WatchOS 10 Watch Face Swiping Poll

[mwillard]

While I’m not a fan of the new face swiping method, I have to say that my disappointment with it pales in comparison to my general distaste for WatchOS 10.

Overall this feels like change for change’s sake: to wit, there’s nothing about it that makes my AWU1 easier to use or more efficient. In fact, I find it to be quite the opposite.

Perhaps in time I’ll grow accustomed to it (not though I have a choice), but for now I’m less than impressed.

Regards,
Adam

This. So far all of the changes from watchOS10 seem to be moving backwards (other than Snoopy). Take the "Smart Stack" for example. I've used it precisely 0 times so far. The problem with it is it's unpredictable. I don't know what's going to be there when I swipe up (or twist the crown, why are there 2 ways?), so it's just not that useful to me.

Swiping to change watch faces was the exact opposite, and they took that away. I knew, for example, that to start a timer, I swipe left (to change to my "useful" watch face where I had a lot of complications set up), then tap the lower center complication, where the timer was. Or to start a workout, swipe right then tap the lower left. I could do that from muscle memory, and did it multiple times every day. I knew right where those things were going to be, and it became very intuitive.

Now with the new OS, to start a timer I have to tap and hold, then swipe, then tap (change watch face), then tap again (start timer), then repeat those steps again to get back to my main watch face. 2 "instant" UI actions (swipe->tap) became 4 actions, one of which is an annoying long press (long press->swipe->tap->tap). It doesn't sound like much but it's gone from a great user experience to a pretty annoying one, and with really 0 benefits or justification.

 

[minimo3]

Just watch, in iOS 18 they’ll remove the ability to swipe left and right between screens on the iPhone. You’ll have to long press to enter jiggle mode, then select the screen you want and tap ok. Progress!

 

[addamas]

You have focused made for watch faces. I am so happy this madness it gone

 

[_Philosopher]

In WatchOS 9 and earlier you were able to swipe left and right to select from your different watch faces.
In WatchOS 10 that feature has been removed and swiping left and right does nothing.
Let's see what everyone thinks about this change.

Overall I like Watch OS 10. But I HATE that I can't swipe between faces easily anymore. I understand that there are some who like the change and some who don't. Apple really should have setup the new functionality as the default but, as many have stated, should have given us a simple toggle to change it back. I say that because like many here, I have carefully crafted multiple watch faces that I switch to in order to easily see certain information. I certainly hope Apple sets this up as optional and then we will ALL be happy.

In the meantime I figured out how to create two shortcuts: Previous Watch Face and Next Watch Face. I then turned on accessibility hand gestures and can now pinch or double pinch to move between faces. It's not perfect because the best shortcuts I could come up with take a while to run. So between pinching and the face actually changing is a good 3-5 seconds. But it's hands free! And most of the time I'm only moving between about three faces. But I've created 8 total so getting from one end to the other is not efficient this way. Still it's better than having to long-press, swipe, and finally click for some of the things I do.

 

[Scrat Thunder]

Just registered to take part in the poll. I used the swiping function multiple times a day. I want to downgrade so badly but isnt possible. I hope we get this feature back. Just give us an option in settings please.

 

[Saturn007]

It doesn't sound like much but it's gone from a great user experience to a pretty annoying one, and with really 0 benefits or justification.

Apple really should have setup the new functionality as the default but, as many have stated, should have given us a simple toggle to change it back.

1. Do you all find this annoying enough that you wished you hadn't upgraded?

2. Would you advise others to hold off upgrading to Watch OS 10?

3. I'm a swiper— would this be enough of an issue to buy
an older AW model rather than Series 9 to avoid having OS 10 installed out of the box?!

One other thing…

I've read that getting to weather information is more convoluted now, too. I really like being able to tap on the weather complication and go to the weather clock face and tap through from temps to conditions to probability of precipitation. Then, of course, when needed, to scroll down down to AQI, heat index, and 10-day forecast.

That would be another reason to hold off upgrading to 10 or going for an older watch.

However, counter-balancing all this is OS 10's Snoopy and Woodstock watch face…😎

 

[qtrim]

I really wish I had known this before upgrading to 10. I hate it!

 

[circatee]

Yes, they changed this. And, I need to figure out how to check the battery now, too. Before one could swipe up...

 

[Apple_Robert]

Yes, they changed this. And, I need to figure out how to check the battery now, too. Before one could swipe up...

Add a battery complication to your watch face. I did that with my Ultra 2. Otherwise, go to settings > battery.

 

[James_C]

Long press on the watch face, then you can swipe to change faces, prefer this to be honest, as I found the old way was too easy to accidentally change watch faces.

 

[ChronicLynx]

Add a battery complication to your watch face. I did that with my Ultra 2. Otherwise, go to settings > battery.

You can just click the button on the right side of the watch and get to control center. Not the Digital Crown, the other button.

 

[macos9rules]

Apple should give us the option. And the worst change for me is not being able to access Control Center with a swipe up. Is there a way to set it up back like it was before?

