove the Search button, you can still access the feature by swiping down from anywhere on your home screen.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Go back to the old lock screen notifications

Apple's latest redesign brings widgets, customizable fonts and colors, a wallpaper gallery and stylized date and time to the lock screen, as well as one overlooked change to notifications. Instead of appearing at the top of your lock screen, notifications now appear at the bottom, which you can then tap on to appear full screen.

However, not everyone may be happy with this change. If you want to go back to the way notifications appeared on iOS 15, launch the Settings application and go to Notifications > Display As. You'll then see three options:

• Count: Notifications appear as a numbered count at the bottom of the screen.
• Stack: Notifications appear in a stack at the bottom of the screen.
• List: Notifications appear fully across your screen.

To go back to the old notification style, choose the List option.

You can also pinch the notifications to switch between the three Display As options.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

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Make Your Apple Watch Work Better by Changing These Settings

Make Your Apple Watch Work Better by Changing These Settings

Changing a few settings on your Apple Watch can go a long way. Even though the Apple Watch is already easy to use, you'll likely benefit from making certain customizations. For example, you can choose how you'd prefer to activate Siri, make your apps appear in a list view rather than a grid and set Portrait Mode photos from your iPhone as your watch background. 

You'll be able to use these features and settings on any watch model that Apple currently sells, which includes the 4-year-old Series 3 (although we wouldn't recommend buying a Series 3 in 2022). But it's best to make sure that your watch is running the latest version of Apple's WatchOS 8 software. Doing so not only ensures that your watch has access to all of the latest features and improvements, but it's also a good safety measure since updates often include security-related fixes. 

This fall, Apple Watch owners will have more new features to look forward to with the debut of WatchOS 9. The update will bring more detailed sleep monitoring and a new app for tracking medications to the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer. A beta version of WatchOS 9 will be available to the public this month, Apple said when unveiling the new software in June. We're also expecting to see the rumored Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Pro debut in September, which is when Apple typically introduces new watch models. 

Here's a look at the Apple Watch settings you should change to get the most out of your watch.

Read more: How WatchOS 9 Is Paving the Way for the Apple Watch's Future

Adjust all of your Activity goals

With the release of WatchOS 7 in 2020, Apple added the option to change your goals for the amount of time you stand and exercise. Previously, you could only change your Move (or calories) goal. 

So instead of using the defaults -- 30 minutes of exercise and a cumulative 12 standing hours a day -- you can change either one to fit your actual daily routine. 

This small change will make it possible for you to hit your own targets when you actually start your day, not when Apple tells you to. For example, if you use sleep tracking overnight and need to charge your watch more often in the morning, you won't feel like you've lost an hour of time needed to close those rings.

Open the Activity app on your watch, scroll to the bottom and tap Change Goals. Make your adjustments for all three metrics and start closing those rings. 

Read more: Best Workout Subscription Apps

You now have full control over what it takes to close your activity rings. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

So long, random screenshots

To take a screenshot on the Apple Watch, you press the Digital Crown and side button at the same time. It's a simple and convenient method, unless you're like me and find yourself frequently triggering it accidentally, filling up the Photos app with random pictures of your watch face. 

To turn off the ability to take screenshots altogether, open the Settings app on your watch or use the Watch app on your phone and go to General and scroll down until you find Screenshots. Tap this option and toggle off the switch next to Enable Screenshots for a clutter-free camera roll. 

Customize which apps appear in your dock

If you have a lot of apps installed on your Apple Watch, it can be difficult to find the right ones when you need them. That's where the Apple Watch's dock comes in handy. If you're not familiar, the dock is essentially the iPhone's app switcher, but for the Apple Watch. You can trigger it by tapping the side button, which pulls up a carousel of recently used apps.

However, you can also customize the dock to show any apps you want instead of your most recent apps. To do this on your watch, open the Settings menu, tap Dock and select the Favorites option. But I recommend setting this up in the Phone's Watch app instead so that you can customize these apps.

