Top Pick:Â Apple Watch Series 6 | $385 | Amazon
Smartwatches are handy devices that not only track fitness activities and metrics, but put a lot of the most common features of a smartphone on your wrist. But it’s easy to overlook one of the simplest features you need: texting. Not every smartwatch handles texting properly, so you should be sure to pick the best one to suit your needs, from messaging to step counting.
Best for iPhone Users: Apple Watch Series 6
It should go without saying, but if you have an iPhone and you want a smart watch for anything, the Apple Watch is the way to go for you. The Series 6 comes with GPS, a blood oxygen sensor, and a ton of other fitness-related features. If you pay a little extra for the model with its own cellular connection, you can reply to texts even if you’re away from your phone. And if you don’t want to spend too much money, there’s always the Apple Watch SE which can also send and receive text messages, without all the extra bells and whistles.
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Best for Android Users: Samsung Galaxy Watch 3
Surprisingly, the best smart watch for Android users isn’t one that’s running Google’s Wear OS. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 runs Samsung’s Tizen OS and comes with all the health tracking features you’d normally expect from a modern smartwatch. It uses Samsung’s Bixby for reading and responding to texts which isn’t exactly the best voice assistant, but this is till one of the best non-Apple smartwatches on the market right now.
Best Fitness Tracker: Fitbit Versa 3
The Fitbit Versa 3 is one of the better dedicated fitness trackers that still comes with the ability to send and receive texts. It piggybacks off the notification system in Android so it can reply to messages from any app, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Discord, or Slack. If you want a fitness tracker but don’t want a full-fledged smartwatch, this is a good option for you.
The Best Watch With a Classic Design: Fossil Gen 5
If you’re not a fan of the modern, square design many smartwatches have, you’re not alone. Fortunately, there are plenty of smartwatches that have a more classic design, like the Fossil Gen 5. With the right watch band and face, it can almost pass for a traditional watch, right up until you get a text message and speak a reply into your wrist.
Best for Reading Texts Under $100: Amazfit Bip U Pro
It’s really hard to find a good smartwatch for under $100 at all, and one that’s capable of texting is even harder. That’s why the Amazfit Bip U Pro strikes such an awkward middle ground. It can show you notifications, so you don’t have to pull out your phone to read your messages, but it’s not capable of replying (which would require voice transcription). It’s a pretty hard limit to live with, but it also only costs $70, and looks just a little bit like an Apple Watch if you squint hard enough. It’s not the most powerful thing around, but if you need to be able to keep up with your messages and don’t want to spend a ton of money, it’s a workable compromise.
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