Just like the walkie-talkie-equipped phones of the early 2000s, this app is a great way to chat across your home, or across the country, without ever having to worry about waiting for a call to be picked up. Of course, you don’t always want your spouse, friend, or child piping up from your wrist. But, don’t worry, Apple thought of that too. Review: I put the Apple Watch Ultra through a Tough Mudder
How to use your Apple Watch’s built-in Walkie Talkie
Let’s take a look at how to set up and use the Apple Watch’s built-in Walkie Talkie app to stay in touch with those your care about.
Requirements
You and at least one contact with an iPhone running iOS 12.4 or later (with FaceTime enabled) and an Apple Watch running WatchOS 5.3 or later. Both are several years old at this point, with the iPhone and Apple watch now sporting iOS 16 and Watch OS 9, respectively. The initial setup should take about a minute, and subsequent connections would basically be instant.
How do I make myself unavailable or disable the Walkie-Talkie app?
There are a few ways to do this: You can do this by tapping Add Friends (in red, on the right, above). When you do, you’ll be presented with a list of your contacts. Tap one to send them an invite. Once they accept, you can proceed to the next step. If you were previously connected with another contact, or it’s been a while since the last time you chatted with this contact, chances are it will take a few seconds for the Walkie-Talkie app to check their availability. Also: How to pair and unpair an Apple Watch If you have mobility issues, or you’d rather just toggle your connection on and off with a single tap, you can enable this mode by going into the Settings app on your Apple watch and turning on Tap to Talk under the Walkie-Talkie section. With this mode enabled, one tap will open the mic and a second will close it. Also: Stop your Apple Watch battery from dying with this trick
From your watch face, swipe up from the bottom of your display to open the Apple Watch’s Control Center. In there, find the Walkie-Talkie icon. If it’s yellow, that means the app is enabled and you are available. Tap it once to make yourself unavailable and disable the app. When you’re ready to be available again, simply tap the grayed-out icon to re-enable it.From within the app itself, tap the Walkie-Talkie toggle seen on the top left in the image within Step 2. The toggle being on the right with a green indicator means the app is enabled and you’re available, while the toggle being on the left and gray means you’re unavailable.Enable theater mode. This will automatically prevent incoming Walkie-Talkie conversations from happening until you disable it again. Set your iPhone or Apple Watch to Do Not Disturb mode. Your Apple Watch will always adhere to the rules you’ve set up in your iPhone’s Do Not Disturb settings, meaning incoming Walkie-Talkie conversations will be blocked unless you’ve chosen to allow t them through your current Do Not Disturb mode.
How do I delete a Friend from the Walkie-Talkie app?
If there’s someone you no longer want in your list of Friends in the app, all you need to do is find them in your Friends list and swipe left on their name. This will display a red X. Tap the X to delete the entry. You’ll need to re-invite them if you’d like to contact them again from within the Walkie-Talkie app. Note: This action does not remove this person from your iPhone’s contact list.
What do I do if I’m having trouble finding the Walkie-Talkie app or sending and receiving invitations?
It is possible to delete the Walkie-Talkie app from your Apple Watch. If you think you might have done this in the past, you just need to download it again from the App Store on your Apple Watch The most common cause for issues with the Walkie-Talkie app itself is actually FaceTime on your iPhone. Walkie-Talkie relies on the same platform as FaceTime, meaning you and your contact will both need to have FaceTime installed and enabled. If you run into any problems, make sure both of you enable FaceTime, and double-check that you’re both signed into FaceTime on your iPhones. Once you’ve done this, you should both restart your Apple Watches and iPhones. This should clear up the vast majority of difficulties with connecting and chatting.
