Postwatch app icon

Postwatch

Standalone Apple Watch mail

Your latest mail, on your wrist — even when your phone is off or left behind.

watchOS 10+ iPhone companion Gmail + IMAP Read-only

How it works

No phone nearby? Still your inbox.

The built-in Mail app leans on your iPhone. Postwatch runs on the watch itself: open it and it fetches your newest messages directly over the watch’s own connection — cellular or a known Wi-Fi network.

// ON OPEN

Fetches on demand

Raise your wrist, open the app, pull to refresh. Your 20 latest messages load right there — no background battery drain.

// DIRECT

No server in between

Requests go straight from your watch to Google or your IMAP server. There is no Postwatch backend to pass through.

// GLANCEABLE

Sender, subject, read

Scan who wrote and what about, tap to read the full text, and opening a message marks it read everywhere.

Get started

Set it up in three steps

Everything is configured once on the iPhone, then handed to the watch. No account setup happens on the tiny screen.

  1. Add your account on iPhone

    Open Postwatch on your iPhone and tap Connect Gmail to sign in, or Add IMAP account for a personal mailbox. Give it a name so you can tell accounts apart.

  2. Sync to your Watch

    Tap Sync to Watch. Your account and its secure access token are sent to the watch over Apple’s encrypted connection and stored in its Keychain.

  3. Open Postwatch on your wrist

    Launch the app on the Apple Watch. It reads your inbox on its own — no phone required from here on.

One requirement: the watch needs its own connection

To work without the phone, the Apple Watch must be a cellular model with an active plan, or connected to a Wi-Fi network it already knows. Without either — phone off and no Wi-Fi — the watch simply has no internet, and no app can reach your mail.

Privacy

Your mail stays on your devices

Postwatch has no accounts, no servers, and no analytics. It is a client that talks directly to your mail provider — nothing about your email passes through us, because there is no “us” in the middle.

What it accesses

Reading your inbox

  • Gmail with read-only permission (gmail.readonly)
  • IMAP mailboxes you enter yourself
  • Message sender, subject, date and text — to show them

Where it’s stored

Only on your hardware

  • Tokens & passwords in the iPhone and Apple Watch Keychain
  • Synced device-to-device over Apple’s encrypted link
  • Messages are fetched live and not written to any database

What it never does

No collection, ever

  • No Postwatch server receives your mail or credentials
  • No analytics, tracking, ads, or profiling
  • Nothing sold or shared with third parties

Google data. Postwatch uses the Gmail API with the read-only scope solely to display your own recent messages inside the app. Its use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Access is authorized by you through Google’s own sign-in, and you can revoke it any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Deleting your data. Remove an account inside the iPhone app to erase its stored token and password from your devices immediately. Deleting the app removes everything it holds.

Terms

Terms of Service

Plain terms for a small, free app. By installing or using Postwatch, you agree to them.

What Postwatch is. A read-only mail client for Apple Watch with an iPhone companion. It displays messages from mail accounts you connect. It is provided free of charge, with no user accounts and no Postwatch-operated servers.

Your responsibility. You connect your own Gmail or IMAP account and are responsible for that account and its credentials. Postwatch acts on your behalf, on your devices, using the access you grant.

Third-party services. When you connect Gmail, your use is also subject to Google’s terms and privacy policy; for an IMAP account, to your provider’s terms. Postwatch is independent and not affiliated with Apple or Google.

No warranty. Postwatch is provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind. Mail delivery, availability, and correctness depend on your provider and your Apple Watch’s connectivity, which are outside our control.

Limitation of liability. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the developer is not liable for any indirect or consequential damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, the app.

Changes. These terms may be updated; material changes will be reflected on this page with a new date below.