New to this forum, hi. Tonight I left my iPhone at home and wore my apple watch to my gym, two miles away. At the gym is a wifi network that my iPhone knows, but my iPhone was two miles away. While at the gym, my apple watch was able to send text messages, receive text messages, and in some locations could even dictate and then send text messages. It could not seem to connect to the web and could not make a phone call. In other areas of the gym, it could not perform dictation, but could still receive texts and send the 'canned' apple watch replies. This would indicate that it must have been pairing with somebody else's iPhone wouldn't it? How could it tap into a wifi network without the iPhone to facilitate and to 'recognize' the network. again my iPhone was literally two miles away at my home? Is this a possible security issue the watch may have? I liked that it worked, but it freaks me out a bit at the same time. How can this happen?
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watch working without iPhone??
- Thread starter crk123
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The apple watch can use basic functions without the iPhone. In this case, the iPhone's Wi-Fi data transferred to the Watch's Wi-Fi data, and thus the watch was able to connect to the internet using its own radio automatically.
The watch has limited functions on it's own. And it can connect to a known Wi_Fi without the phone. Think about it, the phone cannot use BT to tell the watch that "hey, please connect to this Wi-Fi network now, you are not in my BT range now". So, the watch must able to connect to a known Wi-Fi network by itself, otherwise it will never work.
When Wi-Fi available, the watch can use dictation to send text message. This is normal.
When Wi-Fi available, the watch can use dictation to send text message. This is normal.
Wow, I didn't know that either. I work at a fairly large campus so my Apple Watch would be connected pretty much anywhere I go during the week. Crazy! Even better they're upgrading to new AC routers this summer so the range and speed will be much better.
Watch only runs b/g/n over 2.4GHz. Those new routers of yours won't make any difference. Besides, how fast does the wifi network need to be to receive a text message...?
Isn't the range still better? And if they use some variant of beamforming is that limited to AC or does that work across the other types? Also any upgrades they do will probably fill in some of the patchy spots. It's sorely needed.
The watch doesn't do AC - only 802.11b/g/n. And doesn't have a 5GHz radio, so only the 2.4GHz band.
If you want to use your watch in a campus environment, you might want to talk to your IT guys - see if they can't segment you to the 2.4GHz SSID's (that's providing they're using both frequencies).
While AC has better range than g or n, lower frequencies actually travel better - 5GHz is now preferable as there's just too much interference in the 2.4GHz spectrum (eg. bluetooth, satellite radio, many wireless phones in residential areas, even some microwave ovens).