Set up FreeDive Ultra on
Apple Watch Ultra
Two minutes, once. Install, the three watch permissions, Watch Setup on iPhone, Auto Launch and the Action Button, Health access, then your first session.
One install, two apps
Install FreeDive Ultra on your iPhone from the App Store. The watch app follows on its own. If it has not appeared on the watch after a minute, open the Watch app on iPhone, scroll to Available Apps and tap Install next to FreeDive.
Three permissions, in this order
Open FreeDive Ultra on the watch. After one explainer it asks for three permissions. Each has a job, and each can be checked later in the app under Settings, then Permissions.
Motion & Fitness
Depth and water temperature arrive through it. Without it, no dive is ever detected.
Health
Heart rate and calories, the session recorded as a workout in Apple Fitness, and the full depth of every dive deeper than 6 m.
Watch Setup, seven pages
Open the iPhone app. The first run walks you through the safety waiver and then Watch Setup: how the app works, a tour of every watch screen, which screens you want and in what order, your default mode, stealth mode, units, and a look at the alarms. Every screen you are choosing between is demonstrated on the features page. Page two offers a free account, which backs up your sessions and settings. Everything you choose is sent to the watch.
On iPad there is no Watch Setup: Apple Watch Ultra pairs with an iPhone, never an iPad. Sign in with the same Apple Account as your iPhone and your sessions arrive through iCloud. Settings you change on iPad reach your watch through your iPhone.
You can run it again any time from Settings, then Watch Setup. If you train in a pool, the pool freediving guide covers the pool settings, and the dry apnea guide covers Train and its settings.
Not in Watch Setup, but in Settings when you want them: Crown sensitivity and the inactivity timeout under Open Water; HealthKit and notifications under General. Dive Spots is shown on the features page, and Live Share has its own guide.
Switch on the alarms you want PRO
The eight alarms are off by default, apart from low battery. They live in Settings, then Open Water, then Alarms, on the iPhone or on the watch, and the two stay in sync. A new diver switches on three first: surface interval, so you rest long enough between dives; dive time, so a long dive gets a tap; and session time, so you know when to get out. Each one is a triple tap you feel through a wetsuit and an amber pulse around the screen.
Two settings that start a session for you
Auto Launch
On the watch: Settings, General, Auto-Launch. Set App to FreeDive, then under Threshold When Submerged pick At 1M for open water, which ignores a splash, or Immediately for a pool, where a length may never reach a metre. From then on the watch opens the app and starts the session the moment you go under. With Pool selected, it starts your Default Discipline, a Pro setting in Pool Training, or DYN without Pro.
Action Button
On the watch: Settings, Action Button, Choose Action, Dive, then App, FreeDive. The same setting is in the Watch app on iPhone. A press starts a session from the wrist. During a session it works the screen you are on: next dive spot, a route marker, a compass heading lock, the pool stopwatch and distance save, Breathe Up before the first pool rep, and starting and stopping each static hold in STA.
Unlock dives deeper than 6 m
Live depth on the watch stops at 6 m while Apple reviews our 40 m entitlement. Your watch still saves the full depth of every dive to Apple Health, and FreeDive Ultra corrects each deeper dive from it, as long as it can read Health. If your dives stay at 6.0 m, this is the fix.
01
Open the Health app and tap your profile picture.
02
Under Privacy, tap Apps.
03
Tap FreeDive. iOS lists the app under that name.
04
If the rows say None, tap Change Access.
05
Tap Select All, then Continue at the bottom.
06
Choose All Recorded Data and Future Data, then Done, so your past dives are corrected too.
07
Every row now says Full Access. Restart your watch, then open FreeDive Ultra on your iPhone.
If you see Turn On All instead, tap it.
Get in
The watch below walks through a session on its own. Turn the Crown on it to step through yourself.
- Start. Open Water is selected on the home screen. Tap Start Freediving, or let Auto Launch do it.
- Dive. The first descent past just over a metre starts the dive and Live Dive comes up: depth, dive time, water temperature. Nothing needs a touch.
- Surface. The watch switches to Recovery on its own: surface time and heart rate, last depth and last dive underneath.
- Look around. Turn the Crown to move between the surface screens, in the order you chose in Watch Setup: Session Overview, Speed, Compass, Dive Spots, Route, Save Location, Live Share.
