Apple Watch Connectivity
Do you have to be connected to wifi to respond to text messages on the watch?
Apple Watch, watchOS 2.2
3 replies
Hi
If your watch is connected to your iPhone via Bluetooth, your watch can be used to reply to both iMessage messages and SMS / text messages, subject to your iPhone having the required connectivity at the time (cellular, mobile data or Wi-Fi).
If the paired iPhone is not available via Bluetooth, Apple Watch can connect to a known 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network. When connected in this way, it can still be used to reply to iMessage messages. If your cellular carrier offers Wi-Fi calling and you have enabled this feature on your paired iPhone, you may also still be able to reply to SMS / text messages (subject to this feature being supported by your carrier).
More information:
About Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on Apple Watch - Apple Support
For the best performance - including the most power-efficient communication between your iPhone and Apple Watch - keep both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi permanently enabled on your iPhone.
Apple Watch Connectivity