Here's what the red dot on your Apple Watch means and how to clear it

It’s all about notifications.

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

If you look at your Apple Watch and see a small red dot at the top of its screen, it's telling you one thing: you have notifications waiting for you. Apple sends notifications to your iPhone if it's unlocked, but if it is locked and your Watch is the one that's unlocked, it will send notifications to the wearable instead. That doesn't mean you'll always catch every single one of them as they appear, however. The red dot at the top shows up if you have notifications that you've yet to read and dismiss. 

How to view and dismiss your notifications

To view them, simply press and hold your watch face to open the Notification Center. Once it shows up, swipe down on your screen to scroll or turn the Digital Crown. You can read notifications from there by tapping on them or delete them by swiping left and then tapping the X button. If you want to quickly delete all your notifications, go to the Notification Center, swipe down or turn the Digital Crown until you get to the top and see the Clear All button. Tap it to remove all unread notifications from your Watch. 

How to switch off notifications or mute them

In case you'd rather not see the indicator altogether — maybe seeing it gives you anxiety or maybe you don't want to be disturbed — just open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap Notifications and switch off Notifications Indicator. 

You can also mute or switch off a certain app's notification's on your Watch instead. Swipe left on a specific notification and instead of dismissing it, tap on the ellipsis icon and then choose from among the options. You can mute notifications from that app for an hour or turn them off completely. You can also choose Turn off Time Sensitive if you want that app to deliver notifications immediately, even if you had switched on Focus mode, which is supposed to delay most notifications when it is on. 

Most apps can only mirror your iPhone, so their notification settings are identical for both your handheld and your watch. In the Watch app under Notifications, you can go to Mirror iPhone Alerts and toggle the setting off for any of the apps listed in the section to stop getting alerts from them on your Watch. However, some apps allow you to set custom alerts. Those apps show the option "Custom" when you tap on them in the Watch app. On each individual app's settings page, you can choose Notifications Off or Send to Notification Center. The latter option will send alerts to your Watch's Notification Center without your Watch alerting you.