- End. Hold the Crown to turn off Water Lock and the session ends. Leave the water long enough and it ends itself, after the time you set in Settings. The session syncs to your iPhone on its own, and a session with no dives in it is discarded.
What new users ask
The watch app is not on my watch.
Open the Watch app on iPhone, scroll to Available Apps and tap Install next to FreeDive. It needs watchOS 10 or later. With Automatic App Install switched on in the same app, it installs on its own next time.
I declined a permission by mistake.
Open FreeDive Ultra on the watch, then Settings, then Permissions, to see which are granted. Turn a declined one back on from your iPhone. Motion & Fitness: Settings, Apps, FreeDive, Motion & Fitness. Location: Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, FreeDive. Health: open the Health app, tap your profile picture, then Privacy, Apps, FreeDive, and tap Turn On All.
Dives are not being detected.
Two things to check. Motion & Fitness must be granted, because the depth readings arrive through it. And if you rely on Auto Launch, the threshold in the watch's Auto-Launch setting must be At 1M for open water, or Immediately for a pool.
Where are the alarms?
Settings, then Open Water, then Alarms, on either device. All eight are off by default apart from low battery.
Do I need my iPhone with me?
No. The watch records the whole session on its own and syncs to the iPhone when the two are back in range. Only Live Share needs the iPhone nearby and online.
Can I see my logbook on a computer?
Yes. Sign in at app.freediveultra.com with the same account. Every session opens on a big screen: the profile, every dive, and your route and saved locations on a map. Titles, notes, conditions and ratings can be edited there and the changes land on your iPhone. Change your settings there too: they reach your iPhone the next time FreeDive Ultra is open, and then your watch.
Which Apple Watch does it work on?
Every Apple Watch Ultra: the original, Ultra 2, Ultra 3 and Ultra 4. FreeDive Ultra is for Apple Watch Ultra only.
When something is not right
The fixes for what support hears most. On-screen rows are named FreeDive, because that is the name iOS shows.
My dives show 6.0 m, even the deeper ones
Live depth stops at 6 m while Apple reviews our 40 m entitlement. Your watch saves the full depth of every dive to Apple Health, and seconds after you surface, FreeDive Ultra corrects each deeper dive from it. If they stay at 6.0 m, FreeDive Ultra cannot read Health: follow the steps under Unlock dives deeper than 6 m, then restart your watch and open FreeDive Ultra on your iPhone; past sessions are corrected too. A session that needs it shows an Unlock dives deeper than 6 m card on iPhone, which walks you through the same steps.
The Health tick is green, but depth is still 6 m
The green tick shows that FreeDive Ultra can write to Health. Apple keeps read access private, so no app can see whether it has it. Follow the Health app steps above.
Nothing was recorded, or every value is 0
Turn on Motion & Fitness: on your iPhone, open Settings, Apps, FreeDive, Motion & Fitness. In open water a dive counts once you pass 1.2 m for at least 5 seconds; in a pool a rep starts at your start depth.
A session did not start by itself
On the watch: Settings, General, Auto-Launch. Set App to FreeDive, then under Threshold When Submerged pick Immediately for a pool or At 1M for open water. Only one app can be chosen there, so another depth app set there stops FreeDive Ultra launching.
A session is missing from Apple Fitness
Check the Health app steps above, and that HealthKit Integration is on in FreeDive Ultra under Settings, General. If it happens again, send a bug report straight away from Settings, Help & Feedback, Send Bug Report, with FreeDive Ultra open on the watch.
A session did not reach my iPhone
Leave it on the watch. On your iPhone, open the Logbook, tap the watch icon, then Sync Now.
FreeDive Ultra is not on my watch
On your iPhone, open the Watch app, scroll to Available Apps, and tap Install next to FreeDive.
Can I use it on iPad?
Yes: your logbook, maps, settings and Train on the bigger screen. Apple Watch Ultra pairs with an iPhone, never an iPad, so keep FreeDive Ultra on your iPhone too; your sessions reach the iPad through iCloud when both use the same Apple Account.
My backup looks incomplete
Uploads finish over the next few times you open the app. Open FreeDive Ultra again on Wi-Fi.
Two minutes, once
Free to download. Two minutes and the watch runs every session from here.