For better or for worse, Apple Watches can only be linked to an iPhone and will not work with Android phones. This is perhaps a major obstacle for some consumers to access the ecosystem that watchOS offers, but there are ways to circumvent this rule by linking two or more Apple Watches to the same iPhone. Of course, it has a series of limitations that we will also tell you in this article.
This can be useful in many cases. Let’s imagine that several people live in your home and only one has an iPhone; the rest will be able to use an Apple Watch and link it to that person’s. It can also be used for the same person who for some reason has two different Apple watches and wants to have the data dumped on their iPhone.
Previous recommendations
Although the linking of several Apple Watch to iPhone can be done from watchOS 2.2 , the truth is that it is advisable to have the Apple Watch updated to the latest available software version. The same is recommended for the iPhone, which must be updated to its latest version of iOS. Once you have verified that this is the case, you can now proceed to link several watches to a single iPhone without problem.
How to pair multiple Apple Watch
The process to sync an Apple Watch to an iPhone in which another watch is already paired is really simple and is not too different from what it means to pair a Watch for the first time. The steps to follow are those:
- Open the Watch app on the iPhone you want to join.
- If you are on iOS 13 or earlier, click on the Apple Watch that you already have. If you are on iOS 14 or later, click on “All watches”.
- Click on “Pair a new Apple Watch” or “Add watch.”
Once you do this, all the instructions to link the Apple Watch will appear on the screen as if it were a new one, so there is no possible loss during these steps.
How to switch from one Apple Watch to another
An option called automatic connection will appear in the same panel that you access to add another Apple Watch. This feature is useful if both watches are yours and you’re not wearing them at the same time, as this feature will activate the watch just by putting it on and raising your wrist. If you want it to be done manually, you can deactivate this function and click on the clock you want to have active.
Delete linked watches
Deleting one or more Apple Watch from your iPhone is really simple, since you will only have to open the Watch application on the iPhone, go to the tab corresponding to the management of these watches and instead of activating it, click on the information icon ” i “. Once you enter here you will find options to unlink the Apple Watch from that phone.
Limit Apple Watch that can be linked to iPhone
As reported by Apple itself, there is no limit as such on watches that can be linked to the same iPhone. The limit really comes with the storage capacity of the iPhone , which will be a key factor in determining the maximum number of paired watches. In the end, the phone is the one that stores most of the data of the watch, to which the backup copies are added. This in the end can end up taking up a lot of space and hence the amount of memory that the iPhone has is decisive in the number of clocks that can be synchronized. Other limitations are found in the following section.
Other existing limitations
Unfortunately, not all watches that are linked to the same iPhone will work at the same time. Only one Apple Watch can be active at any given time. If the rest of the clocks that have been linked are WiFi versions, they will work the same way they work when the iPhone is not nearby. They can continue exploring some tools or making some measurements and even access certain apps if they have a WiFi connection, but if for example they receive a call, it will not be received on the watch.
In the cases of Apple Watch LTE , which are the ones with an eSIM, they can be used relatively normally. They may not be uploading data to the iPhone at the moment until it is activated in the application, but it will be able to receive calls and connect to the internet. Perhaps the main drawback here is that not all companies allow sharing data plans , so you will have to contact your operator to find out more about this, since it is not a factor in the end that depends on your Apple devices.
Can you have an Apple Watch linked to multiple iPhones?
Unfortunately it is not possible to have an Apple Watch linked to several iPhones. Perhaps this could be useful if for some reason you have more than one Apple phone, for example for personal use and for work and you want the watch to be linked to both so that you can use the one you use at any time you can manage it. However, this possibility does not exist today and an Apple Watch can only dump its data on one device . Not even having the same Apple ID on both phones is possible.
