Where this stands
KeptNote for iPhone and Apple Watch is coming to the App Store. It is not there yet. This article describes the watch app.
Choose the Reef
On the watch, open KeptNote. On the Ready screen, turn the Digital Crown down to Settings.
Under Reef, pick one of three.
- Quiet, with the line Night water. Rocks, sand and small coral along the bottom, deep teal water above, and faint light from the surface. It is the plainest.
- Between, with the line The reef begins. This is the starting choice. It adds a clam with its pearl, a coral head and kelp at the sides and on the floor. The middle stays open water, so the time and the buttons stay easy to read.
- Full, with the line The grown reef. More coral, the clam with its pearl, a turtle resting on the floor, and sunlight from the surface. It has the most color.
Every choice fades to black at the edges, so the picture meets the edge of the watch. Your choice also sets the water behind the KeptNote complications.
What moves
On Ready and while you record, one creature at a time drifts through: a mandarinfish, a moon jelly or a turtle. The turtle does not swim on Full, because Full already has one resting on the floor. The light from the surface shimmers with the level of your voice. When you press Mark, a few bubbles rise.
With Reduce Motion on, the creature holds still and the light does not shimmer.
When you stop, the reef grows into Full for a moment, whichever you chose, and the word Kept. appears. Then the watch goes back to Ready.
Always On
When you lower your wrist, an Always On watch dims the screen. KeptNote lets the picture drop to about a sixth of its brightness, so the floor of the reef is only just visible. The time stays. There is no creature and no button. This is the same on Quiet, Between and Full.
When the iPhone is the one recording, the watch may update less often with your wrist down, so it can show whole minutes instead of seconds. Raise your wrist and it catches up.