If you wear an Apple Watch, AlcoLog runs there too: a live session timer, drink logging, water, medication and alerts, all without reaching for your phone. In Sober Mode, the Watch shows your alcohol-free days and the breathing screen for riding out a craving. This tutorial covers unlocking the Watch app, complications, the home screen, logging a drink, Sober Mode, and how syncing works.
# Step 1. Unlock the Watch app with Premium
The Apple Watch app, its complications, controls and Smart Stack widgets are part of Premium. Without Premium, the Watch app shows Premium Required, and the complications, controls and Smart Stack widgets show AlcoLog Premium. Subscribe from the Subscription section at the top of Settings on your iPhone; the Watch unlocks by itself as soon as it syncs. Once it has synced Premium, the Watch app keeps working even when your iPhone isn’t nearby.
# Step 2. Add a complication
Long-press your watch face, tap Edit, swipe to the complications, and pick a slot. Scroll to AlcoLog. There are 16 complications:
- Circular: Units, Drinks, Calories, Cost, AlcoScore, and Sober Days
- Corner: Units Corner, Drinks Corner, Calories Corner, Cost Corner, AlcoScore Corner, and Sober Corner
- Rectangular: Session Summary and Sober Week
- Inline: Session Info and Sober Info
The Units, Drinks, Calories and Cost corners show a timer ring while a session is running and your weekly total when idle. The Sober complications show your alcohol-free day count, your week, and how far you are from your next milestone; they read Sober Mode off until you turn Sober Mode on in the iPhone app.
There are also three Control Center controls (Session, Add Water and Add Another Drink, which logs another of your last drink type) and three Smart Stack widgets (Session Control, Add Water and Add Another Drink). Add Water and Add Another Drink count up on the control as you tap, and each tap reaches your session when AlcoLog next opens on your Watch. Taps more than 6 hours old by then aren’t applied, and the Watch app tells you how many with Some taps were not applied. While Sober Mode is on, the controls show Sober Mode on, and the Smart Stack widgets show your Sober Mode progress instead and open the app when tapped. Tap a complication, or open AlcoLog from the app list, to launch the Watch app.
# Step 3. Read the idle home
The Watch app opens on Home. When no session is running, Home shows a dimmed 00:00:00 timer, a big Start Session button, and Meds and Alerts buttons below it. (The Meds button only appears if medications are set to show on the iPhone’s Alerts screen.)
If you ended a session recently and can still resume it, a countdown showing the time left to resume appears under the buttons, and tapping Start Session asks Resume or New?. Below that, the LAST SESSION card shows your most recent session with its times, totals and an hourly bar chart.
Scroll up from Home (turn the Digital Crown or swipe) to reach the AlcoScore page: your score, its band, and a short summary. Until you have enough history it shows Building Score. See understanding your AlcoScore.
# Step 4. Start a session and log a drink
Tap Start Session. A quote or one of your motivational notes appears first. It closes by itself after about 5 seconds; if you touch it or scroll it with the Digital Crown, it stays open until you tap Skip. Then Home switches to the live view: the running timer, a stats line (drinks, units, calories and cost), an hourly timeline once you’ve logged a drink, and the action buttons:
- + Add opens the full Add Drink flow.
- + with your last drink’s icon logs another of the same drink in one tap.
- 💧 Water logs a water.
- Meds and Alerts, then End Session at the bottom. If auto-stop is on, a line underneath tells you after how much inactivity the session stops.
Tap + Add. The Add Drink screen shows your FAVORITES at the top (if you have any; tap one to log it straight away), then a TYPE grid: Beer & Cider, Wine & Champagne, Cocktail & Liqueur, and Spirits & Seltzers.
Tap a type. The next screen offers generic rows (for example Generic Beer, marked Use defaults), alcohol-free rows (such as 0% Beer, marked Alcohol-free), and your recent brands (for example RECENT BEERS) from drinks you’ve logged on your iPhone. Pick one, pick a size, adjust the ABV, calories or cost on the Details screen if you need to, and tap the Log button at the bottom. A short confirmation appears and your stats update.
The Watch has no search or full catalog. To log a brand you haven’t had before, log it once on your iPhone and it shows up in the Watch’s recents from then on. For true one-tap logging, build your favorites.
# Step 5. Meds and Alerts
Meds opens the Medication list with the same eight medications as the iPhone: Recovery Supplements, GLP-1 Agonists, Naltrexone, Gabapentin, Acamprosate, Disulfiram, Nalmefene, and Topiramate. Tap one to Log Dose (you pick when you took it) or Set Redose Timer. Each medication also shows whether its location reminder is on; those are set up on your iPhone. See logging medication doses.
Alerts opens toggle cards for Log Reminder, Water Reminder (by time or by drinks), Motivational Alerts and Auto-Stop, then CONSUMPTION ALERTS for Calories, Cost, Drinks and Units, each with its limit. These are the same settings as on your iPhone, so a change on either device applies to both. The LOCATION ALERTS section is read-only: location triggers are managed on your iPhone. See setting up alerts and notifications.
# Step 6. Use Sober Mode on the Watch
When Sober Mode is on in the iPhone app, the Watch switches with it: there are no sessions or drink logging, and Home becomes your Sober Mode face:
- A ring with your alcohol-free day count in the middle.
- Your week as a row of day marks (read-only on the Watch; you check in on your iPhone).
- Craving, which opens Ride it out, the breathing circle. Tap to start and tap to pause; when you go Back, the time you spent is logged to your History on your iPhone, like a craving ridden out on the phone.
- Notes, which shows your motivational notes and quotes, with Previous and Next.
Scroll down from Home for a third page, Saved since you stopped: the money, calories and units you’ve saved. It needs your usual week set on your iPhone. The AlcoScore page stays above Home. For everything else about Sober Mode, see using Sober Mode.
# Step 7. Syncing with your iPhone
The Watch and iPhone stay in step automatically. When your iPhone is reachable, anything you do on the Watch (start or end a session, log a drink, water or a dose, change an alert) is sent straight away and shows on the iPhone within seconds, and changes on the iPhone flow back to the Watch.
If your iPhone is out of range, keep using the Watch as normal. Each action is queued and delivered when the two reconnect. There’s nothing extra to do.
# What’s next
If you mostly log from your wrist, building your favorites list puts your regular drinks at the top of the Watch’s Add Drink screen. For the iPhone’s own widgets and Live Activities, see using widgets and Live Activities.