Photos: 20 essential Apple Watch apps for busy professionals

Drafts 5

Until Apple releases its Voice Memos app for WatchOS, we're left turning to third-party apps. In the case of Drafts 5, that may be an improvement.

Drafts 5 is a free note-taking app for iOS and WatchOS that makes note-taking on your wrist dead simple: Just open the app, press the microphone button, dictate your note, tap Done, and watch the note show up in the app's inbox.

Notes can be tagged and sorted in a variety of ways, but those features are best done with the accompanying iOS app. The best feature of Drafts 5 on the Apple Watch is how simple and accurate it is--I use it regularly to make myself quick notes from my wrist and rarely touch the iOS app to sort them.

Drafts 5 is the newer, free upgrade to Drafts 4, which costs $4.99 on the App Store. Many of the features in Drafts 5 are new, but unfortunately, some premium features that now require a subscription were a standard part of Drafts 4's price.

SEE: Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

Image: Apple/Agile Tortoise, Inc.

Hours

For many kinds of work (especially in tech) it's essential to keep track of time, and Hours is a cross-platform time tracking tool that can be a boon to those who frequently forget to log their hours on particular projects.

Using the Apple Watch version effectively requires setting up Hours on iOS, but once you do it's worth it: Hours will remind you to start and stop timers if you schedule certain things for certain times of the day, add notes to entries, and (for $7.99 a month) automatically syncs your entries to its cloud-based server.

Hours is also available for teams, so everyone in your office with an Apple Watch can benefit from this useful tool.

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Image: Apple/Hours LLC

IFTTT

I've covered IFTTT for TechRepublic before, but I didn't mention how useful IFTTT can be on the Apple Watch.

You won't be able to create workflows on your Apple Watch or use it to execute complicated tasks; what you can do is trigger single-tap actions just like those in the IFTTT iOS widget, making the WatchOS version of IFTTT essentially an extension of the iOS widget.

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Image: Apple/IFTTT Inc.

Microsoft PowerPoint

If you've ever given a PowerPoint presentation, you know how important it is to have a reliable remote to move through your slides; you probably also know the presentation remotes can be unreliable and apt to disappear.

Microsoft's PowerPoint app for iOS comes with a WatchOS version that makes the Apple Watch act just like a presentation remote, allowing users to advance and reverse slides, restart presentations, or end a slide show.

Professionals who have an Apple Watch and make frequent use of PowerPoint shouldn't leave home without this app.

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Image: Apple/Microsoft

Circa

Business is increasingly global, and that means collaborating with people that are often working at very different times of the day. Circa makes that easier with its iOS and Apple Watch app.

For $3.99 Circa users get a visual look at work schedules around the world: Set a city, specify business hours, and look at Circa's clock to see if your overseas colleagues are there when you need them.

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Image: Apple/Kostiantyn Zuiev

Chirp

The official Twitter app has abandoned the Apple Watch, so devout tweeters need to look to third-party applications to fill the gap. Chirp is one such app, and it does a great job of turning the Apple Watch into a Twitter machine.

Chirp is free, though a one-time in-app purchase unlocks the ability to tweet using dictation on the Apple Watch.

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Image: Apple/Will Bishop

​Clicker

There are various reasons why you might need to keep count of things during the day (e.g., the number of conference attendees, or the number of bugs resolved), and Clicker is a simple Apple Watch app that lets you do just that. Clicker only has one button, which when tapped adds to a running total tracked by the app.

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Image: Apple/The Iconfactory

TripIt

Keeping track of a travel itinerary can be difficult, but TripIt makes it easier. This Apple Watch app will compile trip information including flights, hotel reservations, and more into one list simply by forwarding pertinent reservation emails to it. TripIt will also ping you with alerts, changes you may not know about (gates changes, etc.), travel time reminders, and more. It's one handy app to have on your wrist.

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Image: Apple/TripIt

Spark

If the default email client for the Apple Watch lacks features and is difficult to work with, then Spark is the complete opposite. Not only does Spark filter emails to make finding important messages easier, it also allows you to snooze emails to get reminded of them later, add text formatting like bolding and italics, and even dictate full emails from your wrist.

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Image: Apple/Readdle Inc.

Just Press Record

Just Press Record is a simple app, at least on the Apple Watch: You tap the record button and start talking, listening, or making a note. That may not seem like much for $4.99, but it comes with additional features, specifically speech-to-text and cloud syncing, that make it worth it for business professionals who are looking for a solid note-taking and recording app.

