Rancher Uses Apple Watch to Find iPhone 12 in a Haystack in Apple's Latest Ad - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Rancher Uses Apple Watch to Find iPhone 12 in a Haystack in Apple's Latest Ad

Apple today shared a new ad called "Haystack" in which a rancher uses his Apple Watch to find his iPhone 12 in a haystack. The ad plays on the "needle in a haystack" idiom and is set to the song "Searching (For Someone Like You)" by country singer Kitty Wells.


In the one-minute ad, a rancher drives down a rural street surrounded by bales of hay. He then backs up his truck off the street, walks with his dog to a large haystack, and taps on a button in the Apple Watch's Control Center to ping his iPhone, which results in the iPhone playing a sound to help pinpoint its location if misplaced nearby.

"An iPhone that's lost is easily found," says Apple. "Relax, it's iPhone + Apple Watch."

To use this feature on the Apple Watch, swipe up to open Control Center and tap the Ping iPhone button, which will make the device chime. You can also touch and hold the Ping iPhone button to make the iPhone flash as well.

Of course, if your iPhone isn't in range of your Apple Watch, you can track its location using the Find My app on another Apple device or iCloud.com.

Popular Stories

apple world surf league video

Apple Shares Video on How Pro Surfers Use Apple Watch During Competition

Tuesday June 23, 2026 9:57 am PDT by
Apple today shared a video showing off the Apple Watch in use at the World Surf League Championship Tour, with surfers describing how they use the watch when competing. Surfers can be hundreds of meters away from the beach during competitions and can't hear announcements over the sound of the water and the wind. The World Surf League has adopted the Apple Watch to solve the problem, linking...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 12 New Features

Friday July 17, 2026 10:39 am PDT by
It is now mid-July, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are now just two months away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, ...
iCloud General Feature Redux

Apple Raises iCloud+ Prices in 8 Countries

Friday July 17, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple has increased the price of iCloud+ in Nigeria, Türkiye, Vietnam, Japan, Egypt, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, according to an updated version of its iCloud support document. Price increases range from 11 percent to 55 percent depending on the plan and the country. Nigeria saw the biggest hike, and a 50GB plan is now ₦1,300, up from ₦900. Türkiye saw the next largest...

Top Rated Comments

Cam Elppa Avatar
66 months ago
When will Apple Watch be able to be use like find my with an airtag. So you get an arrow to help find your phone…
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
66 months ago
or, you can just leave you phone in the car when you are going to do all these haystacks :)
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
66 months ago
... no. I come from ranchers. You know those huge military spec cases you see in the occasional ad that are comically large, and camo? That's what every single person I know that ranches in any way shape or form has their phone wrapped up in. The only time that case comes off is the rare instance when it's removed for a scrubbing. Something you will never see anywhere near that life is an unprotected phone, because they'd last a couple hours at most on the average day.
Also: who finds their phone on the first try? I love that feature, it's saved me many a time, but the echo effect means I have to hit it 4-5 five times on average before I locate my buried phone. This dude magically finds it on his first try without even actually looking?
The whole "needle in a haystack" riff is cute and all, but this is a miss.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
threee Avatar
66 months ago
I don’t get it. He knew it was in the haystack. Why did he park so far away from it? Maybe to help make the commercial a bit longer?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
66 months ago
Colors are beautiful in the ad. I especially love the truck parked in the field.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
66 months ago
I've used the ping lots of times. I'd like to say it is an incredible feature. But, at best, it tells me the phone is within a fifty foot location. Because of the sound used, it often seems to me that the ping echos all over when walls are involved, at different amplitudes not making it any easier to find the phone... I could be within ten feet or twenty five. Same sound to me. Upstairs in my bedroom charging? Left on a bathroom counter? Downstairs by the couch? Sitting over by my keys on the kitchen counter? Could be any one of these, up and down stairs many times. Its in one of these three rooms... just where...I've also done the long press on the ping button of the watch so the flash on the phone goes off, but given I rarely put that phone down with the flash up, often questionable if it would help.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)