TouchTally on Apple Watch: live count, controls and wrist counting

When the iPhone is propped up two or three metres away, the screen is hard to read in the middle of a set. TouchTally puts the important numbers on your wrist instead. The Watch app needs watchOS 10 or later and installs with the iPhone app.

The live count on your wrist

Start a camera drill on the iPhone and the Watch shows the same session:

• The drill name at the top, with the label iPhone so you know where the count comes from.
• The count in large type, with its unit: TOUCHES, REPS, MAKES or DRIBBLES.
• The clock, with a pause icon when the session is paused.
• The block, such as "Set 2 of 3" or "Rest", when you train in sets.
• Makes, attempts and the percentage for shooting.
• Heart rate and calories, when the Watch is recording the workout (more on that below).

The Watch taps your wrist when the session starts and stops, when a new block starts, at every 50, and once more 3 seconds before a rest ends. You can keep your eyes on the ball and still know when the next set begins.

Controls: pause, stop and next block

Swipe down on the live screen to reach the controls.

• Pause and Resume pause the session on the iPhone.
• Stop ends the session, and the iPhone saves it as usual.
• Next block skips ahead when you train in sets, for example to cut a rest short.
• Mark set appears in session modes with sets. It ends the current set and moves on, the same as Next block.

The controls work while the Watch can reach the iPhone. If the connection drops, the buttons are turned off until it comes back. The session keeps counting on the iPhone either way.

A Health workout from the Watch

If Save to Apple Health is on in TouchTally (Settings, under Goals and Health) and the Watch app is installed, starting a session on the iPhone opens the Watch app and starts a workout there too. The Watch records heart rate and active calories during the session and saves the workout to Apple Health at the end. The iPhone then doesn't save a second copy, so the session appears in Health once.

This is also what fills in the heart rate and kcal numbers on the live screen. Without a Watch workout, those two fields stay empty and the count still works.

Count at the wrist: jump rope without the camera

Not every session needs the phone camera. On the Watch home screen, under Count at the wrist, tap Jump rope and start skipping. The Watch counts from its own motion sensors, so the iPhone can stay in your bag.

Wrist sessions are saved to Apple Health as workouts when the Watch has Health permission and the count is above zero. They are not added to TouchTally's History on the iPhone, so they don't change your records or streak there. The Watch's own Streak complication does count the day as a training day. For a full session with records, use the camera or sound counting described in the jump rope counter post.

With Pro, the same menu has Dribbling for basketball at the wrist. The camera version is covered in the basketball dribble counter post.

The Watch home screen and complication

When no session is running, the Watch home screen shows your day streak in large type, your last drill with your best (for example "Dribbling · best 214"), and the Count at the wrist buttons. Below them: "Start a camera drill on your iPhone to see it here."

The Streak complication, "Your day streak and last session.", fits circular, rectangular, inline and corner watch faces. Depending on the size, it shows the streak, the last drill and best, how many training days you have this week against your goal, "Weekly goal met", or a nudge: "Train today to keep your streak". See streaks, weekly goals and badges for how the streak counts.

For a full setup with the iPhone, the Watch and a rope or a ball, our guide to counting jump rope and push-ups walks through phone placement step by step.