Apple wants you to be able to switch between Apple Watches, other accessories just by picking them up

A newly granted patent (number 11,343,371) shows that Apple wants you to be able to switch between Apple Watches and other accessories just by picking them up.

About the patent

Watches and fitness trackers can be paired, typically though Bluetooth wireless communication, with a companion device to provide health tracking functions and potentially other capabilities. For example, an Apple Watch can gather health data through one or more sensors and then transmit this health data to, say, an iPhone. 

Naturally, Apple would love for you to own multiple Apple Watches. And it wants you to be able to transition between them by picking up a particular watch to “activate” it.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Systems, methods and non-transitory computer readable media for allowing a user to switch between wearable items that have been paired or associated with an electronic device, such as a smartphone, are described. In one embodiment, the wearable items automatically detect a removal of a first wearable item from a user’s body and an attachment of a second wearable item to the user’s body. 

“Messages from the wearable items are transmitted to the electronic device to allow the electronic device to switch the active wearable item from the first wearable item to the second wearable item. The switch can occur while the electronic device is in a locked state, and the electronic device can synchronize the second wearable item with data received from the first wearable item.”