[How-To Guide]: Easily Unlock iPhone Using Your Apple Watch In 2021

If unlocking your iPhone using Face ID is not possible for you due to wearing a mask, here is how to easily unlock your iPhone using Apple Watch to bypass facial recognition altogether. After weeks of beta testing via its development channel, Apple recently rolled out iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 to the public. Besides offering a bevy of new features, the big firmware release fixes the screen display issue, brings dual-SIM 5G connectivity, and much more. Among these additions is the ability to skip Face ID functionality and instead unlock iPhone from Apple Watch.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic. Health authorities worldwide are encouraging the use of face masks as a form of the first line of defense against virulent infection.

With ever-evolving protocols comes another issue of unlocking a mobile phone with a protective covering hiding your facial features required to authenticate the login. This also applies to iOS devices equipped with Apple’s Face ID technology.

After a while, it gets rather irritating to constantly adjust your mask to unlock your iPhone.

Moreover, not many buy into the utility of entering a passcode either.

Taking these developments into consideration, Apple has chimed in with a new solution to address the issue.

If you don’t know how to use this feature, we are here to help with unlocking your iPhone through your Apple Watch.

unlock iphone using apple watch guide

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How To Unlock Your iPhone Using Apple Watch In 2 Seconds:

Taking your mask off just to log in to your iPhone may sound counterintuitive in these times. On the other hand, punching in a passcode does present an alternative way to entering your device but many find repeatedly typing passwords cumbersome.

With that said, Apple Watch receives a functionality that enables users to unlock their iPhones similar to how it already works with Mac computers. But, you can only use Apple Watch to unlock your handset. This means you can’t complete purchases for Apple Store or Apple Pay via Apple Watch. So this is something you should keep in mind before going ahead with the following method.

Here are the steps to use Apple Watch for unlocking iPhone:

Step 1: On your iPhone, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Now head over to the Face ID & Passcode menu.

Step 3: Enter your iPhone’s Passcode when prompted.

Step 4: Next, scroll down and tap on the Unlock with Apple Watch option.

Step 5: Here, simply turn the toggle switch to the ON position next to Apple Watch.

Step 6: That’s it.

After completing the above steps, make sure that you are wearing your Apple Watch on your wrist the next time you want to unlock your iPhone. Furthermore, your watch must have passcode protection enabled for this feature to work properly. To set a passcode on your Apple Watch, launch the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, and select Passcode > Turn Passcode On, and type in your desired login code.

Using the Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone for the first time will require you to use your passcode. This is a one-time security measure. Once done, after each time you unlock, you will feel haptic feedback on your wrist signaling successful device unlock. However, you will have to re-enter the passcode if you use this iPhone unlock method after taking off your Apple Watch. That’s all there is to know about this process.