How to use the Apple Watch as a remote shutter release with third-party apps

With your Apple Watch, you can trick your iPhone into thinking you have pressed the volume button to take a photo with Camera+, Flickr, Snapchat and other third-party apps.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.

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Matt Elliott

May 21, 2015 12:25 p.m. PT

With the default Camera app, it's easy to use the Apple Watch as a remote shutter release. When you launch the Camera app on your Apple Watch, it opens the Camera app on your iPhone and offers a live preview and on-screen buttons to snap a shot or self-timed burst mode shots.

Thanks to a crafty Reddit user's discovery, you can also use the Apple Watch to take better selfies with third-party apps by tricking your iPhone into thinking you are pressing one of the volume buttons, which act as shutter-release buttons for some apps. To do so, open Snapchat or another compatible app to the camera-mode screen. Then on your Apple Watch, swipe up to access Glances and find the Music screen. Simply twist the Digital Crown and your iPhone will take a picture. You can also use the on-screen volume-up or -down button.

I found it worked with Camera+, Flickr and Snapchat. It also worked with Hyperlapse, but I found it was easier to control starting and stopping a time-lapse video with the on-screen volume controls; turning the Digital Crown stopped a video as soon as it started.

(Via WonderHowTo)