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Apple Explains Why Third-Party Watch Faces Still Aren't Supported on watchOS 10

Paradoxally said:
And this is exactly why Apple won't allow it.

They don't want to be associated with trademark violations.
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So are iPhones going to block wallpapers since that cool Star Trek wallpaper is copyrighted? At the end of the day I’m not looking to buy a Fallout or Star Trek watch face I just want to be able to create my own. You know like you can on any other Apple device.

I’ve wanted cool watch faces since the watch came out I’m sorry Mickey and Snoopy don’t cut it. You can do a custom image but the Watch interface blows. I want to pick an image and be able to completely lay out what’s overlayed on it.
 
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Stromos said:
So are iPhones going to block wallpapers since that cool Star Trek wallpaper is copyrighted? At the end of the day I’m not looking to buy a Fallout or Star Trek watch face I just want to be able to create my own. You know like you can on any other Apple device.

I’ve wanted cool watch faces since the watch came out I’m sorry Mickey and Snoopy don’t cut it. You can do a custom image but the Watch interface blows. I want to pick an image and be able to completely lay out what’s overlayed on it.
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I guess the watch has the same in that aspect. You can use any wallpaper with the photos watch face.

Honestly I think a good compromise would be provide a more customisable photos face that has different fonts and colours. You can use the portraits face for all photos now but you still can't edit text colour and only have a choice of 3 fonts.
 
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Bah ... excuses. if Watch faces require so much effort for compatibility maybe they need to work on the API. If Google can do it, so can Apple. I've been teetering on buying a WearOS watch just for the third party watch faces. It's so easy to get tired of the Apple ones. Stop making excuses Apple and just make it happen.
 
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For largely the same reason Nike don’t let you draw your own swoosh on your trainers: corporate image.

Apple controls the watch faces and so everyone knows you have an Apple Watch. The same thing applies to icons on iOS too.

I know many users would like the option but if you’ve spent any time looking at 3rd party options for Android Wear you’ll see why Apple keeps a tight lid on it.
 
macsplusmacs said:
All I have to say is way back at Apple Watch 1 or 2, my friend bought an Android watch.

Never have I ever seen SUCH UGLINESS as I did when he took me to the Android watch face store.

Horrific.
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The Android Watch Face store is definitely a cautionary tale. However, Apple could definitely put the guardrails on either through guidelines or an approval process (or both) to keep that from happening. Or hell, pick approved partners they want to work with, anything to open things up a bit is long overdue.
 
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macsplusmacs said:
All I have to say is way back at Apple Watch 1 or 2, my friend bought an Android watch.

Never have I ever seen SUCH UGLINESS as I did when he took me to the Android watch face store.

Horrific.
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I used to have a Pebble Watch back in the day. There were some truly awful designs from third party developers. Apple would probably develop some very strict design guidelines if they ever allow third party watch faces.
 
I understand their stand completely. Apple Watch face is not just a simple background like your desktop background. It has to work with so many complications including 3rd party, raise to wake fade and always on. Imagine if they allow everyone to create the face, it is going to be disaster. And who will people blame? Not the face creators, yes, that's right it would be Apple fault.
 
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They put too much effort on watch faces no one really ask for or cares, half the time users will always sport the generic modular watch or just the regular watch face lol
 
Let's make a simple change to show how ridiculous her statement is:

Apple puts a "huge amount of effort" into every watch face app to ensure they work "uniformly and simply," and said Apple needs to plan ahead to make sure watch faces apps continue to work "if we want to change something or add new possibilities.
 
Apleeseed84 said:
They put too much effort on watch faces no one really ask for or cares, half the time users will always sport the generic modular watch or just the regular watch face lol
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yes but don't forget the other half who cares for watch faces besides the generic modular or regular ;) For that I am grateful with the contour, metro, activity, breathe, california, typographs, artist and even the pride version.
 
Stromos said:
So are iPhones going to block wallpapers since that cool Star Trek wallpaper is copyrighted? At the end of the day I’m not looking to buy a Fallout or Star Trek watch face I just want to be able to create my own. You know like you can on any other Apple device.

I’ve wanted cool watch faces since the watch came out I’m sorry Mickey and Snoopy don’t cut it. You can do a custom image but the Watch interface blows. I want to pick an image and be able to completely lay out what’s overlayed on it.
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wallpapaers on iPhone are like the photo watch face, you can put your favorite ST photo in there is you want to ...
 
Apleeseed84 said:
They put too much effort on watch faces no one really ask for or cares, half the time users will always sport the generic modular watch or just the regular watch face lol
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I checked the watch face gallery - 50 different faces ...

wonder how many people spend 25k on a Rolex and want a different watch face every 6 months ...
 