 

[Crowbot]

Apple should give us the option. And the worst change for me is not being able to access Control Center with a swipe up. Is there a way to set it up back like it was before?

No, it's a "feature" of iOS 17. Hopefully, if enough people complain, Apple will give us the option.

 

[GlenK]

Hated it first but must admit I'm getting used to it. Just had to adjust to that long press to start it off. Although it still doesn't make much sense to not have swiping accomplish something. Must be for something in the future.

 

[irod87]

I miss that for sure.

 

[Quarric]

Apple should give us the option. And the worst change for me is not being able to access Control Center with a swipe up. Is there a way to set it up back like it was before?

You can turn on voice over, that’ll give you the swipe up and down feature back, though it won’t behave quite the same, you’ll need to do a quick single finger double tap to activate the option you want. Plus a 3 finger double tap to turn the speech off. Given the complaints from people about having to spend an extra split second or two to change watch face, I can’t see people coping with the gesture changes they’ll have to learn too. But if you want to swipe for control centre, notifications, widgets and watch face changing, that’s basically your option.

 

[Quarric]

Honestly, it took me all of 3 seconds to adapt to the change, I really don’t care, it takes split seconds extra.
That said, I don’t see what the harm would’ve been to provide the choice, like they did with the safari address bar on the iPhone.

 

[bookcase]

I like the new way to access watch faces. I inadvertently switched faces all the time, and not only does this makes it intentional, it takes literally an extra couple seconds.

 

[anthony131]

Eighty percent of the time I'm using Apple Watch, I'm swiping through multiple faces to obtain a lot of information at a quick glance. WatchOS 10 has made the watch practically useless to me.

This is by far my biggest complaint about WatchOS 10 in that it strictly prohibits using the device at all but that's not to say I don't have other user interface complaints. Apple is really digging pretty deep into making poor user experience choices rather than improving upon the user experience of their devices. It's remarkable how a company known primarily for inventing / improving upon user interfaces has fallen so far from its glory days. It's not like they don't have hundreds of long standing bugs and UX failures to resolve.

I sent my Series 8 back to Apple and had it downgraded to OS 9. I did this just before the public release of the OS so I'm not sure if this is till an option.

Incidentally, since this feature was introduced in WatchOS 3, I've owned four Apple Watches and literally not one time ever in all these years have I ever accidentally changed the watch face. And if I had, I don't believe the burden of flicking my finger to change to another face would be so grave.

 

[dsteve]

Eighty percent of the time I'm using Apple Watch, I'm swiping through multiple faces to obtain a lot of information at a quick glance. WatchOS 10 has made the watch practically useless to me.

I was so excited for widgets as I thought it might be a better way to get information at a glance and not have to switch faces/need as many complications.

Unfortunately, that's nowhere near reality today. I have a feeling that we're going to have use apps from the app store to enhance widgets just like with iOS.

 

[anthony131]

I was so excited for widgets as I thought it might be a better way to get information at a glance and not have to switch faces/need as many complications.

Unfortunately, that's nowhere near reality today. I have a feeling that we're going to have use apps from the app store to enhance widgets just like with iOS.

Widgets requires far too much attention and precision to obtain a lot of information. It’s a bad user interface. I can not imagine anyway to improve upon it as a replacement for quickly swiping between intuitive and predictable personalized watch faces.

Smart Stacks, at best, takes some elements from watch faces and puts it on its side and forces you to start from the first watch face every time.

I hate that this stupid UI idea makes me angry at Apple. This informs me that I’m far too invested in technology and need to take steps to minimize my reliance on technology.

I’d sooner live without a smart watch than live with WatchOS 10.

 

[rstark18]

The first thing the feedback page asks is what version of watchOS you're using...

...and 10.0 isn't on the list. Highest is 9.6.

Amateurs!

WatchOS 10 is now on the list. I encourage everyone that is missing this feature to submit feedback.

Feedback - Watch

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about Apple Watch.

www.apple.com

 

[rstark18]

Widgets requires far too much attention and precision to obtain a lot of information. It’s a bad user interface. I can not imagine anyway to improve upon it as a replacement for quickly swiping between intuitive and predictable personalized watch faces.

Smart Stacks, at best, takes some elements from watch faces and puts it on its side and forces you to start from the first watch face every time.

I hate that this stupid UI idea makes me angry at Apple. This informs me that I’m far too invested in technology and need to take steps to minimize my reliance on technology.

I’d sooner live without a smart watch than live with WatchOS 10.

I think Smart Stacks is there to replace the Dock (not watch face swiping). That might work okay if all the apps had an interface with it. As is, none of the apps I had in my Dock have a Smart Stack.

 

[Crowbot]

WatchOS 10 is now on the list. I encourage everyone that is missing this feature to submit feedback.

Feedback - Watch

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about Apple Watch.

www.apple.com

Done.

 

[perezr10]

WatchOS 10 is now on the list. I encourage everyone that is missing this feature to submit feedback.

Feedback - Watch

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about Apple Watch.

www.apple.com

I actually might do that. It takes a lot to get me to actually fill out that template. But the loss of face swiping has made me angry enough.