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What does cellular do with the Apple Watch?

What does cellular do with the Apple Watch



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Jan 12, 2020 11:32 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 12, 2020 1:34 PM

The Cellular Apple Watch has 3 radios

  • Low Energy Bluetooth (uses the least amount of battery power)
  • WiFi (next best battery power use)
  • LTE Cellular (most battery power use)


Whenever possible the Apple Watch will use Low Energy Bluetooth to talk to its paired iPhone and use the iPhone radios because the iPhone has a larger battery, stronger radios and better antennas).


When out of Bluetooth range, WiFi is used either directly to the Internet, or to the iPhone so it will use its radios.


When no Bluetooth and not WiFi, the the LTE Cellular radio is used for Cellular Data or Cellular Data based VoIP.


SMS/MMS still requires the iPhone, so the Apple Watch will find the iPhone via Bluetooth, WiFi, or the Internet via Cellular Data.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 12, 2020 1:34 PM in response to Mohamed__11

The Cellular Apple Watch has 3 radios

  • Low Energy Bluetooth (uses the least amount of battery power)
  • WiFi (next best battery power use)
  • LTE Cellular (most battery power use)


Whenever possible the Apple Watch will use Low Energy Bluetooth to talk to its paired iPhone and use the iPhone radios because the iPhone has a larger battery, stronger radios and better antennas).


When out of Bluetooth range, WiFi is used either directly to the Internet, or to the iPhone so it will use its radios.


When no Bluetooth and not WiFi, the the LTE Cellular radio is used for Cellular Data or Cellular Data based VoIP.


SMS/MMS still requires the iPhone, so the Apple Watch will find the iPhone via Bluetooth, WiFi, or the Internet via Cellular Data.

What does cellular do with the Apple Watch?

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