What The Red Dot On Your Apple Watch Really Means

Ever since the Apple Watch launched in 2015, it has opened up hands-free options to relieve people from carrying their phones around the whole day. However, Apple Watches do have several types of icons that intermittently appear on the top part of its watch face. For the average Apple Watch user, this may be confusing. One of these icons is the red dot.

According to Apple, the red dot alerts Apple Watch users that a notification has appeared. In general, Apple notes that its notifications will appear on your Apple Watch or iPhone, but not at the same time. For example, if your iPhone is locked or asleep, you will receive incoming notifications on your synced Apple Watch instead. However, it does cite some exceptions, such as the Noise app. Because the Noise app is Apple Watch only, you will not be receiving notifications on your iPhone at all.

Now that you know what the red dot on your Apple Watch is, here are some tips that you can try to make your Apple Watch notifications work better for you.

To read the notifications, all you have to do is to swipe down the watch face. Once you have read or dismissed the notification, it will also be removed from your iPhone. Once a notification appears, you can view or interact with it by tapping it. Depending on which app the notification came from, you'll be able to reply to messages, call someone back, and more.

In addition, if you want to keep your notifications private, you can open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and select Notifications. Next to Tap to Show Full Notification, toggle on the button. To clear all of your existing notifications, Apple suggests opening the Notification Center by touching and holding the top part of the screen. Then, swipe down and tap Clear All.

If you want to remove the red dot notification indicator on your Apple Watch altogether, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap Notifications. Afterward, toggle off the button next to the Notifications Indicator. Lastly, if you want to keep people from bothering you during your rest hours, consider enabling Do Not Disturb on your Apple Watch as well.