The Annoyance of the Stand Ring
The core health philosophy of the Apple Watch revolves around closing three daily Activity Rings: Move, Exercise, and Stand. The Stand ring is designed to combat the negative health effects of a sedentary lifestyle. If the watch detects that you have been sitting motionless in a chair for 50 minutes, it will aggressively vibrate your wrist at 10 minutes to the hour, displaying a notification instructing you to “Time to stand!” While this is helpful for office workers, it is incredibly annoying if you are stuck on a long airplane flight, sitting in a movie theater, or recovering in bed from an illness. If you find these hourly nagging reminders frustrating, you can turn them off permanently.
How to Turn Off Stand Reminders via iPhone
The easiest way to manage Activity notifications is through the dedicated Watch app on your paired iPhone.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Ensure you are on the My Watch tab at the bottom left of the screen.
- Scroll down the list of settings and tap on Activity.
- At the very top of this menu, look for the toggle switch labeled Stand Reminders.
- Tap the switch to turn it Off (the green background will disappear).
What Actually Happens?
By turning this setting off, you are simply disabling the notifications. The Apple Watch will immediately stop vibrating your wrist at ten minutes to the hour. However, the watch does not stop tracking your data. It will continue to silently monitor your physical movements in the background. If you do happen to stand up and walk around the kitchen for a minute, the watch will still credit you with a “Stand hour” and advance your blue Activity Ring. You have successfully eliminated the annoying nag without breaking the core fitness tracking functionality of the device.