The Clock app on your iPhone already got a huge new feature when iOS 17 first came out that lets you set up multiple timers, and the latest iOS 17 software update gives us something just as exciting for the stopwatch.
With the iOS 17.4 update, currently in beta (which you can try), the watch’s stopwatch now supports live activities. To see it in action, open the clock, tap “Stopwatch” on the tab bar, and press “Start” to start the clock. There are other ways to start the stopwatch, such as asking Siri a question or selecting an option on the quick actions home screen after pressing or tapping and holding the clock icon.
After the time is up, you can see the live stopwatch activity on the lock screen or in the notification center. It is also visible in Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 15 and 15 Plus.
As in the Clock app, you can pause the stopwatch and record laps. After pausing, you can stop and exit the stopwatch and live activity. This works from the lock screen, the notification center, and the extended dynamic island (press or tap and hold the dynamic island to see the controls). If you want to see the analog interface, you can swipe to it in the Watch app, but it won’t appear as such in Live Activity.
While the clock feature has been compatible with Live Activity since the feature’s introduction in iOS 16.1, there was no way to view the stopwatch outside of the Clock app. Turning on support for live activities reduces the chance of accidentally activating the stopwatch and forgetting about it. It also allows you to use other apps without having to go back to the watch every time you want to interact with the stopwatch.
Just updated your iPhone? Check out everything that’s new with Apple’s latest iOS update: