What is the Raindrop Icon on the Apple Watch?

Apple Watch is a neat piece of kit that has taken the design genius of Apple and the usability of a smart device and made it practical. It’s small enough to wear all day, the battery is enough for most uses and there is enough going on to make it worthy of the ‘smart’ moniker. But what do the little icons mean? Like what’s the raindrop icon on Apple Watch?

The Apple Watch is a great piece of design and miniaturization. Second only to the Samsung Galaxy Watch in my opinion, the Apple Watch fits right into the Apple ecosystem and will work with your iPhone without having to do much configuration at all. It’s small, light and looks great on the wrist. It is pretty smart too.

Apple Watch icons

If you’re new to the Apple Watch, you have some new icons to get to grips with. In typical Apple fashion, they are very straightforward but will likely be a little confusing until you know what each means. This page will describe each icon you’re likely to see and what it signifies.

Apple Watch icons will appear above the 12 0’clock and will vary depending on what’s happening with the watch.

Red dot icon

The red dot icon means you have a notification waiting for you. Swipe down from the top of the watch screen to read it. Once you have read all your notifications, the red dot icon will disappear.

Green lightning icon

The green lightning icon showing on the Apple Watch means the watch is currently charging.

Red lightning icon

The red lightning means the opposite to green. It means you’re running low on power and need to charge your watch soon.

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Blue raindrop icon

The blue raindrop icon on the Apple Watch indicates the Water Lock is active. This is to stop the screen being accidentally activated when you’re swimming or doing watersports. Turn the digital crown to disable or enable Water Lock.

Purple moon icon

The purple moon icon on the Apple Watch means you are in Do Not Disturb mode. Either at night or during quiet time, this mode means you don’t get any alerts, notifications or anything to disturb you except alarms.

Yellow airplane icon

The yellow airplane icon on the Apple Watch is Airplane Mode. It works the same as iPhone, in that it turns off any connectivity until you’re ready to rejoin the world. The Apple Watch and iPhone have independent Airplane Modes so you may need to enable or disable both for it to work properly.

Orange masks icon

The yellow icon that looks like two theater masks is Theater Mode. This is a different Do Not Disturb mode where the screen remains black and will not alert you or sound any alarms. You have to enable and disable this mode in Control Center.

Four green dot icon

The green dots signify a cell connection. The more dots there are the stronger the signal. Four dots is a full signal while three is a weaker signal, two is even weaker etc.

Red X icon

The red X icon on an Apple Watch means your watch has lost its cell connection. This will disappear on its own once it regains a signal and needs no interaction.

WiFi icon

Seeing the WiFi icon on the Apple Watch means you are connected directly to a WiFi signal. This is a direct connection and not through your iPhone.

Red phone strikethrough icon

An icon of a red phone struck through means your Apple Watch cannot connect to your iPhone. This can be caused by not having your iPhone with you, not in range of the Apple Watch or something else.

Bluetooth icon

The Bluetooth icon is universal and means your Apple Watch is currently paired with a Bluetooth device. There are a number of compatible devices available and your watch is currently talking to one of them.

Purple arrow icon

The purple icon on an Apple Watch is for location services. An app you’re currently using has a location feature which is currently active. This icon will remain until you stop using the app.

Blue padlock icon

The blue padlock on an Apple Watch means the watch is locked and you will need to unlock it with your PIN.

As you can see, there are a few icons to learn but they are logical and in many cases, self-explanatory. Apple have done an excellent job in maintaining usability and offering advanced smart features without complicating what is usually a very simple device.