How to locate your iPhone using your Apple Watch

Learn how to use your Apple Watch to find your misplaced iPhone by getting exact directions to it, playing a sound on it, or activating its LED flash.

Locate your missing iPhone using your Apple Watch

When your iPhone is buried under sheets, left in another room, or out of sight, the obvious thing to do to locate it is to call your iPhone using another phone. However, this may not be helpful if your iPhone is in silent mode, Do Not Disturb, or has an active Focus mode.

In these situations, or if you don’t have a second phone around, you can use your Apple Watch to play a loud alarm sound on your iPhone or trigger its camera LED to blink.

Here are four ways to use your Apple Watch to locate your missing iPhone.

1. Use Precision Finding

You can use Precision Finding on the Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 to get pinpoint directions to your nearby iPhone running iOS 17. This works the same way you use Precision Finding in the Find My app to locate your AirTag or AirPods Pro case.

Here’s how to get exact directions to your iPhone using your Apple Watch:

  1. Press the Side button to open the Control Center.
  2. Tap the Ping button.
  3. Now, move around until your watch and iPhone are nearby and can establish a connection.
  4. After that, move as you’re instructed on your watch screen. You can tap the ping button on the screen to make your iPhone play a sound.
Precision Finding on Apple Watch to find iPhone

2. Play a sound on your iPhone via your Apple Watch

  1. Open the Apple Watch Control Center by pressing the side button once. On watchOS 9 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom of the watch face to open Control Center.
  2. Tap the ping button. Your iPhone will start playing a loud, high-pitched sound if it’s nearby and in range of your Apple Watch. You can tap the ping button repeatedly if needed.
Ping iPhone using Apple Watch

3. Make your iPhone’s LED light up using Apple Watch

You can make your iPhone’s LED flash light up when pinging your iPhone from your Apple Watch. To do this, tap and hold the ping button in the watchOS Control Center instead of just tapping it.

You should notice the LED flash along with the audible sound on your iPhone. This is useful if you’re trying to find your iPhone in a dark location.

Related: How to fix Apple Watch not pinging your iPhone

4. Use the Find Devices app on your Apple Watch

Like the FindMy app on iOS, iPadOS, and Mac, Apple Watch has the Find Devices app that shows you the location of your Apple devices, lets you play a sound, get directions, and activate Lost Mode.

The benefit of using this method is that it will trigger your iPhone to play the sound even if both devices are outside their Bluetooth range but connected to the internet. For example, your Apple Watch is connected to your home Wi-Fi, while your iPhone is connected to cellular data.

Here’s how to play a sound remotely on your iPhone using your Apple Watch:

  1. Open Apple’s Find Devices app on your Apple Watch.
  2. Select your iPhone from the list of devices.
  3. Scroll down and tap Play Sound.
Play Sound on iPhone using Find Devices app on Apple Watch

Your iPhone will now show the Find My iPhone Alert notification and emit a sound. Hopefully, it’s nearby, and you can locate it easily.

Find My iPhone Alert on Lock Screen

On the same note: