If you wear a Covid mask or sunglasses regularly, it quickly gets boring when your iPhone fails to lock because Face ID didn’t recognize your face. But did you know that if you have an Apple Watch, you can use it to automatically unlock your iPhone when your face is partially covered? There are a few things you need to set up to make it work, which we’ll cover below. It is totally worth it and very comfortable. It’s pretty much Face ID 2.0.
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quick answer
If you want to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch, your phone and watch must be compatible and paired. Passcode and wrist detection must also be enabled on your watch. Then when you lift the phone to your face, the watch will unlock it, provided the watch is unlocked by itself.
It only takes two minutes to set things up. After that, you will no longer have to remove your sunglasses or a Covid mask when you want to unlock your iPhone with Face ID. Your Apple Watch will take care of the work for you.
Let’s first take a look at the iPhone and Apple Watch requirements to make this work.
Your iPhone needs to have Face ID activated. (iPhone X or later). It also needs iOS 14.5 or later.
Your Apple Watch must be Series 3 or later, running watchOS 7.4 or later.
Apple Watch and iPhone must be paired with each other.
Both iPhone and Apple Watch need to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.
Your Apple Watch must have a passcode, and wrist detection enabled. To enable wrist detection, go to Settings > Passcode On your Apple Watch, enable wrist detection.
Your Apple Watch must be on your wrist and unlocked (PIN must be entered.)
If your devices meet all of these requirements, go to the next section.
How to set it up
On your iPhone, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode. Enter your passcode, and on the next screen, scroll down to Unlock with Apple Watch. Change the name of your watch.
Assuming you’ve done all the requirements in the first section, toggling the feature on your iPhone screen activates it right away. From now on, if you’re wearing a mask or dark glasses, lift the iPhone up to your face. The phone will unlock, and you’ll get a slight haptic feedback from the watch (a quick double-click sound, like a dice rattling).
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