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....

 

[meliscan]

Also iMessage is a bit finicky on the ship in my past experience. Some days it is wonderful, other days very delayed. What'sApp has worked best for us over the past 2 years. Far better than the app. With the app we have often had delays. If you have an old phone that coudl be connected to the ships wifi it would be the best thing for communication.

 

[apathetic]

This is an interesting question. You can connect the watch to wifi w/o your phone. At least I think you can. I've never tried. But under settings, there is an option to connect to wifi and select a network. I've never tried w/o a phone, but it lists all networks near me. In theory, you could connect the watch to DCL_guest and use the apps on the watch. I've never tried this, so maybe someone else has.