Q: Clearing notifications on Watch doesn't clear on iPhone

It can be caused by the absence of a right synchronization.

Check if you followed all these steps:

- To pair your Apple Watch, you need an iPhone 5 or later and the latest version of iOS.

- On your iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth and make sure Bluetooth is on.

- Make sure your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network.

- Turn on your Apple Watch by pressing and holding the side button next to the Digital Crown until you see the Apple logo.

- Make sure both devices are charged and keep them close together as you pair and sync them.

Or you can also see more information here: Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Supporthttps://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204505

Dismissing a notification is not the same as acknowledging its source. If someone sends you a text and simply clear the notification, the text message is not correspondingly marked read. As such, the notification on the phone will remain.

In order for the notification to clear from the phone, you need to actually ACT on the notification. In the case of the example above, OPEN the text message and read it.

It actually depends on WHICH notifications you're referring to.

Any notification on the lock screen of the phone should go away when you clear the notification from the watch. It will not be marked "read", however, unless you actually open the notification on the watch. So, things like Badges will still appear if you have those enabled.

If you turn BT off on the phone, will the watch stay connected to the phone via the cloud?

Swipe up then all the way to the right. The connection status is shown on the top and will show a device if connected via BT and the cloud symbol if connected via WiFi / iCloud.

If it won't stay connected via the cloud, there may be a general issue with the way the watch is paired and you should remove it and re-pair it.

I just went back and re-read your original post. You've mentioned that things seem to work properly for Apple apps, but third-party apps (like Twitter) do not. This is how my Watch and Phone work as well. I can clear notifications from Messages and Mail, but Gmail does not clear when I dismiss the notification on the watch (the app, not just the account being tied into my Mail).

I suspect that this is expected behavior.

If there is a corresponding Watch app for any particular app, you have some control over notifications and it may sync back to the phone (like Messages does). However, if there is NO corresponding app, the notifications being sent to the watch are probably more "generic" and will not sync status back to the phone.

In some cases, however, such as reading an email in the Gmail app, the status of the message itself gets updated and that's enough to clear the notification from the phone.

I've also verified that swiping down on a "new" notification (just came in) for Gmail does NOT clear the notification on the phone. Waiting for a minute, waking up the watch, and swiping down to see the notification in Notification Center on the watch and then force-pressing to clear all notifications DOES clear it from the phone.

The behavior is definitely quirky and inconsistent.