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Hands-On With the New 'Face Gallery' for Apple Watch in iOS 10

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In iOS 10, there's a new Face Gallery in the Watch app, which is designed to let users customize their Apple Watch faces in watchOS 3 right from their iPhones. Tweaking an Apple Watch face from an awkward angle on a wrist and on a tiny screen can be a hassle, making the Face Gallery a welcome addition to the Watch app.

Face Gallery is accessible through the Watch app in iOS 10, available via a new "Face Gallery" tab, which replaces "Explore" and "Featured" tabs that have been combined into a new "App Store" tab.


"My Watch," the section the Watch app opens to, has been updated with a direct view of all the faces you've added to your Apple Watch, allowing for quick tweaks to complications, colors, and other options. Creating entirely new watch faces on the iPhone is done through Face Gallery, which displays all of the available watch faces in one easy-to-see scrollable grid.

Selecting a watch face opens up full customization options for choosing the look of the face, its color scheme, and the complications you'd like to use with the face. Faces created on the iPhone are then synced over to the Apple Watch by tapping "Add", and then you can swap between them with left and right swipes through the revamped watchOS 3 interface.

Face Gallery will be available in the fall when iOS 10 and watchOS 3 are released to the public.

For details on new features coming in iOS 10, make sure to check out our iOS 10 roundup. Don't miss out on our previous videos, which have covered watchOS 3, tvOS 10, and macOS Sierra:

- WWDC 2016 Overview in Seven Minutes
- iOS 10's Overhauled Lockscreen
- The New iOS 10 Photos App
- The New iOS 10 Messages App
- macOS Sierra - Siri
- iOS 10 Hidden Features
- watchOS 3 Overview
- iOS 10's Redesigned Apple Music Experience
- 3D Touch in iOS 10
- The New Home App for Controlling HomeKit Devices
- Everything New in tvOS 10
- Apple's Upcoming Apple TV Remote App

We've also got roundups for all of the upcoming operating systems, including watchOS 3, macOS Sierra, and tvOS 10.

Article Link: Hands-On With the New 'Face Gallery' for Apple Watch in iOS 10
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/06/28/hands-on-apple-watch-face-gallery/
I'll be honest. Before this last keynote, I was really sick of the Apple Watch and how incomplete it felt. WatchOS 3 is actually making me excited again like I was when they first announced it. Like it's finally a finished product! Just a refinement of the original features, nothing new. I can see it halving my battery life though. But at least that way the only new feature of Apple Watch 2 will be a double-sized battery to keep it at 18 hours! It'll be like iPad 1 > iPad 2. The first gen of both had a lot of wasted empty space, so they could keep costs down and make it much thinner the second time while adding a bigger battery! (Fingers crossed)
 
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Mascots said:
While not there, it's another step closer to 3rd party watch faces.
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John Gruber made an interesting note that 3rd party watch faces would never come to pass. That Apple is trying to brand their specific faces as their own, much like Rolex does on theirs. Third party watch faces are also a target for lawsuits - remember that Apple was sued for using a Swiss designed clock in iOS7.
 
While I expect third party watch faces will be just as miserable as third party wallpaper packs or animated emoji packs are on iPhone, I would like see some better designs. I'd prefer an analog face but they either don't have the complications I'd want or they look digitized anyway so I wind up in "multi-color modular" most of the time.

A few gradients, and colors that aren't hard coded to values that look like they have a single line in their color spectrum would be nice.
 
Apple needs to give the people what they want! A build your own watch band app. That would make soooo much $$$$$. Watch faces are great.....but watch bands are really where its at. Though it seems like the watch face is too locked down. Why can't people just make what they want? The watch feels far too limited. A watch face is like the desktop pattern...let people do whatever they want with it.
 
The biggest issue I see with watch faces beyond lack of 3rd party availability is that there is no way to customize the face on Power Reserve Mode. I use a simplified Utility face and would love to have it stay there, minus the complications to save battery power, instead of the digital face sitting in the top right corner.
 
FightTheFuture said:
John Gruber made an interesting note that 3rd party watch faces would never come to pass. That Apple is trying to brand their specific faces as their own, much like Rolex does on theirs. Third party watch faces are also a target for lawsuits - remember that Apple was sued for using a Swiss designed clock in iOS7.
Click to expand...

They'd deal with the same legal ramifications that they have to deal with in the App Store: none, other than pulling that infringing content if that counts. It's on the infringer (creator). In the Swiss case, it was Apple's explicit decision to use the design, this isn't much like that.

As much as I'd agree with Gruber, Apple isn't going to be able to brand their faces in the like. Much too complex and way too much variance already. I'd agree if there was one, but I can't see that being a huge factor in a decision to hold them back.

