What the red dot on an Apple Watch means, and how to turn it off

If you own an Apple Watch, you know how convenient the device can be for keeping you connected, even when you’re not paying attention to your iPhone or don’t have it directly in front of you.

From importing emails to receiving texts and even voice calls, an Apple Watch can keep you connected to the features and apps you use most on your iPhone, and alert you to important notifications.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Apple Watch Series 5 (From $399 at Best Buy)

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

What does the red dot on an Apple Watch mean?

You may have noticed a red dot on the top of your Apple Watch — this signifies that you have unread notifications.

It’s fairly simple to check these notifications, and remove the red dot so you’re all caught up.

Here’s how to do it.

How to check notifications on your Apple Watch

1. With your watch face turned on, swipe down from the top of your screen to display the notifications you have received.

2. To read each individual notification, tap them one by one. Note that if you have several notifications, you can scroll through them by using the digital crown on your Apple Watch.

3. To delete the notification, swipe left on your watch and then hit the X key. You can also delete it by scrolling down and tapping on “Dismiss” at the bottom of the screen.

How to turn off the red dot for notifications on your Apple Watch

If you no longer want the red dot to appear whenever you have notifications, you can disable this feature via the Watch app on your iPhone.

Simply tap the Notifications option under My Watch and toggle the Notifications Indicator button to off.

You can re-enable this feature at any time by toggling the button to on, which will turn it green.