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mannyvel said:
Let's make a simple change to show how ridiculous her statement is:

Apple puts a "huge amount of effort" into every watch face app to ensure they work "uniformly and simply," and said Apple needs to plan ahead to make sure watch faces apps continue to work "if we want to change something or add new possibilities.
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But watch faces are much more central to the Apple watch experience than iPhone apps. The first thing we see when we raise the watch is a watch face, whereas the first thing we see when we unlock the iPhone is the Home Screen, not an app. So an iPhone app ceasing to work because a developer didn't update their app isn't as disruptive as if a favorite watch face suddenly stops working.
 
If Apple would only give us better font options on the portraits watch face I’d be able to create a custom face that doesn’t look tacky and cheap. The fonts they have “Classic”, “Modern”, and “rounded” are shameful for a company that claims to place a high priority on typography. Plus they only change the time, not the date/weather/other readouts.

Give me one evenly weighted serif font Apple! Just one!
 
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mannyvel said:
Let's make a simple change to show how ridiculous her statement is:

Apple puts a "huge amount of effort" into every watch face app to ensure they work "uniformly and simply," and said Apple needs to plan ahead to make sure watch faces apps continue to work "if we want to change something or add new possibilities.
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I think the main distinction here is that a watch face is the first thing the customer sees when they look at their watch, while an app is something that you need to tap through the home screen to open. I would like to see third-party watch faces too, but I think that there's a just as compelling argument against them.

Hypothetical: Let's assume Apple opens up third-party watch faces today, but in two years decides to change the screen size of the watch (make it bigger, change the corner radius, etc.). What would happen to third-party watch faces?

Think back to when the iPhone X launched. Apple chose to run apps that were not compatible with the new screen size in a letterboxed view, because forcing them to run in full-screen could break those apps. Apps could only use the new screen size if they were compiled with the latest SDK and an update was submitted to App Review. This means that both the developer and Apple got to test the app on the new screen size.

Apple takes the same approach when updating the appearance of UI controls across the system. iOS 13 changed the appearance of the segmented control to the one we see today. Apps compiled against the iOS 12 SDK or older still retain the old appearance of the segmented control, even in iOS 16. (See the end of this post for an image.)

If the same approach were applied to third-party watch faces, they would now need to be letterboxed or run in a compatibility mode until they were updated. Some developers may not update their watch faces, permanently leaving them in that compatibility mode. It could cause them to look inconsistent compared to the rest of the system, and I don't think Apple wants letterboxed watch faces to be the first thing customers see when they upgrade their watch.

Sure, Apple could say that faces shouldn't assume anything about the screen size of the device (and they have been repeatedly telling this to iOS and iPadOS app developers for years), but there is always that one app that assumes something about the hardware that it shouldn't, and its layout breaks when a new device is released. Instagram has historically had this issue.

segmented.png
 
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DMG35 said:
Weak. They should allow them, period. It's not like they change the overall shape of the watch, ever. The watch faces from series 0 all work for God's sake on the Series 8 so I don't see how compatibility is an issue. Apple just wants control over the faces like they do everything else. That's fine, but spare me the BS of uniformity.
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the “uniformity” argument is a lil funny when you consider how awkward S0 faces look on anything post-S4…

anyone with watchOS 10 wanna lemme know if they’ve finally changed this given that it only supports S4 and up?
 
The east answer is

Cause Apple is Apple. That’s why they aren’t coming to the Apple Watch.


James
 
MacRumors said:


A common request from Apple Watch users over the years has been the ability to use third-party watch faces, but watchOS 10 still does not support this. In an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger published today, Apple's VP of Technology Kevin Lynch and product marketing employee Deidre Caldbeck explained why.

Apple-Watch-Faces-watchOS-10-Feature-Iridescent.jpg

The interview was spotted earlier by 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo, and the quotes below are machine translated from German.

Lynch said Apple puts a "huge amount of effort" into every watch face to ensure they work "uniformly and simply," and said Apple needs to plan ahead to make sure watch faces continue to work "if we want to change something or add new possibilities."

Caldbeck added that developers are able to create complications for their watchOS apps, which adds a layer of customization to watch faces by allowing for glanceable information to be displayed, such as a CARROT Weather forecast. Starting with watchOS 10, the new Smart Stack widgets feature offers space for up to three complications.

That's everything Apple had to say about the lack of third-party watch faces in the interview, which touches on several other watchOS 10 details.

watchOS 10 will be released later this year for the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, and is currently available in beta for users with a free Apple developer account. A public beta is coming in July for users who do not wish to use the developer beta.

Article Link: Apple Explains Why Third-Party Watch Faces Still Aren't Supported on watchOS 10
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I don't see the big deal, for me they're fine.
Frankly I want as many complications as possible, so the chronograph is the one I use mainly
 
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