I just got an Apple Watch Sport and I like it a lot, except for all the beeps as notifications pop up. Is there some way to mute the darn thing?
Actually, the first thing I do when I get a new device is figure out how to stop its audio feedback. Beeps, quacks, pings, it can be maddening to have devices make sound when you have a lot of different gadgets because it ends up being a comedy skit of “what made that sound?”. And I expect that it’s only going to get worse as your thermostat, smoke detector, and even wall plug might need to alert you to a specific situation!
The Apple Watch has a couple of ways you can mute it, though it doesn’t simply mirror if you mute the paired iPhone (and sometimes it mirrors the phone going into airplane mode while other times it doesn’t. Haven’t quite figured that one out yet). You can go into the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and under General > Sounds & Haptics find this screen:
As you can see, the solution is as easy as turning on “Silent Mode“.
But what about on the Apple Watch Edition itself? Can you turn off the sounds there?
Yes you can. In fact there are two ways you can do so. The most common solution is to find the settings icon…
Then tap on it to bring up Settings and swipe down to find, yes, Sounds & Haptics:
A tap on “Sounds & Haptics” and you’re looking at basically the same settings as within the app on the iPhone:
You can easily tap on “Mute” here, or adjust your alert volume. Me? I have mine on Mute, as you can see.
Oh, and there’s a shortcut to all of this on the Apple Watch too because one of the “Glances” is “Settings” and that gives you one tap access to mute. Just swipe upwards on the regular watch view:
A tap on the upper right switches between mute and audio, though the volume of the beeps still requires a quick visit to Settings itself. Again, you’ll notice on my Apple Watch that it is already muted, hence the red button.
That’s it, now you know three different ways to control the audio notification of your Apple Watch. Can’t help you with the fridge door or your low batter indicator on your smoke alarm, though!
