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As I was watching hours upon hours of 2020 election results in the United States I was playing on my Apple Watch and found a way to use it as a camera remote for my iPhone. That’s a super neat feature and can be used in scenarios where I can’t hold my phone to take a picture.
Set up Apple Watch as a camera remote
It’s all build in and as long as your Apple Watch is connected to your iPhone you are good to go. Here are the steps to follow.
Set up your iPhone for the shot you want to take. This could include putting it on a tripod, like I am in the demo video.
Go to the camera app on your Watch and click it to open.
Click on the app (second row from the bottom in this case) and it opens.
In this case my phone is just pointing at the watch. To take a picture just click the white button. You can also do 3-second delay, though, I’m not sure how that might be the best use case given that I’m not by the phone anyway.
Read next: Apple Watch keypad: How to “push 1” during a phone call on an Apple Watch
You can see a a small version of the picture that was taken on the Apple Watch as well.
How far will my Apple Watch camera remote reach?
Realistically, I would think that for most photoshoots you’d want to be within sightline of the phone anyway. But my phone was in my basement office while I was a floor up when I got my Apple Watch camera rote to work.
Video and pictures?
You can use your Apple Watch as a remote to take pictures or videos. Just make sure the iPhone is set to the correct function before you walk away form it. You can also see the framing before clicking take picture or record. The content asset taken can then also be reviewed on your watch.
Demo video: Apple Watch as camera remote
This video shows me demonstrating how it works.
The video was livestreamed to YouTube and Twitter. If you want to easily produce live videos that can be used after the livestream as well, follow my tips here.
How to use your Apple Watch as a camera remote https://t.co/UHP6qYsQk5
— Christoph Trappe (@CTrappe) November 5, 2020