Open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap Dock. Once the Favorites option is selected, you'll see a list of apps divided into two sections: Favorites and Do Not Include. Favorites are the apps that are currently in your dock, while the latter lists all of the other apps on your watch that aren't included. Tap the Edit button in the top right corner to customize the Favorites list to your liking. 

Choose the Portrait mode photos you want to see on your wrist

You can set Portrait mode photos as the background for your watch face. But first, you have to dig into the settings in the Watch app on your iPhone. To get started, launch the Watch app and navigate to the Face Gallery tab at the bottom of the screen. Then, tap the Portraits option under the New Watch Faces category. Tap the Choose Photos option under Content to select up to 24 photos that will rotate automatically when you raise your wrist or tap the screen. 

Apple's new Portrait watch face lets you set photos taken in Portrait Mode as the watch's backdrop. 

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

Keep the Apple Watch's screen awake for a longer period of time

There are times when you might not want your Apple Watch's screen to go idle right away. Perhaps you were in the middle of reading a long text message and got distracted, or maybe you want to keep an eye on your timer. Once you tap the Apple Watch's screen, it typically stays active for 15 seconds. But you can extend that to 70 seconds by launching the Settings menu on your watch, tapping Display & Brightness and choosing Wake Duration. Then select the Wake for 70 Seconds option. 

Stop every app from automatically installing

Every time you install an app on your iPhone, it will automatically install its Apple Watch counterpart if there is one. This can clutter up your watch's app grid pretty quickly, making it hard to find the apps you do want to use on your watch. 

The Apple Watch is so much more than a way to view your notifications. 

Vanessa Hand Orellana/CNET

In the Watch app on your phone, go to Settings > General and then slide the switch next to Automatic App Install to the Off position. You can also do this on the watch by opening the Settings menu, tapping App Store and toggling the switch next to Automatic Downloads.

From now on, you'll install individual apps on your watch by opening the Watch app on your phone, then scrolling to the bottom where you'll find a list of available apps. 

Read more:  Best Apple Watch Apps

Silence those noisy notifications

Smartwatches can be useful for discreetly checking an alert or the time. But loud notifications can defeat the purpose. Turn on your Apple Watch's silent mode by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to launch the Control Center. Then tap the icon that looks like abell to trigger Silent Mode. 

You can also do this by opening the Apple Watch's Settings menu, scrolling down to Sound & Haptics and toggling the switch next to Silent Mode. There's also a volume slider for adjusting how loud or quiet incoming notifications sound if you'd rather not mute them completely.

Have Siri only speak out loud when you're wearing headphones

Siri can be useful for quickly setting timers, starting workouts or checking the weather from your watch. But you might not always want to have Siri speak out loud. You can easily change this so that Siri only provides audible feedback when you're wearing headphones. Open the Settings menu on your Apple Watch, scroll down to Siri and navigate to the Voice Feedback section. Then tap the Headphones Only option. When your Bluetooth headphones are connected to your Apple Watch, you should now see the name of your headphones appear above the Siri volume setting in the watch's settings menu. 

Make text easier to read by increasing the font size

Reading notifications and news headlines can be difficult on a screen that's so small. Luckily, you can increase the font size on the Apple Watch to make things a bit easier on your eyes. To do so, launch the Settings app on your watch, tap Display & Brightness and scroll down to Text Size. Rotate the Digital Crown or tap the letters that appear on either side of the meter to adjust the text size on your watch. If you have the Apple Watch Series 7, you'll have more size options for enlarging the text, since it has a bigger display. 

Stop those annoying reminders to "Breathe"

Every few hours your Apple Watch will beep and tap your wrist, reminding you to take a moment to breathe. The first time it happens it's kind of comical; Why do I need a reminder to breathe, wacky watch?! Then it happens again. And again. Every 4 hours by default, for a physiological act that is literally involuntary. 

The Breathe reminder is designed to help you take a few minutes to clear your mind and control your respiration, in turn lowering your heart rate and potentially helping you feel more centered and calm. But if you're like me and never follow the prompt, take a few seconds to turn it off so you no longer have to be reminded to breathe. 

