New Apple Watches don’t use iPhone GPS
Apple takes advantage ofan official support page to clarify the use of an iPhone’s GPS by Apple Watch. Thereby, Apple Watches from Series 2 have their own GPS, but can use that of a nearby iPhone, thus draining the battery of the smartphone rather than the internal battery of the connected watch and thus offering better autonomy. Cupertino makes it clear that Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Series 8 and Apple Watch SE 2022 no longer adopt this behavior and will therefore only use their built-in GPS, even if your iPhone is nearby.
Operation that cannot be personalized
So the same support ticket confirms that Apple Watches before 2022 take advantage of an iPhone’s GPS when available nearby, without the user being able to control this operation. Indeed, some users might prefer to use only the GPS of the watch (even if they do not have the most recent model), or on the contrary rely as much as possible on that of the iPhone depending on the performance, endurance and battery level of each device, or to switch from one to the other at the right time to optimize autonomy.
Find our videos on the Apple Watch 2022
The editor recommends: