How to dynamically configure watch widget using phone app?

I'm excited to already have a widget/complication running on watchOS using WidgetKit. It's a great framework! Next, I need to get some settings from my iOS app over to the watch to help configure the widget.

Ideally, I'd like the user to be able to change settings on the iOS app, and have them reflected in the watch widget pretty soon after without having to do anything on the watch.

(From early testing, updateApplicationContext is decent because it can still be sent even when the watch app isn't active, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to wake up to process this incoming data until the user manually opens the app on the watch again. But maybe I've missed something.)

Anyway, what's the best way to do this configuration between phone and watch?

How to dynamically configure watch widget using phone app?
 
 
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