IMessage and Apple Watch

[Sleepyluke]

I know IMessage works on the ships WIFI, but have a scenario to run by you smart folks. My daughter has an Apple watch that is linked to my IPhone. She is going with her grandparents (we are not going) to Alaska this summer and we are trying to figure out if the Apple watch will work to communicate with them onboard. In my head it will work just fine, but curious if anyone has actually done it to confirm before we rely on that and it is a no go. Don't want to go the phone route, unless we have to.

 

[gatorlisa]

I'm pretty sure the answer to this is that it will not work. An Apple watch can work via Wi-Fi with the phone no present, but it has to be on a Wi-Fi network that the phone it's paired to has previously been connected to. So if her watch is paired to your phone, then her watch will work without your phone present at home or other places where you phone has previously connected to the network. But in this case, if the phone it's paired to is not present on the ship and has never been connected to that ship's Wi-Fi, then the watch will not be connected to the ship's Wi-Fi. You can't manually connect an Apple watch to a Wi-Fi network...it inherits its network information from the phone it's paired to.

 

[Sleepyluke]

I'm pretty sure the answer to this is that it will not work. An Apple watch can work via Wi-Fi with the phone no present, but it has to be on a Wi-Fi network that the phone it's paired to has previously been connected to. So if her watch is paired to your phone, then her watch will work without your phone present at home or other places where you phone has previously connected to the network. But in this case, if the phone it's paired to is not present on the ship and has never been connected to that ship's Wi-Fi, then the watch will not be connected to the ship's Wi-Fi. You can't manually connect an Apple watch to a Wi-Fi network...it inherits its network information from the phone it's paired to.

Exactly the answer I needed! Thank you for the clarification.

Now to decide if we just pair to the grandparents for the week....