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Apple Watch How-To: Take and share screenshots from your Apple Watch

Now that you have your Apple Watch, you might be curious to know how to take a screenshot from your your new device. The process is a little different from taking screenshots on an iPhone or iPad and the photos aren’t automatically saved to the watch, but you may want to screenshot fitness and activity achievements or show friends your customized Apple Watch face. In this how-to article I will quickly discuss how to take a screenshot on your Apple Watch and how you can make the process easier.

On the Apple Watch, go to the screen you want to capture. Then you are going to press the Digital Crown and the side button at the same time. I recommend holding the watch with your thumb, putting the pointer finger on the Digital Crown and the middle finger on the side button. When you do this, the screen flashes white for a brief second, you hear the same shutter sound that you are used to hearing when you do a screenshot on your iOS device, and feel a tiny light bump on your wrist.

To find the screenshot, you are going to go to the Photos app on your iPhone. It will be in the bottom of your pictures under All Photos if you are using iCloud Photo Library. If you are not using iCloud Photo Library, the screenshot from your watch will be at the bottom of the Camera Roll. From here you can share the screenshot just like you would a photo you captured directly from your iPhone.

By default, the Photos app that’s on the Apple Watch syncs the photos that you selected as your Favorites. So if you were to go to the Photos app on your Apple Watch, you will not see the screenshot you just took. You can change that behavior by opening up the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and selecting Photos. Then under Photo Syncing, you can select which album you want to sync to your watch.

If you choose Recently Added, the screenshots you take on your watch (and each photo you take on your iPhone), will now appear in the Photos app on the Apple Watch. Whichever album you choose to sync from your iPhone, those pictures are still viewable from your Apple Watch even when it is out of range of the iPhone as long as it has recently synced. Here you can also change the limit as to how many photos will be stored on your watch under Photos Limit.

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Comments

  1. On iPhone, you can use my app ScreenShare https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/screenshare-share-screenshot/id949213662
    Screenshots will appear in the app itself or in the widget.

  2. kadajsouba - 9 years ago

    Woah woah, wait a minute. What is that “Hidden” folder in photos app? How did you get that?

  3. Robert Dupuy - 9 years ago

    My apple watch is mostly in the drawer until they fix the issues.

    One, when you get sweaty the screen stops responding. This is not an issue with a real fitness watch with dedicated hardware buttons.

    The Apple does have a dedicated hardware button, but you can’t use it to stop the timer, say on a timed distance run. Instead its dedicated to social feeds. WOW – just WOW.

    The watch isn’t even usable for one of its main purposes but they dedicated that needed hardware button to social feeds.

    Many other people have listed the watches shortcomings. It might be nice to take a call when your phone is in the pocket, but the speakerphone is tinny.

    The siri might be nice, but they made siri silent.

    The watch did spark my imagination in how it might be useful….if they fix it.

    You can’t even turn your wrist to see the time, that only works intermittently.

    • Robert Dupuy - 9 years ago

      by the way, while we are listing shortcomings, I want the watch to actually be a phone, not connected to the phone.

      No, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t replace my phone with a watch, I just mean, if I’m out running, I don’t have a phone in my pocket, so it might be nice to actually have the watch as a reserve phone…

      Watch as another screen for my phone – that whole concept is borked.

      • So tell us about your google watch. I will tell you the apple watch is absolutely fantastic. I can’t even imagine going without for one day, soon everyone will have an apple watch. I never have to look for the phone I can answer phone calls on my watch, respond to text messages receive stock alters the, read email track my heart rate while jogging. This is how I know you don’t actually have an app,e watch if you did you would use it running as it tracks your heart rate, calories, distance, etc. and then backs up the data in the iPhone health journal. Nice try Mr Samsung

    • Wow just how sweaty do you get? I use my apple watch everyday at the gym, works really great for me. I have. I issues at all using google the watch, I suspect you are another Samsung family member posting comments again.

      • Tory Klementsen - 9 years ago

        Yeah! I’ve taken my watch into the shower, into the lake (didn’t swim, was throwing the ball for the dog), and have run in the rain NUMEROUS times and the screen works just fine. Plus, I don’t need to push any buttons while I run…that is the POINT! All I do is lift my arm and it shows what I want. I just set it to show the last used app in settings.

        So either you are Ziggy running and sweating under a constant rain cloud, or you’re exaggerating greatly.

        Plus the speaker is not tinny at all. Everyone I’ve talked to, which I only do when I need to, has not been able to tell if I’m on my regular phone or the watch. I can hear them fine unless I’m in a noisy environment, in which case I don’t answer. Nice try there.

        While it would be nice to have the watch as a phone, and doable. However, I actually never run without a phone in case of emergency, because sometimes I want to take a photo, so that my husband can track where I am if I’m out longer than he expects, to pay for things with Apple Pay or my Sbux card, and because it has all my emergency information on it that isn’t on my Road ID. I’m sure at some point a watch can do all of that, but I’m cool with my phone doing that snugly in my pack since I don’t run without water and am bringing my pack anyhow.

  4. Stephen Ellerington - 9 years ago

    “On the Apple Watch, go to the screen you want to capture. Then you are going to press the Digital Crown and the side button at the same time.”
    I think that this should read “Then you are going to press and hold the side button then press the Digital Crown.” That is how it works on my Apple Watch.