Though I review an endless variety of wearables, my daily drivers are products out of Cupertino, and my Apple Watch is pretty much an extension of my body. Meanwhile, keeping track of my iPhone, which is not strapped to my wrist, isn’t always seamless. Rather than waste time blindly looking for my phone in every corner of my home, I almost always ping the phone from my smartwatch instead. It’s obnoxious, but I have no shame. I recently learned that this simple feature has more functionality than I realized, and instead of being excited, I’m annoyed it’s not implemented differently.
If you don’t own a newer Apple Watch, it might be hard to fathom how annoying my pinging habits are to others (and, frankly, to myself). I am the domestic version of a person in a parking lot repeatedly thumbing the panic button to find their car. Every time I use the ping, I am not only blaring a cringe-worthy tone from who knows where (literally, who knows where my phone is?), I am also audibly admitting that I am both forgetful and lazy. I could retrace my steps, but instead, I’d rather play marco polo, and that’s embarrassing.