Anyone else miss the friends circle?

[ra4oasis]

Don't get me wrong, using the side button to bring up your dock of commonly used apps is a HUGE improvement. But, I wish I could still access the friend circles, and just put that as one of the apps in my dock. Starting a new message, which requires me scrolling through my entire list of contacts, is kind of a pain, when it is someone I message frequently. Anyone else miss the friend circle?

 

[exxxviii]

I am still on wOS2. But the only time I ever see that screen is an accidental button push. The only time I used it was when my watch was a month old and I sent play digital touch messages to the three other people I knew with a watch.

 

[BarracksSi]

Don't get me wrong, using the side button to bring up your dock of commonly used apps is a HUGE improvement. But, I wish I could still access the friend circles, and just put that as one of the apps in my dock. Starting a new message, which requires me scrolling through my entire list of contacts, is kind of a pain, when it is someone I message frequently. Anyone else miss the friend circle?

In watchOS3, is there no longer a way to access your frequently-used contacts?

I'm not using the watchOS3 beta.

I hardly use Glances, but that's mainly because it's limited, and I end up launching apps anyway. The Dock looks to be the big improvement Apple said it would be.

But if I'm losing an equivalent of the Friends circle(s), I'll be disappointed.

 

[anthonymoody]

No.

 

[ra4oasis]

In watchOS3, is there no longer a way to access your frequently-used contacts?

I'm not using the watchOS3 beta.

I hardly use Glances, but that's mainly because it's limited, and I end up launching apps anyway. The Dock looks to be the big improvement Apple said it would be.

But if I'm losing an equivalent of the Friends circle(s), I'll be disappointed.

As far as I can tell, there are no friend circles anymore, which sucks. I agree the use of the button for the friend circles is not as good as the dock, but losing the circles all together is disappointing, as I don't see any way to message my frequent contacts, at least so far.

 

[exxxviii]

Thanks to this thread, I just used the friend circle to send a message to someone. First use in over 12 months.

 

[sean000]

I'm not on the OS3 beta, but I had read that the circle of friends would go away. That won't be an issue for me as the only person I ever text using that is my wife. When I leave to head home from work I press the side button, tap her photo, tap message, and then tap my custom "on my way home" message which is a bicycle emoji. It's kind of a lot of taps just for that. It's actually just about as quick to press the crown, tap the imessage app, and select our existing conversation. It's faster to just say, "Hey Siri, text my wife I'm on my way home."

I guess you could say that my circle of friends is a circle of one . It's not that I don't text or call other people. I just usually don't initiate texts with my other friends and family using a standard message like that. I'm more likely to use my iPhone to compose a text message to them. I think my wife is the only person I ever initiate texts with from my watch. I do respond to texts from other people using my watch, but that comes through as a notification. For calls I just always say, "Hey Siri, call..."

For people who do value the Circle of Friends, you'd think Apple could have left it as a feature you access by double-pressing the side button. Oh wait... that's already Apple Pay. Long-press is power options. Triple press? Maybe make it an app you can load into the dock?

Sean

 

[Gav2k]

There are a few contacts apps that you can slap in the dock. Not to mention once wos 3 goes live I'm sure someone with do a contact wheel app

 

[BarracksSi]

It's faster to just say, "Hey Siri, text my wife I'm on my way home."

I guess you could say that my circle of friends is a circle of one .

When I think about it, yeah, that's mostly how I start message conversations (as they are) with my AW, too. It's almost word-for-word what you say to text your wife, and I do it as I'm walking out the door onto the sidewalk.