- If your Apple Watch isn't pairing, you'll see a red iPhone icon or red X on your watch face.
- Moving your devices closer together or restarting them can resolve your issue.
- If all else fails, reset your Apple Watch and try re-pairing it to your iPhone.
When your Apple Watch isn't paired to your iPhone, the number of features it has decreases dramatically.
Sure, you can still record a workout and check the time, but you won't get any notifications, messages, or calls on your watch.
The good news is that — in most cases — Apple Watch pairing issues can be fixed in a matter of minutes. Just follow the steps outlined below to reconnect your devices.
1. Move your iPhone closer to your Apple Watch
There's a chance your phone is simply too far away from your Apple Watch, or that it's in a bag or drawer that is blocking a clear signal.
Because the watch and phone pair via Bluetooth, proximity is key. So, get them closer together and see if that alleviates the issue.
When the devices are connected, the iPhone icon in the Apple Watch Control Center is green. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/Insider2. Check the settings on both devices
If your phone has Wi-Fi or Bluetooth turned off — or if either of your devices are in Airplane Mode — they won't be able to pair. Make sure all settings are set properly to facilitate the connection.
On the iPhone, you can quickly check this in the Control Center. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen and ensure Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are on (the icons will be blue) and Airplane Mode is off (the icon will be gray). On the Apple Watch, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Control Center.
The Wi-Fi and Airplane Mode icons look the same in the Apple Watch's Control Center. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/Insider3. Turn your devices off and on again
There's no doubt that you've heard this tech troubleshooting tip before, but it's a popular one for a reason.
To turn off your iPhone, hold down the side lock button and volume up buttons until the slide to power off toggle appears. Slide the power button to turn the phone off. Hold the side button until the Apple logo appears to turn the phone back on.
You can shut down your Apple Watch by holding down the side button (not the crown) and then swiping the power off slider. Press and hold the side button to turn the watch back on.
You'll need to enter your passcode once your Apple Watch restarts. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/Insider4. Reset your Apple Watch
If you've followed all of the previous steps and you're still having issues, it's time to reset that watch. This fix should resolve the pairing issue, but it will wipe saved data off the watch, so you should back it up before doing so.
In the watch's Settings app, choose General, then Reset, then Erase All Content and Settings.
5. Unpair your iPhone and Apple Watch, then pair them again
In the Watch app on your iPhone, tap All Watches, the information button next to your Apple Watch, then Unpair Apple Watch.
You can also access the Find My feature in this menu. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/InsiderNow everything should be just like new, and you'll be able to pair your Apple Watch and iPhone.
Steven John
Freelance Writer
Steven John is a freelance writer living near New York City by way of 12 years in Los Angeles, four in Boston, and the first 18 near DC. When not writing or spending time with his wife and kids, he can occasionally be found climbing mountains. His writing is spread across the web, and his books can be found at www.stevenjohnbooks.com.
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Abigail Abesamis Demarest is a contributing writer for Insider based in New York. She loves a good glazed donut and nerdy deep dives into the science of food and how it's made.
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We love Android, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, Apple really has them beat at the smartwatch game. Though early Apple Watches had mixed reviews, the newest generation of Apple’s technological accessories has really come into its own.
Whereas Wear OS and the Galaxy Watch have some great features—and some watches we really love— Apple’s watches generally have better battery life and more advanced features than what we’ve seen on Google’s side of things.
Despite not being advertised, you can pair an Apple Watch with an Android phone, but as you might expect, there are many limitations. Apple states on its website that you can only sync with an Apple Watch with the iPhone, and that’s mostly true since the pairing app only exists on iOS.
Here’s the thing, though: if you have an LTE Apple Watch, there are a couple of corners you can cut on your phone and your watch to make it work with Android. This isn’t something you should go out and buy an Apple Watch for, but if you’ve made the move to Android and you’re still looking to get your Apple Watch to work, you might want to give this a shot. Let’s dive in.
Pairing an Apple Watch with an Android Device
Essentially what we are doing in this scenario is pair the Apple Watch with your iPhone and set everything up so that it’s working, then put the iPhone in airplane mode and swap the SIM card into an Android phone. While it’s certainly not guaranteed to work, we got ours to work in the office.
You need to have two unlocked phones, one Android and one iPhone, because you’re swapping SIM cards around. Unless you have two SIM cards for the same carrier, this will only work on unlocked phones.
- Set your Apple Watch up with the iPhone.
- Make a test call or two to ensure everything is working.
- Put the iPhone into airplane mode so it cannot reach out.
- Turn off the Apple Watch.
- Swap the SIM from the iPhone to your Android phone and boot it up.
- Turn on the Apple Watch.
- Wait for the
Disconnected notification to disappear from the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch-Android Experience
I tried this in the office with a new Apple Watch, an iPhone, and my Samsung Galaxy S7. The Apple Watch initially took quite a while to connect, and the signal was a little fuzzy. However, a quick walk outside to a stronger signal had the watch connecting faster and had a much better call quality.
I could ask Siri to call contacts on my phone as long as I used the name saved on the SIM, not on the phone. The call quality was good, with a strong signal; although, I couldn’t get Siri to do much else aside from sending a message and checking the weather.
Limitations and Setbacks
Once connected, you should be able to make and receive calls and use Siri to perform some basic functions. The two devices are not directly communicating, as far as I can tell. They are instead using the network to communicate, which is why only the very basic functions are possible with this method.
You will not be able to use any of the more advanced functions of the Apple Watch. You will obviously have no access to the SmartWatch app on your Android phone and will only really be able to make and receive calls and ask Siri some basic questions.
Voice commands can be used to make calls as long as you use the name the contacts are saved as on your SIM and not your Android phone. The other limitation will be battery life. The Apple Watch doesn’t have an amazing battery to begin with, but by using LTE constantly, that battery isn’t going to last very long at all.
I am guessing that aside from trying it because you can, the only time you would ever want to use this hack is if something happened to your iPhone and you really wanted to continue using your Apple Watch. Otherwise, it is largely pointless. You cannot use most of the smart functions on the watch, and Android has a lot of smartwatches that work within its own ecosystem. Many offer more features than this hack would allow.
However, we have proved that you can pair an Apple Watch with an Android phone and get it working after some serious infiltration of the devices. Do you see any use for this? Want to try it? Were you able to get it working? Tell us about your experiences below!
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