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then scroll down and tap the Mindfulness app option. Next, select Notifications off. (Note: If your watch isn't running WatchOS 8, this will appear as Breathe instead of Mindfulness.)

Unlock your Apple Watch with your iPhone

Typing in your passcode to unlock your Apple Watch can be a pain, but there's an easier way to do it. You can choose to have your Apple Watch unlock automatically when your iPhone is unlocked.

Tap the Digital Crown and navigate to the Apple Watch's Settings menu. Scroll down to Passcode, and make sure the switch next to Unlock with iPhone is toggled on. Your iPhone will now also display an alert saying that your iPhone is being used to unlock your Apple Watch whenever you put this into practice. 

You usually have to type in your Apple Watch's passcode to unlock it. 

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

Make it easier to find your apps

The honeycomb app grid looks great in promotional photos and at first glance, but it can be difficult to find the app you want to launch, particularly if you have a lot of apps installed on your watch. Instead of in a grid, the watch can display all of your apps in an alphabetical list. 

Either in the Watch app on your phone or in the Settings app on the Watch, tap App View > List View. Now, when you press the Digital Crown to leave your watch face, you'll see a list of apps that you can quickly scroll through and find what you're looking for. 

See, doesn't the app list look better? 

Sarah Tew/CNET

Control when you'll see Siri

There are three different ways to activate Siri on your Apple Watch. You can raise your wrist toward your mouth and start talking, long-press the Digital Crown or use the wake phrase, "Hey, Siri."

I've found that I often accidentally trigger Siri when trying to check the time or read a notification while I'm talking to someone else (but my watch thinks I'm trying to talk to Siri). It's annoying, but it can be changed. 

Either in the Watch app on your phone or in the Settings app on the Watch, select Siri and there you'll find three buttons to control when you'll see Siri. Slide each button to the Off position for any of the options you don't want to use. 

This is a hidden feature that you should memorize right now. 

Jason Cipriani/CNET

Rearrange Control Center

Just like Control Center on your iPhone, Control Center on the Apple Watch is where you go to quickly adjust settings like do not disturb and airplane mode and to activate the flashlight. 

You may find the default list of options in the Control Center isn't the best fit for how you use your watch, however, and you want to rearrange the list. For me, that means moving the Bedtime toggle from near the bottom of the list to the top. That way when I want to track my sleep over the weekend when I don't have sleep goals set, I can swipe up and tap the icon. 

To access the Control Center on your watch, swipe up from the bottom of the watch face, or when in an app you can long-press on the bottom of the screen until you see Control Center start to slide up, after which you just need to slide your finger up to access it. The same trick works to view your notifications from anywhere. 

Change the order, or hide some buttons in the Control Center by tapping the Edit button at the bottom of the list. The icons will begin to jiggle and show a red minus sign to hide an option. Drag and drop the icons into your preferred order, or tap the red minus button to remove the option altogether. 

When you're done, tap Done or press the Digital Crown on the side of your watch to go back to the watch face. 

There are plenty more Apple Watch features that are worth checking out. For example, the ECG app can help identify heartbeat irregularities, there are new workout options for Pilates and Tai Chi and you can even share your custom watch faces.

For more, check out CNET's list of the best Apple Watch bands and every iPhone setting you should change right now. 

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Apple Watch Series 5 vs. Fitbit Versa 2: Best smartwatch to give as a gift

Apple Watch Series 5 vs. Fitbit Versa 2: Best smartwatch to give as a gift

The Apple Watch Series 5 starts at $399 (£399, AU$649) and makes an ideal gift for an iPhone user who wants to keep an eye on their health and fitness goals, or get notifications from their phone. But the Fitbit Versa 2 costs half as much and has many similar features, plus it works across Android and iOS. I've been wearing both these watches for a few weeks to determine which one is better at tracking workouts, getting notifications and has the best battery life. 

Read more: Best gifts for people who are obsessed with CrossFit

Angela Lang/CNET

A versatile hybrid that's equal parts smartwatch and fitness tracker, the Versa 2 adds a few improvements over the first version that make it a good option for Apple and Android owners alike. Like the Apple Watch, it too has an always-on display, but the battery will last more than twice as long. Expect at least five days between charges if you don't have the always-on display active. It also gives you built-in sleep tracking, Alexa support and Spotify control on your wrist.

