WatchOS 10 killed my favorite Apple Watch features

The most recent watchOS 10 launch is among the most important upgrades to the Apple Watch’s consumer interface ever. The improve principally revolves round a brand new widget stack that may be accessed by swiping up from the watch face. Customers can then scroll by working actions or some other app they’ve pinned to the stack.

In anticipation of the Apple Watch 9, I’ve been testing the beta launch of watchOS 10 for the previous few weeks and may attest that the widgets pace up entry to your favourite apps. Nonetheless, these new additions come at the price of two current options I take advantage of virtually day by day. It goes with out saying I’m fairly sad about it.

Prompt personalization attracts me to the Apple Watch

One in every of my favourite facets of any smartwatch is the power to swap out the feel and appear within the blink of a watch. A lot as I really like my analog watches, personalizing them tends to be restricted to observe straps. Not so with a smartwatch, in fact. I discover myself flicking by varied watch faces to go well with my temper or event a number of occasions day by day.

I’ve bought an activity-focused Apple Watch face and one other with a few of my favourite album artwork; I’ve even bought a Batman and Robin-themed watch face. Beforehand, with watchOS 9, I may swipe my finger throughout the face of the watch and endlessly scroll by the choices until I landed on the one I needed to sport for the remainder of the day or hour. WatchOS 10, nevertheless, removes that capability.

In actual fact, the aforementioned swipe has been changed with a extra cumbersome course of that takes away the much-loved flickability of watch faces. You’ll now must faucet and maintain the watch face till you get to the face edit display screen. Solely then will you be capable of swipe throughout the choices. Plus, you’ll nonetheless must activate the contemporary watch face by tapping the display screen once more.

This added friction takes away the short and simple pleasure of personalization and makes it a extra intentional and purpose-driven course of. And in my view, it’s an enormous step backward for somebody like me, who tends to maintain a proper and enjoyable watch face positioned subsequent to one another for a quick-flick mid-day swap.

That’s not all. I’ve been utilizing the Apple Watch Extremely because it launched final yr, and the Wayfinder watch face has been my perpetual go-to for one large cause.

Rotating the Digital Crown lets me swap it over to an easier-to-read, red-on-black configuration. Seemingly impressed by the Bell & Ross Purple Radar watch, I’d discover myself switching between the usual white-on-black and the funkier red-on-black configuration a number of occasions day by day. Furthermore, based mostly on how a lot I rotated the crown, I may alter the display screen’s luminosity to eke out barely extra battery life.

All that’s gone with watchOS 10. As an alternative, my solely possibility is to maintain the night time mode configuration switched on, off, or on auto mode, the place it’ll use the ambient mild sensor to toggle it. Why? As a result of rotating the Digital Crown now pulls up the widget stash, similar to swiping up on the watch face.

Apple’s reasoning may make sense, however I’d want extra flexibility

I can see Apple’s reasoning behind switching up performance to place widgets forward. Giving customers a further approach to pull up the widgets, maybe whereas sporting gloves, is — logically — increased up the precedence record than the power to change a watch face to nighttime mode (particularly understanding that the Wayfinder face is unique to the Apple Watch Extremely). Nonetheless, that doesn’t take away from the truth that it essentially adjustments a characteristic I used to be bought on and that straight impacts how I take advantage of my watch. Maybe a user-customizable selection would’ve been the suitable transfer right here.

You received’t must look too far to look at that it isn’t actually unusual for an organization to introduce a significant consumer interface change only for the sake of change. Apple’s upcoming watchOS 10 software program launch for the Apple Watch is just not a type of situations. It’s a part of an ongoing interface overhaul throughout the corporate’s iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and even MacBook ecosystems to construct cohesion and convey over options that Android followers have loved for years. However that doesn’t imply that it must be an either-or state of affairs.

We’re nonetheless a few weeks or extra from the official launch of watchOS 10, and my expertise with iOS betas exhibits that Apple retains tweaking the components all the best way until it’s virtually time for the general public launch. I hope there’ll be a greater resolution to my woes than the present take-it-or-leave-it method. Till then, if you happen to’re nonetheless on watchOS 9, take pleasure in these options when you nonetheless have them.