Useful features in the Apple Watch... when traveling abroad
The Apple Watch offers a wide range of practical capabilities that extend far beyond tracking notifications and monitoring fitness. During travel, it transforms into an effective companion that facilitates navigation in a foreign country, provides essential information about the journey and destination, and helps maintain personal safety, even in areas with poor internet connectivity.
Before leaving the airport, the watch allows travelers to monitor their flight details in real time through dedicated flight-tracking apps that display the specific route, departure and arrival times, and any potential delays. This reduces the need to repeatedly check flight information screens in the airport terminal. Boarding passes and tickets for various modes of transport at the destination can also be stored in the digital Wallet app, which automatically updates in the event of any changes to the boarding gate or time. Later, simply holding the watch near the scanner allows entry without the need for a paper ticket.
Below are some of the most notable other practical uses of the watch during the trip and after arriving at the destination:
• Managing time zone differences: By enabling the automatic date and time setting option in the watch settings, along with using the World Clock app to add multiple cities and monitor their times simultaneously. This is particularly useful for those who need to coordinate business meetings or communicate with family back home without disturbing them at inappropriate hours.
• Monitoring local weather conditions: By enabling location services, which allows access to temperature, humidity, and any urgent weather alerts, alongside forecasts for the next 12 hours or the upcoming ten days. This helps adjust the daily travel itinerary based on expected weather conditions.
• Real-time conversation translation: Through a dedicated app that allows users to select the desired language and speak into the microphone to translate sentences instantly, whether ordering food at a restaurant or asking passersby for directions. Users can replay the translation or save it for later reference, and download languages in advance for offline use in areas with weak coverage. This feature is limited to relatively newer watch models.
• Offline maps and directions: By searching for the desired destination and selecting a mode of transport, whether by car, bicycle, on foot, or via public transit. Maps and routes can be downloaded in advance to the phone and then used on the watch, even in areas with weak or no coverage, provided the phone remains within Bluetooth range.
• Exploring without getting lost in alleys: Using the “Backtrack” feature in the Compass app, which records the path taken since leaving the hotel. This allows users to later activate the reverse path tracking option to return to the starting point, although the feature does not account for elevation changes or obstacles such as buildings.
Contactless payment remains one of the most practical tools for shopping or using public transport abroad. The watch generates a unique, random card number for each transaction to protect the user’s banking data. This feature is widely accepted as contactless payment becomes increasingly common worldwide. Additionally, the Remote Camera app allows users to take photos without relying on passersby. The watch can be used as a display screen for photography, enabling direct control over zoom and exposure from the user’s wrist, as well as setting a countdown timer before the photo is automatically captured.
The emergency calling feature remains by far the most important among all these use cases, as modern watch models enable direct connection to local emergency services in a large number of supported countries, without requiring users to know the local emergency number of the country they are visiting, provided there is cellular connectivity to the watch itself or it is paired with a smartphone via Bluetooth.
Additionally, some supported models offer the ability to set up accident detection and fall detection features, allowing the watch to automatically contact emergency services if it detects an accident or a sudden fall.