Read the Fitbit Versa 2 hands-on.

All-day comfort so you can go from the office to the gym

The Apple Watch comes in two sizes (40mm and 44mm) while the Versa 2 just comes in one size. I have a fairly small wrist and found both of these watches very comfortable to wear all day. With the Versa 2, I hardly had to take it off at all because I could use it to track my sleep.

Want a wide range of finishes and straps to choose from? You'll find the biggest selection with the Apple Watch. Everything from aluminum and stainless steel to the more expensive ceramic and titanium finishes that cost upward of $800. The Versa 2 has three aluminum color finishes with a variety of straps.

Angela Lang/CNET

The Versa 2 gets a much nicer color AMOLED display than the first generation Versa and it's easy to see in bright sunlight when the brightness is turned to max. (The always-on display could be a little brighter for me during outdoor workouts, however.) Notifications and on-screen prompts are clear and legible.

The Apple Watch uses a color LTPO OLED Retina display. It also has Force Touch, so you can press on the screen to register different options.

They're both water-resistant to 50 meters (164 feet) so you can use them to track swims and they'll be fine if subjected to occasional splashes. 

Fitbit still makes its straps pretty difficult to swap in and out, as they have tiny toggles, whereas the Apple Watch is simpler with a button to slide the strap in and out. The charging dock for the Versa 2 is also a pain. Not only is it not backward-compatible with older generations of Fitbit watches like the original Versa, the cord doesn't tuck underneath the dock neatly so it's next to impossible to get your watch to lie flat on the dock when it's charging.

Smart features put the Apple Watch a step ahead

If you like customizing the look of your watch face, the Versa 2 has a lot more options to choose from than the Apple Watch, including third-party watch faces. There's even a Bitmoji watch face that changes expressions depending on your activity or time of day (my personal favorite).

Both have an always-on display and, thanks to the latest Fitbit OS 4.1 update, the Versa 2 now gets the option of a color always-on display, like the Apple Watch. But the Apple Watch only makes it through one whole day with a little extra to spare when I have the always-on display active. That's with a 40-minute workout thrown in and regular use throughout the day getting notifications from my phone. The Versa 2 makes it two-and-a-half days with always-on active and the same usage. That goes up to five-and-a-half days when the display is set to raise-to-wake.

The always-on display on the Versa 2.

Angela Lang/CNET

Being smartwatches, both support voice assistants, though they handle that in a different way. With the Versa 2 you get Alexa support to control smart devices, check the weather, start a workout or set reminders. There's no speaker, so you'll have to read the screen to check responses. And it's kind of slow.

With the Apple Watch closely integrated with Siri, you can speak the wake word or hold the button to summon the assistant. You'll be able to hear Siri talk, send text messages, speak responses and do most of what Siri offers on your phone.

Of course, you'll also be able to customize what notifications come through from your phone on both of these watches. However, you will only be able to respond to notifications from the Versa 2 if you're on Android, not iPhone. Both allow you to accept and reject calls from your wrist, regardless of what phone you're tied to, but if you have the Versa 2 you won't be able to take the call on your wrist because there's no speaker -- you'll need to grab your phone.

For me, the biggest advantage that the Apple Watch has over the Versa 2 when it comes to smart features is built-in connectivity, both GPS and cellular, which means you can leave your phone at home and take calls, send messages or stream music on the go when doing an outdoor workout, for example. (It does come at an extra cost, however.) With Emergency SOS you'll also be able to call emergency services from your wrist and share your location, plus alert your emergency contacts. The Apple Watch Series 5 also offers a built-in compass.

Both offer music storage, although it's more complicated to pull across music to the Versa 2 from a computer than it is to use the seamless transfer offered between the iPhone and Apple Watch. You can also pay with your wrist thanks to Fitbit Pay and Apple Pay on the Versa 2 and Apple Watch respectively.

