This isn't anything new, but I'd like to think that the job of a tech journalist is to shine a light on issues in the industry, big and small – and in this case, it's actually shining lights that are the issues. I've been to the theatre a couple of times in recent months and each visit has brought a minor annoyance to my notice.
In any performance in a darkened room, whether it's live theatre or a cinema, most people know that it's obnoxious to take their phones out and check them – the light is a distraction for everyone, after all. That might not stop them, but there are plenty of announcements telling people to turn their phones off.
What we also need, though, is announcements telling people to use cinema mode on their smartwatches, and particularly on Apple Watches. I'm tired of seeing the flashes of screens waking as people shift in their seats, or indeed of older models with always-on displays that constantly glow out in the dark.
The mode is unbelievably easy to activate and deactivate on Apple's wearables, and I do it myself every time I go to an event – so I can attest that it's no great sacrifice.
As a reminder, if you click the side button on your Apple Watch (above the digital crown) you'll get access to your control centre. On here by default you'll see one icon that looks like two masks – one happy, one sad. That's a nod to historic symbols of the dramatic arts, and tapping it will activate cinema mode.
This will keep your watch's screen powered off unless you tap on it, and will also put it into silent mode. You'll still get haptics for notifications, but they won't disturb anyone around you.
Best of all, rather than tapping on the watch's screen if you want to check the time, you can instead turn the digital crown. As you turn it, the brightness will crank up from the bare minimum, so you can keep the disturbance to a minimum.
As I say, I get annoyed by someone's smartwatch literally every time I go to a dark-room event of any description, and I'm amazed that so few people seem to know about this mode and use it. Obviously, it might be that I'm in a silent majority by using it, since I'll never notice smartwatches that are turned down, but I'd still love it to be more widespread.
So, consider this a PSA, whether you knew about cinema mode or not – spread it around, and get more people using it if you can.
