How to find a misplaced iPhone using the Apple Watch

Locate your iPhone from your Apple Watch by pinging it. You can also make your iPhone flash its LED light to speed your recovery efforts.

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.

Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms

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Matt Elliott

May 13, 2015 11:58 a.m. PT

The ping feature, thus far, is my favorite feature of the Apple Watch. Sure, I'm still getting to know its various charms, but right from the start I've come to rely upon and love the ability to ping my iPhone from the Apple Watch, saving me from needing to ask a friend or my wife to call my phone to help me find it.

To use the ping feature, your Apple Watch will need to be connected (via either Bluetooth or the same Wi-Fi network) to your iPhone. To ping a misplaced iPhone, swipe up from the watch-face view to call up Glances. The leftmost Glances screen features the ping button below the Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode buttons.

Tap the ping button and your iPhone will emit a short pinging sound to help you locate it, and your iPhone will play this sound even if it's in silent mode.

Additionally, if you tap and hold the ping button, your iPhone will flash its LED light as it plays the pinging sound, which is helpful for people with deafness or hearing loss. It also makes it easier to locate your iPhone in a dark room or at night.

For more tips, check out our guide to using the Apple Watch.