There are already more than 3,000 apps for the Apple Watch, which makes it difficult to find all of the hidden gems. How do you find the best Apple Watch apps?

Luckily, there are plenty of third-party Watch apps that deserve attention, whether they tell you when it’s going to rain or help you get stuff done. Apple is promoting Watch apps heavily in the App Store, and while the big players (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) are obvious downloads, we’ve been on the lookout for some of the other apps for the Apple Watch you might not know about.

Here are some of the best Apple Watch apps to trick out your wrist.

(This list is being updated with more great apps, so check back often.)

Productivity

Never miss a notification from work again with Slack messages on your wrist. Either a dream come true or your worst nightmare, depending on who you work with.

Things on the Apple Watch will let help you complete your Today list, view details for individual entries and use Siri to make new tasks. It looks gorgeous.

Other great todo apps are on the Watch as well, including Wunderlist, OneNote, OmniFocus, Due and Clear.

Control your Keynote presentation from your wrist. Microsoft also has a Watch remote app for PowerPoint.

1Password on the Apple Watch will let you quickly access logins and passwords you need throughout the day, like a gym locker or garage door code.

Quickly lock or unlock your Mac from your wrist. Pretty cool.

Workflow lets you complete hundreds of automated actions on the Apple Watch, from calculating the tip to translating text.

“When Apple announced the Watch, we thought Workflow would be an awesome fit,” developer Ari Weinstein told Cult of Mac. “It’s just so powerful to be able to create complex automations, or just simple shortcuts, and trigger them from a tap on your wrist.”

What better way to track your Apple Watch shipment than with the handy Deliveries Glance? Oh wait, you need a Watch first.

Hours is already the best time tracking app for the iPhone, and it makes even more sense on the Apple Watch. The apps developers have an interesting post on Medium about designing for the Apple Watch and why they decided to make Hours free.

Know when you’re getting too close to using all of your cellular data for the month.

The best journaling app simplifies recording your day on the Watch by letting you dictate a quick entry, use a last photo taken, and quickly input activities.

“Day One for Apple Watch was designed to capture a moment without leaving the moment, to create a starting point for a journal entry that can be expanded upon later,” said developer Paul Mayne. Learn more about the app on Day One’s blog.

Social

The best third-party Twitter client for the Watch so far, Twitterrific is broken down into the Glance, Recent Activity, and Notifications. You can read more about the details in the app on The Iconfactory’s blog.

Avocado, the app for couples, keeps you connected to your lover on the Apple Watch. Send smooches, photos, and your shared timeline with your significant other.

News

Yahoo News is already great at summarizing the news on the iPhone, and its team has done a fantastic job of presenting small bits of news on the Watch in an easily digestible way.

Circa is another great example of a news curator doing good work on the Watch. The app sends notifications on the most important breaking news and stories you’re following. A quick Daily Brief of the day’s news is also sent to your wrist once a day.

Keep track of your favorite teams on your wrist with constantly updated scores.

Weather

Dark Sky was practically made for the Apple Watch. It gives you a gentle nudge on your wrist when it’s about to rain, and the app’s Glance presents the current conditions and forecast.

Yahoo Weather is definitely one of the prettiest Apple Watch apps out. Worth checking out for the design alone, not to mention that it’s a great app.

Travel

Transit is one of the best public transportation tools on the iPhone, and its developers have done a great job of bringing the most necessary information to the Watch. Get directions home, a breakdown of your daily itinerary, and map pins of where to get picked up and dropped off.

Starwood was the first hotel company that signed on to work with Apple Watch, and its app will let you unlock your door at over 100 locations

You’re in a restaurant in Spain and wish you knew how to say “fork.” That’s where Babbel comes into play. It presents helpful translations in 14 languages based on the context of where you are and what you’re doing.

Fitness and Health

One of the apps Apple showed off on the Watch at its first September event, Strava is designed for athletes to track their workouts in “run” and “ride” modes, which is a feature Apple’s built-in Workout app doesn’t have.

This 7-minute workout app guides you through ab and yoga exercises from the Watch.

The creators of the MisFit fitness tracker have beautifully designed Watch app that guides you through 1, 4, and 7 minute workouts.

Get reminded to take your daily medication and keep track of your doses.

Food

Cooking with an iPhone in hand is never a good idea, so it’s completely natural for recipe apps to make their way to the Watch. Epicurious lets you work with recipes from its vast database and the Watch serves as your instructor, reminding you when to stir, pour, etc.

Track and make adjustments to your dinner reservation from the Apple Watch.

If you’re an AeroPress user, this Watch app is a godsend. It walks you through the different recipes in its iPhone app while also acting as your timer.

Order a burrito from your wrist. Why wouldn’t you want to do that?

Entertainment

Tag songs playing around you without having to pull out your iPhone. Brilliant.

Why would you want to djay from your wrist? Algoriddim thinks the functionality something Djay users will latch onto, and so it’s created perhaps the most full-featured Watch apps we’ve seen yet.

You can pick and synchronize songs right on your wrist, and the interface is surprisingly good at completely such complex tasks. The music has to be coming from the (free for a week) iPhone app over Bluetooth, but Algoriddim assures us that’s developed some “magic” to keep the user from experiencing any noticeable lag.

One of the most popular third-party podcast apps is on the Apple Watch. Overcast lets you manage playback from your wrist and get notifications for new episodes.

Finance and Shopping

Mint shows you your budget at a glance along with your spending goals.

Robinhood lets you do zero-commission stock investing and portfolio management on the Watch.

Quickly access all of your scanned rewards cards from the Watch to simplify the checkout process.



Book a hotel reservation from your wrist.