Apple Quietly Gave Your Apple Watch a Sneaky Cool Feature

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Apple Quietly Gave Your Apple Watch a Sneaky Cool Feature

There is a little bit of a catch, however.

Apple Watch Apple Intelligence Reduce Notifications

This past fall, Apple rolled out the first Apple Intelligence features to compatible iPhones, iPads and Macs. Some of these AI features were helpful, particularly the writing tools. Others, like Notification Summaries, have proved to be less so.

Since its initial release, Apple has slowly added more features that take advantage of Apple Intelligence. The last batch arrived with

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— and added a pretty cool feature for using your iPhone’s camera to identify plants and animals (but it only works if you have an iPhone 16/Pro).

If you wear an Apple Watch, however, you might feel left out of the party. That’s because Apple still hasn’t released any exclusive Apple Intelligence features for its smartwatch. And while that is still technically true today, there is a bit of a workaround.

That’s because your Apple Watch can use two Apple Intelligence features—but only if it is tethered to one of the latest iPhones that supports them. The first is Notification Summaries, which, as widely reported, is more frustrating than useful. The second is Reduce Interruptions.

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Reduce Interruptions is an Apple Intelligence feature for iPhone, iPad and Mac … but you access it from your Apple Watch, too. – Credit: Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

What is Reduce Interruptions?

Reduce Interruptions is a new setting within Focus mode, which was introduced several years ago — with iOS 15 — to give you more control over what notifications your iPhone receives while doing various activities (such as sleeping or working).

With the new Reduce Interruptions setting turned on, your iPhone will use Apple Intelligence to determine if a notification is “important.” If so, it’ll then push through that notification to you even if Focus Mode is turned on.

The idea is that if you’re working or sleeping and you get an urgent (aka “important”) message from a relative, you’ll get notified. If Apple Intelligence deems it unimportant, you won’t be notified until the Focus mode ends.

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Reduce Interruptions is a feature within Focus mode where Apple Intelligence decides if specific notifications are important or not. – Credit: Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

How to use Reduce Interruptions?

To turn on Reduce Interruptions, you need a compatible iPhone — meaning any iPhone 16 model or an iPhone 15 Pro/Max — that’s running iOS 18.1 or later.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

Scroll down and select Focus.

Select Reduce Interuptions.

Toggle on Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing.

From this screen, you can further customize the notification settings with Reduce Interruptions turned on. You can allow — or silence — notifications from specific people or specific apps.

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Once enabled on your iPhone, you can turn on/off Reduce Interruptions from your wrist. – Credit: Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Wait, this is for Apple Watch?

Reduce Interruptions is an Apple Intelligence feature that’s technically compatible with the latest iPhones, Macs, and iPads. But you can access it and turn it on and off from the Control Center on your Apple Watch.

Simply press the side button to open the Control Center, select Focus mode (the moon icon) and turn on Reduce Interruptions. Once selected, you can turn it on indefinitely or for a given amount of time.

Also, you don’t have to have the latest and greatest Apple Watch to access Reduce Interruptions. As long as you have one of the newer iPhones and Reduce Interruptions is turned on, you’ll be able to turn it on/off from your wrist.

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