All the New Ways to Use Apple Watch
With watchOS 10 , Apple has breathed new life into the Apple Watch without even changing the hardware design. Now watchOS finally has buttons and a higher density of information across the board. The biggest thing in my opinion is widgets, which can change for the better the way you interact with your Apple Watch.
Widgets are a game changer
Swipe or swipe up with the Digital Crown and a whole new panel of scrollable widgets will appear. By default, Apple adds a Smart Stack, a dynamic array of widgets it thinks you’ll like. If you have a timer, workout, or music playing, the widget will appear here automatically. You can also keep rotating the Digital Crown to see more of these widgets.
The real fun starts when you customize the widgets. Touch and hold the screen to enter edit mode, then start by editing the triple shortcut widget. This will allow you to quickly open an app or feature within an app so you can use a minimal watch face but still have quick access to an app like Workout.
From here you can click the Plus button to add more widgets. Apple’s own widgets are great, but you’ll also find that larger watch face widgets work well here, and there are plenty of third-party developers that already support this feature. Click Pin to keep the widget at the top of the list. Click “Done” and you’re done. Because it’s a smart stack, widgets will change order throughout the day depending on context and time, but pinned widgets will always be at the top.
The control center has found a new home
If swiping up on the screen opens widgets, how do I get to Control Center? Well, the old Dock that showed a list of recently used apps is dead. (Long live the Dock.) Instead, pressing the side button now opens Control Center.
No quick change of faces for you
New design changes and new widget structure are welcome. But in making these changes, Apple has disabled the old watch face switch gesture that we know and love. You can no longer swipe from the left or right edge of the screen to move to the next watch face in the list. Now you need to long press the screen and then swipe it and then tap again to select the watch face. We’ll get through this, but come on, Apple: bring it back.
The application screen is now smart
The Apple Watch has an interesting cellular interface for displaying apps. All the apps were scattered far away from the center, so you had to swipe the screen to find an app. If this layout doesn’t suit you, you can browse your apps in an alphabetical list instead.
Now the cellular app screen itself is now within the confines of the Apple Watch. You still get the same layout, but now you can scroll down to see more apps, and the apps stay in the same place! This is a great change and worth a try if you’ve been switching to list view for a long time.
Improved app design
Apple has a new design language for its own apps, and we hope third-party developers follow suit. This new UI makes heavy use of background colors and big visuals in apps like Activity and Weather, adding a lot more pages to the interface. Additionally, the app now has buttons everywhere. What was previously hidden behind menus is now available in the corners of the screen. The app screens themselves now display a lot more data. (The weather app’s new home screen is a great example of this change.)
Touch but not the screen
If you have the all-new Apple Watch Series 9 running watchOS 10.1, you get a whole new way to interact with the wearable—and you don’t even have to tap the screen.
Using a new chip in the Series 9 watch, Apple can now register when you perform a simple double-tap gesture with your index finger and thumb, mapped to a basic interaction with what’s happening on the screen. For example, if the timer runs out, simply double-tap your fingers to turn it off. Now, older Apple Watches can also use this as part of the accessibility feature , but you have to set it up manually, and it doesn’t work exactly like the official double-tap feature. As an accessibility feature, it goes much further by providing options that make Apple Watch easier for people with limited vision and mobility to use.