Low Power Mode will turn off these features on your Apple Watch

Apple Watch Series 8 in Low Power Mode
Apple Watch Series 8 in Low Power Mode (Image credit: Apple)

Almost a week after Apple showed off Low Power Mode for the Apple Watch at its "Far Out" special event, we finally know exactly what features will be affected when you turn it on.

As spotted by MacRumors, the company has added a new document to the Apple Support website called "Use Low Power Mode on your Apple Watch." The document, which coincides with the release of watchOS 9 earlier today, talks about how to turn on the feature and what it will do for your watch.

While turning on Low Power Mode will extend the battery life of your Apple Watch, the feature does not come without a price — twelve other features will be affected when you use it.

What features will be affected by Low Power Mode?

Apple Watch Ultra

Apple Watch Ultra (Image credit: Apple)

Apple says that the following features will be turned off completely when Low Power Mode is turned on:

  • Always On display
  • Heart rate notifications for irregular rhythm, high heart rate, and low heart rate
  • Background heart rate measurements
  • Background blood oxygen measurements
  • Start workout reminder

If your iPhone isn't nearby your Apple Watch, the following features will also be turned off:

  • Wi-Fi and cellular connections
  • Incoming phone calls and notifications

Lower Power Mode, while not turning these things off completely, also has the following effects:

  • Making a phone call can take longer
  • Background app refresh happens less frequently
  • Complications update less frequently
  • Siri can take longer to process a request
  • Some animations and scrolling might appear less smooth

As you can tell, this mode turns off a lot of core features, especially when your iPhone isn't around, so you're unlikely to find it useful except for certain situations where you desperately need to preserve battery life. It's still a great feature, but just keep in mind that you are turning off a lot by extending that battery life.

Lower Power Mode is available as part of watchOS 9 which was released today alongside iOS 16 and tvOS 16.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.

TOPICS