I've been testing the Apple Watch and Versa 2 primarily with an iPhone and definitely feel the Apple Watch was the faster of the two when it comes to syncing and transferring settings. Occasionally, I have noticed integrations with third-party apps such as Spotify and Snapchat for the Bitmoji face require me to log in and sync again through the Fitbit app.

Read about some of the other features offered in WatchOS 6 on the Apple Watch.

Fitness tracking is Fitbit's forte, but Apple has ECG

I have used both of these watches during a number of different workouts (Pilates, indoor spin class, outdoor runs and outdoor bike rides) and have been impressed with the results from both. During my outdoor run, for example, both gave fairly consistent results when it came to tracking my heart rate, although I did find the Apple Watch updated my heart rate slightly faster. I haven't yet tested these watches against the gold standard in consumer heart rate tracking, a chest strap.

The Versa 2, however, can show you what heart rate zone you're in during a workout, such as cardio or fat burn, which I appreciate. Only the Apple Watch offers you on-wrist cadence tracking so you can see your steps per minute, plus pace alerts for running that can notify you if you fall below your chosen pace. You can see your pace on the wrist for the Versa 2, but you won't get alerts.

Both watches can track plenty of different workouts and automatically detect certain activities like running or walking. I find it easier to see and interpret the data from my workouts using the Fitbit app rather than trying to search for it across the Activity app or Health app on iPhone.

Fitbit also offers the Coach app (you'll need to download and sync it across to the watch from the Fitbit app) which puts three free workouts with visual guidance on your wrist. This hasn't changed since the first Versa but it's still a nice touch for those who might not have time for a full workout. You can pay for a Fitbit Premium subscription ($9.99 a month in the US) to get more workouts.

Sleep tracking on the Versa 2.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Sleep tracking is only available natively on the Versa 2 and I really like how Fitbit shows you a breakdown of your different sleep stages, such as REM and deep sleep, plus gives you a sleep score out of 100. Thanks to the latest OS 4.1 update, you can now see your sleep score on the Versa 2 and the watch now has a feature that vibrates to wake you at the optimal time in your sleep cycle (within 30 minutes of your alarm). Fitbit calls this smart wake.

Unfortunately the app won't tell you much about how to improve the sleep score (apart from some standard prompts to go to bed on time) unless you have a Fitbit Premium subscription which has more advanced sleep tools and analysis.

I also found that there was sometimes a variance between how I felt and the sleep score: For example, one night I got 8.5 hours of rest and felt great in the morning, but my sleep score was in the low 60s. The sleep score does take into account your restoration, which is sleeping heart rate and how much you toss and turn during the night. (Maybe I'm an overly active sleeper, because my restoration score showed a lot of restlessness.)

The Apple Watch helps you keep tabs on your daily activity using a ring-based system, which hasn't changed since the first generation. On the Versa 2 you can find your daily metrics in the Today section by swiping down from the main screen.

As for health and heart tracking in particular, the Apple Watch Series 5 pulls ahead. With a built-in ECG (electrocardiogram) that's FDA-cleared, the watch can also detect high, low and irregular heart rates and notify you accordingly. It also has fall detection. Both watches offer menstrual cycle tracking, although you can't log details on the Versa 2 like you can on the Apple Watch. Instead, you'll need to do that in the Fitbit app.

Which one's right for me?

Considering the Versa 2 costs half as much as the Apple Watch Series 5, if money is your concern, then this is the watch for you. Especially because it works across Android and iOS. It also has a wide range of activities that it can track and the Fitbit app makes it really easy to see your fitness metrics.

For runners, or those who want to leave their phone at home and stream music on the go, make calls or send messages, the Apple Watch with built-in LTE is the clear choice. It also has the benefit of ECG in certain countries.

Also, now that Apple has reduced the entry price of the Apple Watch Series 3 (which also has GPS and an LTE option) to $200, it's another good option for Apple users who want the tightest integration with an iPhone.

Originally published earlier this year.

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Source

https://nichols.my.id/how-to-repair-bows-in-botw.html

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