Apple Watch Theater Mode Tips and Tricks

Apple has finally provided a solution for those unpleasant moments when the Apple Watch might disturb nearby audience in theaters and cinemas. Various notifications and alarms along accidental wrist raises will usually light up the smartwatch’s display and annoy people nearby and even yourself, while watching an interesting movie or following a nice play.

However, starting with watchOS 3.2 you don’t have to worry about this risk anymore. If you upgrade to the latest OS version, your wrist-gadget will be equipped with the new Theater Mode. This new cinema setting is specially tailored for the time spent in auditoriums. It’s a setting between the Silent Mode and the Do Not Disturb feature of the Apple Watch, allowing you to perceive notifications without getting audio or visual alerts.

What Does Theater Mode Do?
When the Apple Watch is run in the new Theater Mode it will automatically turn on the gadget’s Silent Mode, as well as prevent the screen from lighting up without any physical action from the user. This means that the activate on wrist raise feature is bypassed and the display will turn on only if you tap the screen, or press one of the available buttons, Digital Crown or Side Button.
Fact: The controlled light up allows you to mask the Apple Watch screen before checking a notification and avoid nearby disturbance.

How To Enable/Disable Apple Watch Theater Mode
Using this new cinema feature is very easy. Whenever you enter an auditorium, a meeting or any other gathering that you don’t want to disturb with accidental screen flashes, swipe up from the bottom of the Apple Watch display to bring up the Control Center. Notice, the two theater masks forming an icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen, right next to the Ping iPhone command and below the Do Not Disturb mode. Tap it and Theater Mode will be enabled. When you finish, tap the same icon again to disable it.

Fact: Two yellow Theater masks are displayed in the Apple Watch status bar to let you know when the cinema mode is on.

Tip: You can also activate and deactivate the Apple Watch Theater Mode with the help of Siri. Press & hold the Digital Crown to wake the watch OS assistant and command something like “Enable Theater Mode!”

Apple Watch Theater Mode vs Do Not Disturb
At first glance you might wanna ask why was this new cinema mode needed, with the Silent and Do Not Disturb options already available. Well, the difference is that in Silent Mode, although audio is deactivated, Apple Watch screen will still flash and light does disturb in cinemas. On the other side, Do Not Disturb prevents you from being aware of notifications. Meaning that the device won’t trigger any warning signs when a new message, mail, call or anything else comes in. Which leaves you exposed in situations when you expect important news.

Fact: In Theater Mode, the Apple Watch does provide a haptic feedback when a notification lands in, letting you feel that news has arrived and providing you the option to discretely light up the screen and check it!