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Image: Apple/Open Planet Software

ETA

It's happened to all business travelers: You're in an unfamiliar city, and you have no idea if you're going to be late to a cross-town destination. If you had ETA on your Apple Watch, you would know.

ETA gives travel times to any destination you ask it to, and it adjusts that ETA in real time based on traffic conditions. It also uses historic traffic data to inform you if you'll have an easier time getting somewhere later in the day, and it does all of that right from your watch face.

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Image: Apple/Eastwood

Find Near Me

You never know what you might need to find in a new city, and searching online for a particular thing, like a grocery store, pharmacy, or bank, might not take you to the nearest option.

Find Near Me is designed to eliminate those headaches and can locate nearly anything you need to search for. It can locate Wi-Fi hotspots, taxi companies, ATMs, hospitals--you name it. If you want to be sure you don't get confused in a new location, you should install Find Near Me.

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Image: Apple/XLabz Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Cheatsheet Widget

Apple Watch faces can display a lot of information, but what if you want to get something, namely a bit of custom text, on your watch face? Cheatsheet Widget is what you need.

This fantastic little app allows you to create custom watch face widgets that say anything you want--hotel room numbers, frequently-missed highway exits, the name of a person you're having a meeting with, or anything else you need to remember at a glance.

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Image: Apple/Christopher Adam Overholtzer

Fantastical 2

If you aren't satisfied with the basic Apple Watch calendar app, you aren't alone--it doesn't give the flexibility, customization, or essential options busy professionals need.

Thankfully, there's Fantastical 2, which does what the stock WatchOS calendar app does not. If you consult your daily agenda on your watch with any frequency, you need Fantastical 2.

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Image: Apple/Flexibits Inc.

Flipboard

I love the fact that Apple has added the News app to the Apple Watch, but I don't like how limited it is. If you're a news junkie who is dissatisfied like me, you should give Flipboard a try.

Not only is the basic Flipboard app great for curating news items, its Apple Watch app stands out by delivering you headlines you actually want to see instead of the basics that Apple funnels to the watch. 

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Image: Apple/Flipboard Inc.

1password

1Password is one of numerous password managers that are available, but its Apple Watch app makes it a stand-out choice for busy professionals. 

The Apple Watch version of 1Password doesn't offer all of the password manager's regular features, but it does generate one-time passwords for two-factor authentication logins right on your wrist, making it a great way to avoid having to constantly fish for a smartphone to log in to your favorite secure sites. (Free)

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workoutdoors

Whether you need to get away for an outdoor trek or simply want a better way to navigate from your wrist, WorkOutDoors is a superb way to view maps on the Apple Watch.

WorkOutDoors uses clearly colored vector maps that are easy to view, uses the Watch's GPS so a phone isn't necessary, stores maps locally on the Watch, can be customized to display statistics, and more. 

In short, if you're looking for better maps on the Apple Watch, WorkOutDoors is it. This app isn't free, but it's well worth the price. ($4.99)

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homerun

If you make extensive use of Apple's HomeKit smart home automation platform, you may wish your Apple Watch could do more to support your programmed routines, or maybe even display complications that automatically trigger a routine to run. You're in luck because HomeRun for HomeKit does exactly that. While HomeRun isn't free, it's well worth it for smart home enthusiasts using Apple's platform. ($2.99) 

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microsoft-translate

If you travel a lot for business, you can quickly run into language barriers. Thankfully, Microsoft has built an excellent Apple Watch version of its translator app that can make getting on-the-fly translations as simple as talking to your watch. (Free)

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elk

Along with language barriers, business travelers encounter currency barriers as well--for instance, how much should you expect to spend on dinner in Singapore?

Elk Travel Currency Converter makes currency conversions simple and quick, and it even uses the Apple Watch's GPS sensor to tell it which country you're in, so there's no digging through a list to find the right currency. (Free)

Also see

• Apple Watch Series 4: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic)
• The Apple Developer Program: An insider's guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic download)
• Mobile device computing policy (TechRepublic Premium)
• More than iPhones: The new hardware you can expect from Apple (ZDNet)
• Apple Watch: All the health and fitness features, explained (CNET)
• The Apple Watch may have saved a teen's life (CNET)
• Apple: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic on Flipboard)

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