I prefer more to look at Apple's direct actions to make assumptions like that, but really this the first step I've seen: an expanded UI for managing faces on iPhone, literally next to the Store. Internally, there weren't many signs in watchOS2, but you bet I'll be dumping these headers to see what they're putting in place heading that direction ;)
 
Just let me use an analogue face instead of digital with my own photo background.

Sincerely,
Everyone
 
Here's my current face gallery...
game-of-thrones-faces-tease-pic.jpg
 
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I think Apple did a phenomenal job with watchOS 3. The finesse, the features, the restraint, the UX, the boost in performance, the choices across the board. Phenomenal is the word. Damn, one less reason to fire Tim Cook. MR won't sleep tonight. Oh but yeah, this comment means I'm incapable of criticising Apple. That's always a great next-best argument. If you can't counter the point, attempt to discount the point-maker.
 
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CarlJ said:
Anyone else notice that the "Activity Digital" watch face has DIGITAL SECONDS on it?

THE LONG SECONDLESS NIGHTMARE IS OVER!!!1!
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I noticed this while making the video. Definitely welcome! I know a lot of people have been wanting that.
 
twocents said:
The biggest issue I see with watch faces beyond lack of 3rd party availability is that there is no way to customize the face on Power Reserve Mode. I use a simplified Utility face and would love to have it stay there, minus the complications to save battery power, instead of the digital face sitting in the top right corner.
Click to expand...

How can this be a big issue? - How much time do you spend in power reserve mode?
 
Douglas B said:
How can this be a big issue? - How much time do you spend in power reserve mode?
Click to expand...

Actually more often than you'd expect. I average a day and a half with my Watch from 100 to 0 and I don't always have a charger with me when I'm out and about. But to answer your question, it's not a big issue, but in terms of watch faces, this is one detail that Apple hasn't yet looked at. And that says quite a bit considering how detail-oriented Apple tends to be
 
They still have some stability issues to work out (obvious, as it's only a beta.) Especially with bluetooth (I haven't dug around enough to find out what they've changed in that area, if anything, but something's changed.)

I setup a custom modular face, and had been using it since the day iOS 10 (iPhone 6 Plus) and watchOS 3.0 betas came out.

Today, I noticed that my watch face was set to the default "Activity Digital" face somehow. Tried setting it back to my custom face, and noticed that mine was completely gone off the watch.

Opened the My Watch app on my phone, and it was gone from there too. Tried adding it back to my watch, and nothing happened. Tried customizing the default modular face right on the watch ... nothing happened. It was like it was completely ignoring my taps.

Powered-off the watch, and powered it back on. No difference.

Turned off bluetooth on my phone, and then turned it back on. Suddenly it started working again.

Been having other really odd bluetooth issues with my phone and my car's head unit as well. Only unpairing my phone from my car, "forgetting" my car on my phone, and then re-pairing them seems to fix it, until the issues start happening again. Issues range from really loud Siri and hands-free voice calls (even though I had turned them down prior), to skips in songs after completing a hands-free call, requiring a complete unpair-repair before songs won't skip anymore. (By "skip", I don't mean skip a whole song. I mean skip like a record skipping. For those too young to know, this is a record (aka: LP).)

I'll add here that I restored the phone back to iOS 9.3.2 to troubleshoot, in case it was a possible hardware issue. The skipping and hands-free volume issues went away. So, it's definitely something to do with iOS 10.

There's also another common issue with losing cellular data connections when not on wi-fi. A complete "reset network settings" on the phone usually fixes it.

Last several noticeable issue I've been having are (for which I currently have no knowledge of a circumvention):

- Any videos on a website automatically playing when the page loads,
- Some sites just not loading at all, and
- Links on some sites not loading after tapped (like the taps aren't even registering for some reason.)
- Phone will do a soft reset from time to time due to an app crashing hard, but it doesn't happen as often for me as it did with the iOS 9 betas.

Other than those issues, it's been a fairly stable beta for me compared to the iOS 9 ones I used, considering it's the very first one.
 
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Funny how we term this easier. I have a feeling if it was in the app first, with no other option, we'd ask to have the option to do it from the watch itself "instead of having to use our phone to do it".
 
'cause the Apple Watch and using watchOS is so awesome, you need an iPHone app for this, .. :-/

And, btw, how can they call it "complications" unthinkable under Steve Jobs. Already sounds like not for / too complicated for regular users, ... Call them details, or features or whatever marketing gimmick you want to decorate around it, ... hey, what about decorations, .... ?!?
 
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